Activists Speak!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this year's Activists Speak event, and not just because of the free sandwiches, though I'll admit they did help. I feel that this year's topic was a very timely one considering the many news reports involving instances of bullying perpetrated against young gay people in our schools and towns, with some of the bullying ending with the students taking their own lives. There is an obvious problem with the way that bullying is viewed by school officials and parents of the students involved as well. Though new efforts to combat bullying have been initiated in many school districts, they are basically just addressing the problem as opposed to the cause.

This event addressed the cause. I, along with the rest of my cohort, attended two sessions on the issues of homophobia and men and violence. The first session explored the many different PC terms that have gained widespread usage in connection to the issue of homophobia as well as soliciting personal experience with homophobia from some of the audience members. I came away from this session feeling that too much time was given to explaining terms such as heteronormativity, as opposed to focusing on specific actions one could take in order to combat homophobia in their everyday life.

The second session focused more on encouraging the raising of boys in a way that doesn't cause them to associate violence and aggressiveness with masculinity. Not only this, but teaching them that expressing their emotions is healthy and necessary to their emotional well-being. I felt that this session did a better job of providing solutions to situations that one might encounter. We were even provided with a list of steps that men could take to end acts of gender violence.

All in all, I felt that this event was a major success, especially when I compare it to my past experiences with the event, when it was held in a much smaller room with a small attendance. I'm incredibly proud of the work that the Office of Civic Engagement is doing at our school and in the surrounding community. Events like this one shine a spotlight on the causes of the recent bullying epidemic as opposed to just talking about what a shame it is that we have this problem. By providing events that propose solutions and by having the kind of conversations that talks like this encourage, we are getting closer to addressing the problem than ever before. It is my hope that gender violence is an issue that will garner more attention at the city, state, national and global levels, and that curriculums will be initiated in schools worldwide to help educate the children on gender equality and the dangers of things like homophobia. Hopefully, my children will live in a world where this issue is a non-issue, or at least one in which it is not at the forefront of the national psyche.