Windsor, Ontario, Canada resident and star of the film “Transbeing” Kael Sharman speaks to a crowd about his experiences and struggles of transitioning from female to male. Sharman is now an openly transgender high school teacher and parent. Brian Palmer/ The State News
Members of MSU’s LGBTQ community convened Friday afternoon in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, or RCAH, to celebrate the approval of MSU’s new specialization.
The new specialization in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Sexuality Studies was approved over the summer, allowing students to enroll in the program this fall.
Organized by the Center for Gender in Global Context, Lyman Briggs College, the College of Arts and Letters, RCAH and the LBGT Resource Center, the event was a celebration of a culmination of a six-year effort, Center for Gender in Global Context co-director Lisa Fine said.
“It was a nice gesture to do a series of events to thank everybody and sort of announce this coming into existence,” Fine said.
Fine said in the month or so since the specialization has been available, seven people have enrolled.
From 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, the LGBTQ Specialization Celebration Symposium provided a variety of events that brought together elements of the LGBTQ community. The event began with opening remarks and poetry from RCAH Center for Poetry Director Anita Skeen, followed by a presentation of the LBGT Resource Center’s Pride Scholarship.
The afternoon followed with a presentation and roundtable on various LGBTQ issues as well as a student resource fair where student groups related to the LGBTQ community could showcase their organizations. Attendance throughout the day was quite modest, with many attendees indicating they had previous involvement in LGBTQ affairs.
“A lot of the turnout was people really involved from the get-go, people really gun-ho about getting the specialization approved,” said microbiology sophomore Mady Gildea, who attended the festivities representing The Alliance of Queer and Ally Students.
The day concluded with a screening of the film Transbeing, a short documentary by MSU faculty member Juan Javier Pescador. The film profiled three transgendered men and women, and two of the individuals featured in the film were present and took questions from the audience.
The film educated attendees about transgender issues and helped to show how the new specialization legitimizes LGBTQ studies, said Mitch Fehrle, a zoology and apparel and textile design freshman.
“As far as repping LGBT, there’s a few student groups, but I think the specialization really draws the currency and the importance of recognizing the LGBT community in the up-and-coming culture of America,” Fehrle said.
Doctoral student Claire Gonyo, who participated in the resource fair representing the National Study of LGBT Student Success, said the specialization’s approval came after other universities already had similar programs in place.
“This is important work that’s already recognized nationally,” Gonyo said. “I think this is MSU catching up to some other institutions.”
The specialization is multidisciplinary, the product of a collaboration between the College of Arts and Letters, Lyman Briggs and RCAH, which Fine said will make the program unique.
“I think it’s a little overdue for us to have this, but I think what we’ll have will be very cutting edge,” Fine said.
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