ww\v.unc.edu/glbtsa/lambda FEATURES "Allies are crucial to the development of a safe campus. Except for some hardcore radicals, most people realize that we have to make it together as human beings.^ -Anthony Reid Photo by Michael Jerch Oh yeah. Fm the Community Coor- ^nator for Connor Community and we Actually already have staff signed up for 'Upcoming Safe Zones. I didn’t even work hard, but my staff is trying to push an initiative to get all North Campus RAs h^ained at the same time. We hope to get a ^hole group to do it together because we ^ feel it’s important as a group. There is ^so a South Campus group who wants to it, mostly in Hinton James. i^AMBDA: What role do you see allies of LGBTIQ community playing in cam- I Pns climate? ! j AR: Allies are crucial to the development ! a safe campus. Except for some hard core radicals, most people realize that we i^ave to make it together as human beings. , We definitely want allies learning about I our issues so they can realize that our is- ^'^es are also their issues. Our issues affect l^em. Being aware and deliberate about ^nguage matters. It’s so important that allies can step up to the plate and feel em powered to help LGBTQ people. LAMBDA: In what ways did you work to improve the LGBTIQ climate when you were an undergrad? AR: At the end of my sophomore year, I got involved with BSM and B-GLAD. Both of those organizations were more political then than they are now. My first year here, BSM marched quite a bit. I re member thinking, I don’t want to get ar rested. I just want to get an education. LAMBDA: What was the nature of your relationship to B-GLAD? AR: Senior year, I wanted to make sure that I had B-GLAD on my plate. B-GLAD used to march a lot. My first march was so empowering - oh my God! I don’t even re member the actual purpose. And I got to talk on the megaphone, too. We marched from the Campus Y around campus yell ing. There were a couple hundred people. and that was one of the smaller ones. LAMBDA: What was the goal of B- GLAD’s marches? AR: At that point it was about mak ing Carolina recognize that there was a group that was not represented, but that deserved respect. It was at the time the chancellor changed to Michael Hooker, and I think it was really good for him to realize our presence on campus. And I feel that he acknowledged that. Marches were so visible and empowering and help ful for your own identity politics. LAMBDA: What other interests did you pursue as a Carolina undergrad? AR: Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a sports junkie. I’m sometimes crazy. I have to calm down. And I have always loved Carolina basketball. My senior year I was Fever president. And I was CAA president. Basically as an undergrad I was all over anything sports-related. I went to See "Faces" on page 9

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view