Hello.

[Xero Eclipse]

I used to frequent these forums for some time until I took my leave of them around a year ago, so some of you may remember me from back then. Anyway, my name's Jody and I'm a college student in Nashville, Tennessee. I hope to become active once again on these boards, and I'm glad to see a lot of the same, old (or young ) faces still participating as active members.

A little lot of current history: I'm no longer pre-med but am instead majoring in Psychology with a research concentration; I'm also minoring in East Asian Studies and pursuing a second minor in the Leadership and Organization subbranch of Managerial Studies at my school. With the queer community, I'm the Secretary for Vanderbilt University's GSA, Lambda, and am also volunteering at the front desk of our city's recently opened LGBT community center, OutCentral. I've also just recently started an internship with the American Red Cross in disaster preparation and training, and lots of other fun stuff is happening all across the board in my life; I'm traveling to Argentina for Spring break as part of a service trip with Manna Project International, and I have a wonderful [new] boyfriend who my [Southern Baptist] parents joyfully embrace, and we're waiting to hear back from various graduate schools he has applied to for a doctorate degree in immunology/oncology microbiology. Life isn't all sunshine and rainbows as this paragraph might indicate, but this is some of the best of what my life has to offer at the moment.

Anyway, hope to be posting shortly.

[BenL]

Welcome back, Jody!

Congratulations on the new boyfriend. My, you certainly are a busy dude. I'm exhausted just reading about everything that's going on in your life.

Good to have you back on the forums.

[philip3gw]

welcome back to the group

[Gennee]

Welcome back, Jody. congrats on your new bf. I'm studying for my master's in education and technology. Is there a good contingent of lgbt students at Vanderbilt?

Gennee

[Xero Eclipse]

Originally Posted by Gennee

Welcome back, Jody. congrats on your new bf. I'm studying for my master's in education and technology. Is there a good contingent of lgbt students at Vanderbilt?

There are a good number of students who are out, visible, and involved on campus, but the large majority of LGBTQI students are still closeted or afraid/unable to come out. Our gay leaders and the administration have begun a major initiative on campus to help change this (following a report compiled by a committee formed to study the climate on campus for LGBT students last year by the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences) starting with such things as a new, dedicated building for an Office of LGBTQI Life, a full-time director, and other such structural changes. We've also added gender expression/identity to our campus non-discrimination policy, and we're starting to turn a few, select number of our dorms into full or partial gender-neutral facilities. There's plenty of institutional support for what we are doing, but the atmosphere in Tennessee and on campus is still not the best, and the campus is evenly divided into one-third conservative, moderate, and liberal, so there are plenty of pockets of intolerance to being openly gay on campus (not even mentioning Greek life or athletics). Mind you, this is for the undergraduate campus. I know the graduate schools also have some queer organizations specific to them, but I imagine the involvement is much smaller or negligible given the smaller number of students in those programs compared to the larger number of undergraduates we have.

The living-learning (music and philosophy-based) dorm that I live in, though, is fantastic, liberal, and full of gay people. We have people from all walks of life here, and it's honestly the most tight-knit and fun community on campus. My friends are great too regardless of whether they live in my dorm or not (although I do know of people who have distanced themselves from me when they become aware I'm a queer activist, so to say). Anyway, I must return to homework now at the moment, but yes, to answer your question, there is a good contingent of students on campus, gay, straight, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, and queer, who are dedicated to making campus a safer environment for people to be themselves. Haven't met an intersex person to my knowledge yet, though.

[Jennifer5]

I knew the name looked familiar. Welcome back!