The coming of October on Eastern Michigan University’s campus means the appearance of rainbow flags, LGBT speakers and events as well as an increased awareness of what it means to be LGBT in the United States today.
At EMU, October is also known as OUTober.
OUTober is a month-long annual LGBTQ pride and awareness event sponsored and coordinated by EMU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Resource Center.
The Eastern Echo sat down with Mary Larkin, EMU’s LGBT Resource Center program coordinator, to get the details about this year’s OUTober celebrations and to get her views on the current state of gays in America.
The Eastern Echo – When did EMU begin celebrating OUTober month?
Mary Larkin – “I did my undergrad here in the mid-90s, and I know that we celebrated National Coming Out Day.
But I’m not certain that it was a month during that time. So I would say probably within the last decade.
“The center was really kind of established as a professional staff office within the last decade and during that time I think the celebration grew from ‘we’re going to recognize this day,’ to ‘we’re going to recognize this week,’ and ‘heck, now we’re going to have a month.’ ”
EE – How do you define OUTober and what do you think is its purpose?
ML – “I would say that OUTober serves the purpose of a few things. One is visibility of the LGBT community; two, an increased awareness of. Yes, there are events that are intended and targeted for LGBT students. But there are also a ton of events that are intentionally targeting communities and folks that maybe don’t have a knowledge base about LGBT education.
“Even though it’s a celebration and there is a level of fun in everything that happens in there, there’s also a huge educational component around awareness.”
EE – How would you define the difference between ‘visibility’ for the LGBT community and ‘awareness’ of what’s going on with the LGBT community?
ML: “Visibility is knowing that there are folks who identify on campus. That’s it. Visibility is ‘ok, we see that there’s a rainbow flag in the middle of campus; we see that there’s these posters everywhere; we see that it’s on EMUToday.’ But none of that means that anyone is getting valuable information.
“And so, a lot of the different events such as the Safe Campaign, the Gender Awareness Program, Meet the Movement of Quality Michigan, and the Film Showing; those do come from a really educational foundation of being able to share information that maybe students don’t have.”
EE- What does OUTober provide for the student body?
ML – “I would say, again, kind of the same frame. Not only is there visibility, but there is also an increased awareness and I think that there’s a sense of community that comes along with these kinds of months.”
EE – On average, how many people participate in these programs for OUTober?
ML – “That’s tough. Some are intended for smaller audiences, some for bigger audiences. So the Safe Campaign is set for 45 to 50-person capacity because it’s really interactive and dialogue-based, so we wouldn’t want hundreds of people in the room because it’s hard. The Rainbow Variety Show is in the auditorium, which seats 250 folks. So, usually, we’re pretty close to meeting whatever our target audience is for each event.
Over the course of the month we usually get about 500-600 students total participating in the events.”
EE- Do you get much involvement from the local community outside of campus?
ML- “It depends on what the events are. And we will specifically target depending on what they are. It just depends.
Some of our stuff is clearly intended for students because it’s a university. Like for Pat Griffin. She’s a speaker. She will be talking about homophobia in sports. She’s well-known, so a lot of coaches from other universities or student athletes [will attend]. That would be something that we would put out to other people because we know that there would be a bigger draw for that.
“But all of our events are open to the public other than our Coming Out, Being Out support group. That’s strictly for students. So I think it just depends on what people kind of get into if they happen to see the calendar.”
EE – What do you think of the current state of gay rights in the U.S.?
ML – “I would say we are hearing some more positive things in the country. Michigan is not under that same umbrella. We have certain things happening, you know, from nondiscrimination policies. Our state doesn’t include sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. We also currently are looking at the possibility of those domestic partner benefits being erased. So our state’s a little behind the country.
“But we have some pretty cool stuff happening, like the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is pretty great. Now we will find out if practice and policy are the same. But it’s still a really big win.
“I think there’s a difference between gay rights and LGBT rights, because the stuff that trans folks are fighting for a lot of times kind of gets lost a little bit in the gay rights debate ,and I think folks need to understand the differences in those. And it’s hard. People can be so frustrated, which I understand.
Are rights for LGBT folks equal? No. Not by a long shot. But I think we are moving in that direction.”
EE – Do you have any further views on how things are progressing for the LGBT community in
America?
ML – “I think it’s interesting to see what’s happening in higher education and how different that can be with our state. You know like when we look at Michigan how three of our public institutions made Newsweek’s best of gay friendly schools in a state that doesn’t really provide support at all for the LGBT community. That is interesting to me that there’s still those kind of disconnects.
“At the very least, we’re talking about it. We’re talking about it in politics. It’s a hot button. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I think that we do a good job in mobilizing. But then, how many people stick with the fight when it gets hard is another interesting thing to watch.
“I think it’s important to just realize that from a standpoint of kids and young people not having role models that they’re looking at and how that trickles over and to everything we see happening in the political sphere, too.”
EE – Do you think EMU is deserving of the award for being an LGBT friendly campus?
ML – “I do. Not because it’s my job…there are a couple components to why I think that this is the case. I do feel incredibly supported and this center is incredibly supported by our administration. We have direct ties to academic affairs where we are teaching the folks that are going to be working with LGBT students so social workers, health educators, and teachers.
“Is everything perfect? Absolutely not. And to keep that ranking the way it is through campus Pride and to keep that recognition like in Newsweek’s, we have to continue to educate, we have to continue to do this stuff [OUTober events], and we have to continue to talk about stuff. It’s not like ‘hey, there’s a bunch of gay people. So we’re good.’ If it was that easy, it wouldn’t be the case.”
EE – Finally, what steps do you think are next for the nation and for our state in furthering
the LGBT community?
ML – “I think it was amazing when the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Act passed because that was a Federal law. Michigan was one of five states that did not have a hate crime act that included sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.
“So to see something like that occur and be able to happen, even though it was ten years after the death of Matthew Shepard…it’s too bad that we can’t fight all that on this level because every state is trying to fend for themselves around these things.
“I work at a university, so I am in no ways ever going to understand how deep this is and how you figure out what the priorities are. But I think that once we can come together as a community and agree on what those priorities are, those will be the next steps.”
