By Kee’ara Smith, Editor
The Diversity Peer Educators (DPE) hosted their second monthly dialogue series Tuesday, Oct. 6, via Zoom.
This week’s DPE topic was on the LGBTQ+ community. DPE is a student-led organization under the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA). DPE’s mission as diversity peer educators is to increase awareness, knowledge and skills necessary to create change and engage in helpful conversations about diversity, inclusion and fairness. The end goal of DPE includes increasing students’ awareness and cultural competence.
With this month being pride month, peer educators wanted to offer a talk for students who are advocates and a part of the community as well. The chat addressed topics of pronouns, personal issues and resources on campus.
Students were given the opportunity to express their truths and how their preferences have affected their lives. Though most students’ stories were positive, some students felt like there were no resources on campus for students of LGBTQ+ community
Some students talked about past events the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) used to host before they were inactive. GSA would host proms, mixers, chats and even took trips to Atlanta for Pride events.
OMA also hosted a GSA mixer for students to dance and mingle. The event took place via Zoom but the chat session was live so students could request songs and talk amongst one another.
The DJ, Jordan Brown played a wide range of music from Ariana Grande to Lil Nas X. GSA is currently not active and OMA is serving in its place in order to give students a chance to voice concerns. GSA is currently looking for members because while they are not active, they hope to find someone to restart their organization on campus soon.
GSA focuses on what the students want to talk about and what they’d like to see. Each year, GSA focuses on one of three bases: education, support, or activism.
The next monthly diversity, equity, and inclusion presentation will not be until Spring 2021. For more information on how to get involved with OMA, email Ryan Moguel at rmoguel@georgiasouthern.edu.
