Creighton’s Gender-Sexuality Alliance Club, formerly known as Gay-Straight Alliance, spent this week hosting events every day to break the cycle of stereotyping individuals, which is an important part of its mission.
This week is known as LGBTQIA Awareness Week, or, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Ally Awareness week.
The events included a speaker from Iowa State who discussed how homophobia affects everyone, straight or gay, a tunnel of oppression on the mall where students could tear down bricks painted with hate-speech, a “Guess Who’s Gay” panel, a day of silence and a day of dialogue.
Arts & Sciences freshman Corinne Googe and Nursing sophomore Renee Reames were in charge of organizing the “Guess Who’s Gay” program. Googe became involved with GSA during her first semester at Creighton and immediately started helping with programs and volunteering.
“I got involved because I wanted to find a community that I identify with, and I really found that [with GSA],” she said.
The “Guess Who’s Gay” program was held on April 13 and featured eight panelists, four men and four women. The audience was allowed to ask the panelists any question they wanted, as long as it did not reveal their sexuality.
The audience tried to keep the conversation lively with questions like, “What color are your sheets and comforter?” or “How do you feel about Lady Gaga?” Some questions pertained to love interests, such as, “What do you look for in a partner?” and “What was your first kiss like?”
After all questions were answered, the panelists were asked to leave and the audience voted on whether they thought each panelist was gay, straight or bisexual. The panelists then revealed their sexual orientations to the audience. The audience correctly guessed three out of the eight panelists’ sexual orientation. The audience guessed that seven out of the eight panelists were either gay or bisexual, three of which turned out to be correct. Of the five guessed incorrectly, two of the panelists, a straight man who was perceived as gay and a straight girl who was perceived as bisexual, revealed they were dating.
Arts & Sciences senior Sarah Jane Pennella, president of GSA, participated in the program as a panelist.
“It’s interesting knowing an audience is making a judgment about you without even knowing you,” she said.
Pennella said she hopes that students who attended now understand that people are not always who they seem.
“You have to get to know a person before judging. Don’t use appearance to judge, look beyond appearance,” Penella said.
Arts & Sciences freshman Shayla Covington attended the “Guess Who’s Gay” program and agreed it was a good representation of how stereotypes can cause people to judge incorrectly.
“Obviously it showed that perceptions of people can be incorrect, so I think it is important for people to learn these things,” she said.
Googe said stereotypes are something that can be difficult to break and she hopes students took something away from the program.
“I hope people really realize that there are stereotypes that need to be broken down every day. Just because a woman dresses androgynously doesn’t automatically make her a lesbian and men who enjoy things like dancing doesn’t automatically make them gay,” she said. “I want people to just keep in mind that next time they see somebody, not automatically assume that someone is either heterosexual or homosexual depending on how they appear.”