Hey Everyone!!!

GSA: It’s the Gay-Straight Alliance. It’s not just a “gay” club; it needs its straight allies as well, otherwise it wouldn’t work. One of those straight allies is me. My name is Joslyn, and I’ll be GSA’s Public Relations coordinator for this year. As this is my first blog, I would like to introduce myself to all of you.

This will be my junior year at UWF and my second year as a member of GSA. I’m a print journalism major, and you can see some of my writing and photography in The Voyager, as I am a contributing writer.

I’m full Puerto Rican, originally from the Bronx. I now reside in Ft. Lauderdale when not at school. If you need to find me randomly, I’ll most likely be in Argo Hall where I live and work as a Student Desk Assistant. I have also just been sworn in as one of two Marketing Coordinators in Student Government Association.

As a part of my PR position, I make sure that The Voyager is notified about any important upcoming events. If the event is worthy of local coverage, I will contact the Pensacola News Journal. I will also try to write on this blog every other week, so look forward to a new one in two weeks! The next blog will either be about the new Archie comic character (he’s fabulous) or the premiere of the second season of Glee.

One last thing, if you would like to contact me, my e-mail is JNR12@students.uwf.edu. I’m always online and I should get back to your e-mail pretty quickly. This is going to be a great year and I hope all of you come out to our meetings and events.

UWF GSA Encourages Students to Speak Out on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - Christine Thomas

It isn’t easy for me to wake up before noon on any given day—and that’s being generous. So, when Stephen Loveless, our GSA President, asked for volunteers to help set up over 800 flags on the Cannon Greens this morning, I wasn’t the first to volunteer for this 8AM shift. Sitting through our Executive Board meeting on Monday night and planning out the events that would lead up to UWF hosting the Human Rights Campaign’s Voices of Honor tour on Wednesday, however, made me a little more enthusiastic about pulling myself out of bed this morning.

I was only about 10 minutes late, and as soon as I arrived, I set to work with about twenty other GSA members setting small American flags in the ground. Each flag represents one of the 800 specialists with vital skills who have been discharged from the military under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy—this is a small fraction of the 13,500 servicemen who have been discharged overall since the policy was enacted in 1992. After about two hours, we had finally finished the visual aid of today’s event.

The rest of the afternoon, volunteers worked with two goals in mind. First, a station was set-up at which passers-by could briefly fill out a postcard that the Human Rights Campaign will be sending in to Florida Senator Bill Nelson in order to show him that there is vast opposition to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in his region. In a more immediate effort, a second station was dedicated to asking students walking by the Cannon Greens to take two minutes out of their lives to call Bill Nelson’s office and personally urge the Senator to support the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. (While callers might not reach the Senator directly, Bill Nelson’s receptionist makes a tally each time a constituent calls the office to share his or her opinion.)

Several of us ventured to the sidewalks, University Commons, and shady trees near the Cannon Greens to stop students, faculty, and staff on their way to class or lunch to solicit signatures and phone calls. Then, I brought a petition sheet to my Adulthood & Aging class to collect even more signatures to send to Senator Nelson. The Gay-Straight Alliance will also have a table set up in the Commons tomorrow before the big event at 7:00, when Voices of Honor will take place in the Conference Center at UWF.

Today alone, I’ve gotten to share details of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy with tens of people who were previously unsure what the legislation entails. Education and advocacy are extremely important to me, and particularly when it comes to this issue. One of my closest friends is a gay veteran, and it frustrates me beyond belief that his sexual orientation alone could jeopardize the stability of his military career. Thankfully, the members of my Gay-Straight Alliance have really gotten behind pushing for the repeal of DADT, promoting the Voices of Honor tour, and helping with everything else that the Human Rights Campaign has been advocating surrounding this issue. I’m extremely proud of the hard work everyone’s put into this issue in the past few weeks, and I’m confident that we are helping to make a difference.

Gays in the Holocaust - Christine Thomas

As morbid as it sounds, the Holocaust is my favorite historical period to study. Ever since reading The Diary of Anne Frank when I was in middle school, I've been fascinated by the plight of those oppressed by the Nazi regime. Since I was in Washington, D.C., last weekend for an Honors conference, I decided to stop by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum--said to be one of the greatest in the world. Going through this museum and looking at each of the powerful exhibitions, I realized that, although many groups suffered at the hands of Hitler's army, the only people being featured in the museum were the Jewish victims. Being such an activist for LGBT awareness, I was frustrated and offended that those who wore the pink triangles and the black triangles were not being represented. In the gift shop, I did find one bookshelf primarily dedicated to the suffering of the homosexual males in concentration camps during World War II, but that was about it. What is it that makes the yellow star so much more important? Understandably, the Jews did make up the majority of the victims of the Holocaust, but the Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, communists, the disabled, the mentally ill, and so many others suffered greatly. We don't really get to hear much about that in the history books or, regrettably, in respectable historical museums.

Holocaust education isn't the only area in which Jewish oppression is seen as the only struggle worth noticing. When concentration camps were liberated in 1945 at the end of World War II, the only group not to be freed was comprised of homosexual males. Paragraph 175, anti-gay legislation in Germany, was still in effect during this time. Therefore, those who wore the pink triangle were forced to serve their full sentence for a "crime" they were accused of by Adolf Hitler. Seems logical, right? Although antisemitist attitudes began to change at the end of Hitler's reign, homophobic tendencies have only recently begun to possess the same taboo--and we still make excuses for or accept the opinions of those who express anti-gay sentiment. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.

