Today was this year’s National Day of Silence. This event is a powerful reminder of how LGBTQQIA people are silenced in our society. To those of you who participated, thank you for your support of LGBTQQIA rights and your commitment to fight discrimination, hatred, and violence. If you are interested in the Day of Silence, consider participating next year. You can learn more at the official Day of Silence website.
You can say a lot without speaking at all.
Happy Celebrate Bisexuality Day!
If you go to school or work at St. Norbert, stop by the Campus Center at 7:30 for our Bisexuality Discussion Panel. If not, show your bi or ally pride by celebrating wherever you happen to be.
Some background info about the day:
Celebrate Bisexuality Day has been observed on September 23 since 1990. The day is an opportunity for bisexual, fluid, pansexual and generally queer-identified people and their families, friends and supporters to recognize and celebrate their history, community and culture and the contributions bisexual/pansexual people have made to both the greater LGBT Community as well as to and mainstream culture.
This celebration of the bisexual, fluid and pansexual community in particular, as opposed to general LGBT events, was conceived as a response to the prejudice and marginalization of the bisexual and pansexual persons by some in both the straight and greater LGBT communities.
It features events ranging from picnics and house-parties to discussion groups and poetry-readings . There are dinner parties and dances in Toronto and a large masquerade ball in Queensland, Australia. At Texas A&M University, the week featured discussion panels and question-and-answer sessions. Princeton University celebrates this day each year by throwing a party at its LGBT Center. It has also been celebrated in Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
(source: BiNet USA)
Especially if you can’t make it to the panel, try taking Scarleteen’s Bisexuality Quiz to “check your Bi-Q!”
As far as I can tell, the goal of a blog is simply this: to be useful and interesting in some way. With that in mind, I’m going to be posting links, sharing articles, announcing events, and blogging my own reactions to what I see, hear, and experience regarding LGBTQ issues. While some posts may be more useful/interesting to you personally than others, the underlying themes of identity, equality, and empowerment in the face of discrimination and violence affect all of us. Whether you identify as straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, or another identity, or you believe in transcending the limitations of labels, you are in some way affected by others’ perceptions and opinions of gender and sexual orientation.
I hope the other RKL bloggers and I can shape this site into an amazing resource for the St. Norbert College community, and for anyone else who seeks information about or a connection with the LGBTQ community. Thanks to Ryan for setting up the site, and for showing those of us who are less computer-literate how to maintain it. I’m excited to help create what I know will be a great space for members and allies of SNC’s Rainbow Alliance to share ideas, news, events, information, and opinions.
Stay tuned…
- Gretchen Panzer, Rainbow Alliance President
