The university will celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning History Month throughout October with a range of events in honor of the LGBTQ community.

Working in conjunction with the LGBTQ Resource Center in the Center for Inclusive Excellence, SIU will host several acclaimed speakers as well as workshops and public health seminars geared toward LGBTQ issues.

Wendy Weinhold, director of the LGBTQ Resource Center, said LGBTQ History Month is important to the solidarity and identity of all students on the campus and in the community.

Advertisement

“LGBTQ History Month in October is an opportunity for us to reflect on the diversity of our community and to celebrate what it means to be LGBTQ and what it means to be a Saluki,” said Wendy Weinhold.

Most of the speaker-oriented events are concentrated in the first two weeks around National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11.

The first is Oct. 2, when the LGBTQ Resource Center will partner with Saluki Rainbow Network and Rainbow Café, a community youth group sponsored by the Church of the Good Shepard and the Unitarian Fellowship, to bring in Jamie Nabozny, the subject of the documentary “Bullied.”

Nabozny is a victim of bullying and was constantly harassed throughout middle and high school for being gay while school administrators did nothing to stop or prevent the abuse. With help from the Lamda Legal Defense, a legal organization specializing in LGBTQ court cases, Nabozny won a federal lawsuit against the administrators, the story of which is told in “Bullied.” He will be on campus for a viewing of his movie followed by a discussion of his experiences Oct. 2 at 6 p.m. in the Kaskaskia Room of the Student Center.

The next speaker on the slate is an acclaimed author and former Saluki. Dennis Milam Bensie is a native of Robinson and a graduate of the class of 1988. He moved to Carbondale in 1986.

“When I moved there, I was married to a woman and had never had sex with a man,” he said. “But my marriage was crumbling and I knew it wasn’t going to last very long. Carbondale was where I came out and Carbondale has a lot of memories of me finding myself and becoming more comfortable in my skin.”

The story of his self-discovery and experiences as a gay man are told in his two memoirs “Shorn: Toys to Men” and “One Gay American,” the latter of which he will be reading from and discussing Oct. 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Kaskaskia Room of the Student Center.

Advertisement*

The keynote speaker of LGBTQ History Month Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore will speak Oct. 12 at 4:30 p.m. in Kleinau Theater. Sycamore is an author, editor and activist from Seattle who challenges orthodox views on sexuality and gender identity. She will be reading from her most recent book, a memoir titled “The End of San Francisco,” with a short question and answer session to follow.

“I call it a memoir, but I want to challenge the sort of conventions of memoirs,” she said. “The conventional memoir has an amazing ability to take the most complicating, critical and challenging lives and make them into passive products for the titillation of an audience looking for the latest product. Instead, I wanted to show something a bit more layered and dissonant that was structured by emotion than conventional plot structure.”

Other events include the Rainbow Café Gala 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 5, a sexual health workshop for men who have sex with men Oct. 17, and SafeZone Training throughout the month.

Dean of Students Katie Sermersheim said the university is proud to observe and all the surrounding events.

“We are excited to celebrate LGBTQ History Month and bring the programs and activities to the community,” Sermersheim said. “We’re looking forward to students, faculty and staff participating in all that the month has to offer.”

However, Carbondale was not always such an inclusive community. In 1988, SIU student Michael Miley was murdered in a hate crime at Crab Orchard Lake, a gay hangout at the time.

Bensie said the murder sent shockwaves through the gay community at the time.

“I was around and it was a very frightening time,” he said. “It made me stop in my tracks and wonder, ‘Do I need to change my lifestyle so I don’t get killed or do I want to live in fear or do I just do what I want to do and accept whatever happens?’”

Even as recently as 10 years ago, LGBTQ people appeared to be under attack at the university. Former Chancellor Walter Wendler found himself at the center of controversy in 2004 after he called homosexuals “sinners” and said providing benefits to same-sex couples would promote “sinful behavior.”

Wendler has since said the comments were taken out of context and homosexuals should be afforded the same rights as straight couples.

“The bottom line is that there should never be any unfair or inequitable treatment of homosexuals on this campus ever, period,” Wendler said. “No one should have any prejudice towards them based on their sexual orientation. It’s just wrong.”

Weinhold said the administration now works to help LGBTQ people on campus.

“The administration has moved beyond that,” Weinhold said. “We have an administration with a different perspective and that’s good. And as awful as what he said was, thank you to Walter Wendler for saying it because it was the final bit of impetus we needed for the LGBTQ Resource Center to be created.”

LGBTQ History Month begins Tuesday with a Kick-Off event at 5 p.m. in the LGBTQ Resource Center, Woody Hall C326. For more information on LGBTQ History Month, visit the LGBTQ Resource Center Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or by email at [email protected]. For more information on Dennis Milam Bensie, visit his author website at dennismilambensie.com.