Dublin Core
Title
Panel Discusses LGBTQ Issues with Students
Description
"Anmesty International at UT held an LGBTQ discussion panel Wednesday in the I-House Great Room as part of their second annual Human Rights Week."...
Creator
Victoria Wright
Source
University of Tennessee Daily Beacon
Publisher
Knoxville, Tenn. : University of Tennessee
Date
2012-04-10
Contributor
Tara Sripunvoraskul
Language
English
Coverage
University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Campus)
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Anmesty International at UT held an LGBTQ discussion panel Wednesday in the I-House Great Room as part of their second annual Human Rights Week.
Though this year’s theme covered a spectrum of victims who suffered from injustice, Amnesty members said the discussion was held in the advent of recent Tennessee legislation against people on the LGBTQ spectrum, particularly the passing of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Four panelists sat in front of about 20 students and answered questions about LGBTQ rights in their particular field of work. The panelists also divulged their personal experiences as being LGBTQ both on and off campus.
Despite the popular belief of historic Southern sentiment against diversity, the panelists agreed that general UT attitude towards LGBTQ people is positive.
“When I applied to the university, I consciously made the decision that I wasn’t going to hide who I was,” Scott Eldredge, Ph.D. candidate and panelist, said. “I thought at the time I was taking a risk. It’s been very open and accepting.”
Panelist Caitlin Miller shared her relief when she arrived at the university from a small school where any expression of LGBTQ affiliation was unorthodox and nearly forbidden.
"People at my school did not understand anything diverse,” Miller, junior in philosophy, said. “They didn’t know anything that wasn’t 100 percent straight.”
Regardless of the panelists’ warm feelings toward campus acceptance, the state legislation does not share the school’s agreeableness.
Panelist and native New Yorker Joel Kramer theorized that much of the South’s attitudes towards LGBTQ rights are heavily tied to religion.
“Any issue that comes out also tends to get contextualized in a religious sense,” Kramer said. “That doesn’t mean anything religious is necessarily bad. There are a lot of Christians who love everyone as they were taught. For some reason when the media goes to find a Christian, they always find the furthest right conservative.”
Panelist Dean Griffey, second-year law student, explained some of the legal views on the “Don’t Say Cay” bill as well as the legislative decision to ban same-sex marriage.
Griffey said neither law holds any legal justification and compared them to the past ban on interracial marriages. Though Griffey was optimistic that Tennessee legislation will one day accept the argument for LCBTQ rights, he said it will be impossible to sway some legislators.
"I know a lot of them are repeating what their constituents want them to,” Griffey said. “A lot of them are elected to that position, and regardless of what they think one way or another, they were elected to vote a certain way. So, as a person, they may be more willing to listen to you as, say, a legislator.”
The panelists shared some positive advice for audience members wishing to serve as advocates for LGBTQ rights. They advised students to continue to remain vigilant in situations where discriminatory attitudes are being expressed.
Jayanni Webster, organization president and senior in the College Scholars Program, said the club will continue to strive for human rights and support student advocates.
“As long as we’re on this campus we’re going to bring progressive and enlightening and challenging programing and educational campaigns to this campus to makes this a safer environment to talk about tough issues,” Webster said.
Though this year’s theme covered a spectrum of victims who suffered from injustice, Amnesty members said the discussion was held in the advent of recent Tennessee legislation against people on the LGBTQ spectrum, particularly the passing of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Four panelists sat in front of about 20 students and answered questions about LGBTQ rights in their particular field of work. The panelists also divulged their personal experiences as being LGBTQ both on and off campus.
Despite the popular belief of historic Southern sentiment against diversity, the panelists agreed that general UT attitude towards LGBTQ people is positive.
“When I applied to the university, I consciously made the decision that I wasn’t going to hide who I was,” Scott Eldredge, Ph.D. candidate and panelist, said. “I thought at the time I was taking a risk. It’s been very open and accepting.”
Panelist Caitlin Miller shared her relief when she arrived at the university from a small school where any expression of LGBTQ affiliation was unorthodox and nearly forbidden.
"People at my school did not understand anything diverse,” Miller, junior in philosophy, said. “They didn’t know anything that wasn’t 100 percent straight.”
Regardless of the panelists’ warm feelings toward campus acceptance, the state legislation does not share the school’s agreeableness.
Panelist and native New Yorker Joel Kramer theorized that much of the South’s attitudes towards LGBTQ rights are heavily tied to religion.
“Any issue that comes out also tends to get contextualized in a religious sense,” Kramer said. “That doesn’t mean anything religious is necessarily bad. There are a lot of Christians who love everyone as they were taught. For some reason when the media goes to find a Christian, they always find the furthest right conservative.”
Panelist Dean Griffey, second-year law student, explained some of the legal views on the “Don’t Say Cay” bill as well as the legislative decision to ban same-sex marriage.
Griffey said neither law holds any legal justification and compared them to the past ban on interracial marriages. Though Griffey was optimistic that Tennessee legislation will one day accept the argument for LCBTQ rights, he said it will be impossible to sway some legislators.
"I know a lot of them are repeating what their constituents want them to,” Griffey said. “A lot of them are elected to that position, and regardless of what they think one way or another, they were elected to vote a certain way. So, as a person, they may be more willing to listen to you as, say, a legislator.”
The panelists shared some positive advice for audience members wishing to serve as advocates for LGBTQ rights. They advised students to continue to remain vigilant in situations where discriminatory attitudes are being expressed.
Jayanni Webster, organization president and senior in the College Scholars Program, said the club will continue to strive for human rights and support student advocates.
“As long as we’re on this campus we’re going to bring progressive and enlightening and challenging programing and educational campaigns to this campus to makes this a safer environment to talk about tough issues,” Webster said.
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