The discussion titled “LGBTQIA+: Living out and Loud at Southeast” will focus on experiences of LGBTQIA+ students as well as faculty and staff, allowing for a safe space to become familiar with various identities. LGBTQIA+ is an abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersexual and Asexual with the plus mark representing any community not covered in the abbreviation.

The event is the fourth and final in a series of workshops that were presented by the Institutional Equity and Diversity Office as Southeast Missouri State University. The series began last semester and included topics such as Black Lives Matter, feminism and campus sexual sssault, and will culminate with the LGBTQIA+ discussion. The series was presented in order to discuss hard-hitting topics in a safe environment, allowing for further education on topics people may not feel comfortable discussing.

The event will allow attendants to listen to various panelists who will be representing the LGBTQIA+ community and encourages them to ask questions in order to establish a dialogue on the issue. The event hopes to facilitate an ongoing conversation about what it means to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community, allowing for a deeper look into each identity in order to gain a better understanding.

“It is important for people to be open to having an open and honest dialogue around a group of individuals who they may not understand or have a personal connection with,” said Sonia Rucker, Coordinator for the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity.

The discussion will allow individuals outside of the community to identify with certain aspects of members of LGBTQIA+, creating a more accepting dynamic at Southeast, as well as the surrounding community.

The event has received some attention as a poster for the event was found torn in half, with LGBTQIA+ marked out. A photo of the poster was then uploaded to the Facebook page “Living at Southeast,” where it received a lot of attention from members of the Facebook page.

“The event is about being out and proud at Southeast. The poster being torn up like that may make people hesitant to come out,” Connar Atkins said.

Atkins was a major contributor to the discussion that ensued after the photo was posted. Atkins able to speak from experience, he himself not coming out until after he graduated high school. Connor considered Southeast, overall, to be accepting of the LGBTQIA+ community. However, he encouraged people outside of the community to reach out.

“Reach out to people in the gay community. It is much easier to be accepting of people when you have a personal connection with them,” Atkins said.

The event is open to all Southeast students as well as members of the surrounding community. It will take place Monday, April 24, in the UC Redhawks room. There will be representatives of the various identities in the LGBTQIA+ community on the panel for students to engage with. Dr. C. P. Gause, chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling, will moderate the event. The panel will feature students Emmett Poss, Nando Lopes, and Duane Michael Jones, student worker Robert Turner, Assistant Director of Athletics/Complience Dr. Robert Greim, and President of Southeast PRIDE Rane Belling.