More needed for LGBTQ fear

In the aftermath of a program designed to educate students about the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning) community, students and faculty have said A&M-Commerce and the surrounding community has struggled to accept the presence of those new lifestyles.

On Feb. 1, the Wellness Lecture Series hosted Straight Answers for Gay Questions, an information session for those who wanted to learn more about the LGBTQ community. Since then, Vice President of Student Access and Success Mary Hendrix highlighted a need for students to feel safer on campus.

"Although I have not witnessed or been a part of injustices to the LGBTQ community, students have shared their fears with me," Hendrix said.

A&M-Commerce student and transgender male Nick Albritton thinks the rift between the LGBTQ community and Commerce as a whole has a lot to do with lack of education.

"There is a big difference between those who are educated on the subject and are accepting and those who do not understand or simply oppose," Albritton said. 

The Bible-belt religious ideals in the region of Commerce are another cite for its resistance to the LGBTQ community according to Albritton.

"Commerce is highly religious," Albritton said, "A lot of focus is based around worship, which can lead to LGBTQ students being unnoticed or opposed. By no means am I saying that every religious group opposes our presence, but I honeslty feel like the majority are not accepting. This prevents the LGBTQ community from making ourselves visible or gaining momentum. Our ability to make coalitions or actually get heterosexual allies is where we will find our strength on this campus."

According to Albritton, there are many scenarios that the university has not considered when it comes to supporting an LGBTQ community on its campus. Albritton says that, as a transgender male, even going to the restroom on campus (where family restrooms or unisex restrooms are not common) has been a struggle.  "Whenever I enter the women's restroom I have literally frightened women on more than one occasion and I hate that feeling," Albritton said. "Not only do I have to say words that I do not feel to be true - 'I am a girl' - I have to make sure they are not going to run out of the bathroom screaming. Now if I attempted to go into the males' restroom, I face the possibility of physical harm or even school officials being involved because I am not biologically male."

Albritton has also found that attending class or campus events on campus can be difficult due to a concept called "homonormativity," - the idea of set lifestyle norms where people fall into distinct and complementary genders.  

"It is disheartening to feel like a student on this campus with no place," Albritton said. "There is an added weight on our community whenever we attend classes. I have found it preventing me from putting my heart into my work for fear of teachers not accepting my sexuality or gender expression. Another thing that needs to be addressed on this campus is the idea of homonormativity in marketing towards its students. A lot of people may not notice because it does not directly affect them, but this idea is created in a lot of school events."

Literature and Languages Professor and Co-Chair of Safe Spaces Robin Reid thinks that there are many factors contributing to the struggle of the sense of community for LGBTQ students at A&M-Commerce, one being the university's location.

"The LGBTQ community is generally tied with urban areas and Commerce is a very rural town," Reid said. "Rural areas like this also will generally support ideas that are more traditional and conservative."  

Although receiving tenure through the university is protected by the Faculty Handbook - saying there will be "no promotion or tenure decision influenced by bias on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, veteran status or disability" - it fails to note discretion related to gender expression or sexual orientation, which can make some members of the LGBTQ community (where gender can differ from biological sex), like Reid, hesitant.

"There were many reasons that I moved my confession about being bisexual from the first page of my dissertation to the fourth page," Reid said. "I was uncomfortable with it being one of the first things people would see and thought that if they waded through four pages of gender theory then they wouldn't mind reading that I was bisexual."

The idea of releasing her confession about being bisexual on page 1 of her dissertation made Reid nervous because there "is really no legal protection on sexual orientation. It just doesn't exist."  

Concern about her bisexual orientation being unveiled isn't the only struggle Reid has encountered while teaching at Texas A&M-Commerce. 

"I used to teach a women's literature course where I used some works that involved the mixing of multi-cultural elements along with sexuality," Reid said."I had a colleague who expressed some evaluative concern about these elements. It was because of the evaluation that I must admit I stopped teaching those things for a while. Although my colleagues support academic freedom, I have known others who have had similar problems."

Reid cites Hendrix as a tremendous supporter of the growing LGBTQ community here at Texas A&M-Commerce saying she has even been able to contribute funds to the cause.  

Hendrix believes that with new programs like the SAFE SPACES and ANGLES, there will be a better effort to "acknowledge and accept students' differences which will result in trust and trust will result in more communication and more tolerance of differences."

"We had our first SAFE SPACES meeting last spring," Reid said, " This is a program that will help students and faculty know where they have safe space to express themselves on campus." 

SAFE SPACES and other programs like it are a hope not just for many LGBTQ community members but also for their allies.   "I think the program will provide the LGBTQ community with assurance that there are 'safe' environments in which to share problems and concerns," Hendrix said.  Although Albritton has had many struggles because of his LGBTQ status, he said his expectations are high that less students will experience similar situations in the future.

"I have never had more hope for our community. Our university now has several programs like SAFE SPACES that are working to better our situation. I have met more straight allies this semester alone than in any of my previous years here on campus. Our voice is here, it is just not being heard yet. Conditions will improve, it will get better, I have hope for that, after all, its my quality of life we are talking about here."