Diversity Initiatives fills LGBTQ+ month with events
The month of October is LGBTQ+ History month and Diversity Initiatives is prepared to celebrate it.
According to Jenesis Garcia, Student Coordinator for Diversity Initiatives, this month is important because “it shows representation, especially on a college campus.”
In honor of this month, Diversity Initiatives has some events planned. Jenesis Garcia said to look out for “National Coming Out Day, the Drag Show, Coming Out Monologues and Showcase and many more.”
“These events have a little bit of everything such as educating different people on what it truly means to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community,” she continued, “learning how to be better allies to the community and celebrating the beauty the community holds.”
Educating communities includes representation, culture and history—sexuality is included in this idea of culture.
According to Garcia, “ College is a bunch of different students with all different types of backgrounds coming together, and sometimes they don't see their culture, or in this case sexuality, represented on campus.”
This ties in with Diversity Initiatives ideals, which Garcia defines as the” advocation, celebration and education” of people in communities that may not be well known or under-served.
“We all have the same goal in this department,” Garcia said. “And that is to make everyone have a sense of belonging on campus.”
USC Aiken, according to Garcia, is a predominantly LGBT safe campus.
“I think that the campus is trying to be as inclusive as possible. Things still happen but that is normal for any where (sic) you go,” Garcia said.
“From my organization in the Department of Diversity Initiatives and UNITY, that is our number one goal, and other programs and organizations have been a huge help to make this campus as LGBTQ+ friendly as possible.”
With the addition of the gender-neutral bathrooms and putting forth LGBTQ+ events, Garcia noted that USCA “has done a wonderful job on trying to make fellow LGBTQ+ members safer on campus,” as well as educating the community.
Photo by staff photographer, Michelle Pate.
