Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Coming out can be a challenge, no matter what generation someone is a part of.
Jeremy Adkison, an activities coordinator for Queers and Allies, organized a panel to discuss topics such as equal marriage rights, hate crime legislation, coming out to parents and even to children.
The panel, which will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union, is called “Gay in the USA.”
What: Gay in the USA
When: 7 p.m Thursday
Where: Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union
Cost: Free
Adkison, Leavenworth sophomore, called the discussion an “intergenerational speaker’s panel” and said the purpose was to have an open conversation with gay people of different ages about issues that were important to LGBT Americans. He said the panel would consist of two students, two professors and an 82-year-old former minister.
“I think we can have a seriously engaging discussion with the audience, whether they are gay or straight,” Adkison said. “It’ll be entertaining, it’ll be educating and it will also raise awareness.”
George Paris, the former minister who worked as state director for campus ministry for a Methodist church, said he thought the panel would be helpful for everyone involved.
“A lot of people have the problem of coming out to their parents,” Paris said, “I had the problem of coming out to my children.”
Paris was born in 1927 and started having sex with men in college, but he got married in an attempt to suppress his sexuality. He did not come out to his five adult children until he was 70, after his wife passed away. Paris said the discussion would give the panelists an opportunity to talk about their different experiences as gay people in the modern world and what that meant in today’s culture.
Ashlynn Horras, educational outreach coordinator for Queers and Allies, said the panel would help her revise future panels to include important questions.
Horras, Knoxville, Iowa, junior, said the more she told her story and heard others’, the more she appreciated her family’s support.
“I think a panel like this gives the audience a unique look into the queer community and the opportunity to ask questions they might not have thought of before or haven’t had the chance to ask,” Horras said.
Adkison said the audience would be free to ask any questions or discuss any topics that interested them at the panel discussion. Horras said she was interested to hear what the older panelists thought about current events such as the passing of gay marriage laws and the use of the word “gay.”
“We’re trying to reach the student body who has never asked a queer person these questions,” Horras said. “Students don’t see enough multigenerational panels, and there’s a lot to be gained from the wisdom of those older than you.”
— — Edited by Chris Horn
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Panel to discuss being gay in America
It's going to be an awsome panel people. Everyone should come!! ^_^
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