A JMU professor states ‘There’s only lesbians and gays’?

“There’s only lesbians and gays because the other letters don’t exist,” a JMU health professor claimed while “educating” their students on the LGBT acronym a few weeks ago.

A friend of mine was in the class when she witnessed her professor state this prejudicial remark.

It is sad to see a professor at a university like JMU, which strives for its mission of diversity, teaching students the inhibition of diversity, rather than the advocacy for it.

The shocked freshman student who witnessed that remark recalls “dying a little on the inside…” She felt put down as she, herself, identifies in the spectrum that “doesn’t exist.”

To see that kind of neglect and lack of compassion for other individuals destroys me. Why would anyone want to diminish the meaning of anyone else’s life? What kind of life does one have to have to put people down for who they are?

I understand religion or lack of education may have something to do with it, but it’s hard to imagine that someone get hurt over something that doesn’t affect any other individual but themselves because this is the kind of thing a lot of queer individuals face today.

As a queer-identifying individual myself, I don’t ever want to find someone feeling away from home when they’re at home. I’ve experienced the lack of support from individuals who mean a lot to me in my life and believe it or not, it is not uncommon for queer individuals to experience this from their families or friends.

Being at JMU, where many people call home and is known for its mission for diversity, queer-identifying students get to get away from the discomfort of their own families. To let them experience this at JMU, here at our home, makes me speechless.

Fortunately, there is a group of students at JMU who work toward the acceptance, rather than the tolerance, of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer, Plus (LGBTQ+) communities that are represented at JMU, known as the executive board of Madison Equality.

Madison Equality is the only student-run LGBTQ+ organization on campus that works in coordination with the LGBT and Ally Education Program to promote education and diversity of these queer-identifying students. It also creates a safe space for these students and allies, not only for educational purposes, but also for social purposes.

They organize panels that educate a group of students, faculty and even staff, to events such as Charity Ball and GayMU that bring queer culture to the campus

“I want to promote an inclusive environment where everyone feels wanted,” said Co-Events Coordinator, Shane Van Hoy.

“I am driven to be on exec because I want to make our campus a safer, more supportive and affirming place for queer people and I think one way to do that is through educating people on campus, be they students, faculty or staff,” said Educational Coordinator, Emily New-Cruse.

Imagine finding yourself in a place you call home to feel out of place, to feel discomfort with the people who surround you. In response to how a lot of the queer communities may feel being on this campus and possibly facing a health professor who believes that other queer individuals besides “lesbians and gays” don’t exist, the sophomore, Treasurer and Secretary, Aloha Backenstose told me, “what drives me [to be on exec] is trying to work towards bettering the queer and LGBTQIQAP+ communities at JMU. I want to continue to help make a comfortable and safe community.”

So let the person next to you know that they are loved because who knows? Maybe all their life, they’ve believed that they aren’t loved for how they were born.