I encourage everyone to learn more about the forgotten victims of the Holocaust--including the "antisocial" lesbian bearers of the black triangle, and the gay men who were forced to wear the pink triangle. Here are a few resources you might wish to browse that will give you more information on LGBT suffering during World War II:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_homosexuals_in_Nazi_Germany_and_the_Holocaust
http://www.ilga-europe.org/europe/issues/holocaust
http://www.lambda.org/symbols.htm
http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/herstory/f/BlackTriangle.htm
(Google related keywords... there are so many resources that I'd love to share!)

Gays in the Holocaust - James Goodson

Safe Sex - Christine Thomas

Homosexuality isn't all about sex. The LGBT community works hard to shatter the stereotype that gays, lesbians, and bisexuals only care about the coital aspects of their sexual identities. Sometimes, however, in our attempts to be seen for more than our sexual desires, we lose sight of the fact that sexual education is important. In public school sex ed classrooms, students are lucky of they learn the details of safe heterosexual sex and the prevention of STDs--avoiding pregnancy seems to be the only concern in most cases. There is pretty much a zero chance of students learning that STD prevention in the gay and lesbian community is just as important as preventing babies.

Every day, there are 7,400 new infections of HIV. Even though we've come a long way since the days of referring to this disease as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency), and we know that HIV/AIDS is not the "gay plague," it is still a very real danger to the gay community. The spread of other less-lethal sexually-transmitted diseases is a concern, as well. Condoms remain the most importnat and effective tool in safe sex practices. To put it eloquently, wrap it before you tap it. It may seem like a hassle in the heat of the moment, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the short-term annoyances.

Lesbians need to worry about sexual health, as well. Even without genital penetration, the spread of contact-contagent STDs is still possible. Dental dams and condom-covered fingers are useful to women who wish to practice safe sex with one another. Once again, it might sound silly or seem like an inconvenience, but there are several infections that may be spread through oral sex and mutual masturbation, and these may be prevented with proper precautions.

Finally, everyone--regardless of their sexual orientation--should be tested for sexually transmitted diseases on a regular basis: between each sexual partner if not more often. It might not be a bad idea to go with your sexual partner to be tested, just to make sure you are being honest, open, and safe with one another.

I have been in the waiting room with too many friends as they waited for the results of their HIV tests. I have heard too many friends talk about their medication and treatment of chlamydia, gonnorhea, and herpes. Sexually transmitted diseases can be annoying, permanent, and even life-threatening. Know your status, and take appropriate precautions to keep yourself and your partner safe.

For more information on sexual health in the LGBT community, check out these resources:

http://www.gannett.cornell.edu/top10Topics/sexualhealth/diseasePrevention/default.html
http://www.lgbthealth.net/resources1.shtml#3
http://qublgbt.wordpress.com/welfare/sexual-health/

Safe Sex - James Goodson

National Equality March - Christine Thomas

Gay Pride & the National Equality March



When the LGBT community gets together, one of the activities we enjoy most is marching. We don’t seem to care much where we do it, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is, and we don’t need any one reason—we just like getting together, making signs, chanting and cheering at the top of our lungs, and causing a big scene no matter where we end up. I mean, sure, it’s most effective when we go somewhere like Tallahassee, FL, to demand our rights from our state’s capitol at the Rally in Tally; or when we go to Washington, D.C., to participate in a nation-wide show of force to demand our rights from our nation’s capitol during the National Equality March. Still, if the LGBT community can get some attention by being a part of a big gay parade anywhere, anytime, for any reason, we’re in.

Why did we start up with this whole “marching” thing, anyway? I think we’ve got the Stonewall Riots of 1969 to thank for this particular tradition in the LGBT movement, as the first gay pride march occurred one year after the riots in order to celebrate their anniversary. “The first marches were both serious and fun, and served to inspire the widening activist movement; they were repeated in the following years, and more and more annual marches started up in other cities throughout the world. In New York and Atlanta the marches were called Gay Liberation Marches, and the day of celebration was called ‘Gay Liberation Day;’ in San Francisco and Los Angeles they became known as Gay Freedom Marches and the day was called ‘Gay Freedom Day.’ As more towns and cities began holding their own celebrations, these names spread.” (Stolen straight from Wikipedia.org.)

Last Friday, several members of UWF’s Gay-Straight Alliance embarked on a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Equality March. Some of these members rode on a bus for over 24 hours, traveling all over Florida to pick up students from other Universities before heading on a course to the nation’s capitol. Unfortunately, yours truly was having her own fun at a leadership retreat and could not participate in the LGBT festivities, but I’ve heard all sorts of magnificent stories. Those in attendance at the National Equality March got to hear from speakers such as Judy Shepard and Lady Gaga… those speakers alone would have made it worth the trip, in my opinion. There was lots of cheering, lots of flag-waving, over 300,000 LGBT individuals and their allies, and best of all… a ton of pride and demands for equality. Words cannot express how very proud I am of my friends and fellow GSA members for participating in this monumental event.

Check out these fabulous videos from the National Equality March!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=national+equality+march&search_type=&aq=f