GenderYOUTH Network

IUSB: Blurr zine calls for submissions

Call for submissions... on gender.

Greetings!

Gender Project is well underway at Indiana University of South Bend. We are a new, student organized, gender advocacy group on campus associated with GenderPAC.

Last month we distributed our first issue of Blurr, a new zine with a focus on gender. It was a great success here at IUSB and soon we hope to be able to share the zine with a much larger audience by making the publication available online.

In the meantime, we are currently compiling works for the second issue. We hope to begin printing in just a few short weeks.

This zine is a focus on all aspects of gender and how it crosses lines of socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and more.

A call for submissions... more info below.

With as much diversity as we have among our students and faculty here at IUSB (and the larger community), I know there is just as wide a range of creativity. I would like to use these creative voices in order to educate and advocate the versatility and complications of gender as they are portrayed and interpreted in our society.

We're looking for artists, poets, essayists, personal stories, etc. -anything that can be related to gender, be it positive or negative.

Can you help or do you know someone who would be interested? If you would like to send us a submission or if you have questions, please contact us via e-mail.

Karrie Blevins
Coordinator, The Gender Project
Indiana University at South Bend

For submissions:
E-mail: blurr@iusb.edu

For questions:
E-mail: kblevins@iusb.edu

For snail mail:

The Gender Project
Indiana University South Bend
1700 Mishawaka Ave
South Bend, IN 46634

X-posted to relevant online communities including the GenderYOUTH Network on Yahoo.

RSS feed available via Livejournal.

IUSB: The Gender Project

Hey all! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I know I am
especially enjoying the 14509345823049 degree heat. Yum. :/

Right. Well, back to business....

"The Gender Project" will be the name of our GenderYOUTH group here
at IUSB, at least to start off with. We're working on a couple
things before classes start in the Fall.

A website is being developed and we plan to have it up and running
by mid-August.

We're also hoping to get the G-Zine printed around the same time.

As mentioned in our last post, we are looking for submissions that
would be topic related - drawings, poems, OpEds, etc.

As for the website, we welcome suggestions for information,
materials, etc. to be included.

Looking forward to hearing from many of you before school starts.

X-posted

For equality & diversity,
Karee

Zine: IUSB chapter calls for submissions...

We are working on putting a zine together for the beginning of the Fall semester here at IU-South Bend. This first issue will be geared towards incoming freshmen students and student organizations getting back into the swing of things. This is a call for submissions (or suggestions)... So, if you have some artistic talent that you'd like to share... along the lines of gender, stereotypes, labels, etc., let us hear 'em! Interesting articles, poems, or other written works would be greatly appreciated too. (Plus, we can send you a copy once its ready to distribute.) *Feel free to pass this message along to any person(s) or group(s) you feel might be interested. Karee B. e-mail: karee23@hotmail.com

Connecticut College students working to change their school's non-discrimination policy

GenderYOUTH members are working with a broad coalition of cultural and activist groups to add gender expression and gender identity (GE/GI) to their school's non-discrimination policy.  The faculty have been very supportive and the students will soon meet with the Affirmative Action Advisor who will present a letter from them to the President.  They also traveled to Hartford for Intersex Awareness Day and worked with their FMLA chapter on Love Your Body Day opening up discussion about femininity, masculinity and bodies that don't fit certain ideals or identities.  For the Spring, they are planning a summit with gender workshops for high school students.

University of San Francisco's GenderYOUTH members creating a presence on campus

University of San Francisco GenerationYOUTH members have formed an eight member Executive Board and thus far have a strong presence on campus.  They hold monthly joint meetings and other social justice groups, and they have promoted a local speaker on Intersex Awareness Day.  USF's future plans include, a panel on gender-based hate crimes and transgender discrimination, co-sponsoring awareness efforts on World Aids Day, hosting a Gender Bender Ball, co- sponsoring Stop The Hate Week and leading a workshop for their entire Residence Life staff to empower them to help end gender stereotyping on campus.

Connecticut College Students Push for Non-Discrimination Policy Expansion

Students from Connecticut College plan to approach administrators over the school's non-discrimination policy. They are campaigning to have gender identity and expression be included in their school's policy, but administrators have been resistent to the issue in the past. Sara, a student of Connecticut College, says: "when a student tried it a few years ago, the school's lawyer said it was already covered under sex and the President didn't want to have any "special" protections beyond what the federal government mandates." However, the GenderYOUTH Affiliate is partnering with their campus' organiation for racial and queer issues and they are planning to make the expansion of their school's policy a top priority, while educating the student body and school officials in the process. GenderPAC is committed to helping students like Sara educatied their schools about the importance of including gender identity and expression in their non-discrimination and equal opportunity employment (EEO) policies. More information, includings steps you can take to campaign your own school to list gender identity and gender expression as a protected right may be found at: http://www.gpac.org/workplace/wpf_packet_coll.html

GenderPAC wishes the students of Connecticut College good luck with their campaign! If any other students have stories to share about their own campaigns, feel free to post advice, tips or even funny stories to help other students along in their own campaigns.

Getting Organized at Miami University of Ohio

At Miami University of Ohio, GenderPAC members are strategizing to identify the best ways to organize on a very conservative campus. They fear that the campus isn't ready for the message they are trying to bring. Everything related to sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity on campus is funneled through an umbrella organization called SPECTRUM, so they are feeling overwhelmed. They have worked on putting together meetings with organizations of students of color, but that fell through, since no one came. They have no yet looked into coordinating with feminist or women's groups on campus, but they will and are considering building a coalition with them. Plans for the future involve meeting with their college's president to discuss adopting inclusive EEO policies.

Gender-Neutral Living/Learning Community at from Maria Kitsinis at Bowling Green State University

We are trying to put together a proposal for a gender neutral living/learning community. This would be an on campus residence Hall where people of any and all genders could live. The community would have a few requirements such as:
Summer reading
Early arrival to school for an orientation educating the community taking courses that relate to gender and/or sexual orientation
Visiting with the other member of the community on a bi-weekly basis
Gender Activism
Bringing in speakers on gender
Working as a liaison to all the gender organizations/centers on campus
I have been doing some research on schools that have programs similar to this one (GLBT floors, queer dorms) but I need some more information. If anyone knows of any schools that have a similar program or ideas about what to put in this proposal, please let me know. Also I am going to need information on backlash that programs like this are hit with. This proposal is going to have to cover every situation as to not cause an uproar with administration. I think that if we can get a GOOD, SOLID proposal written then a gender neutral living/learning community will be well on its way.

Tufts Update

As a GenderROOTS affiliate, we've have held many events through our queer groups and women's groups about gender. We had one on language, we had the GenderPAC person come, we dedicated our day of silence to get the school to include gender identity and expression in its anti-discrimination policy. We have changed the housing policy so we have a plan for trans identified students, and it is looking fairly positive that we will have single-stalled gender-free bathrooms around campus, and soon an anti-discrimination policy including gender identity and expression... it's been a good year. Student participation at campus events and activities is high. Of course it varies depending on the time of year and the event, but I would say every event had at least 20 people, if not more. Day of Silence, for example, gathered over 400 signatures to present to our president.

Diversifying gender expression from Barrett Floore at Miami University of Ohio

We are having a gender expression visibility day where SPECTRUM members will be going to class dressed in clothing that does not conform to the socially constructed gender norms (sadly, it's come to be called "men in skirts day," but it's more than that). We are compiling testimonials from our gender minority population and those that participate in the expression day as a means of showing Garland that this is a problem.