The News Site of Fresno City College

The Rampage Online

The News Site of Fresno City College

The Rampage Online

The News Site of Fresno City College

The Rampage Online

    Colloquium Addresses LGBT Rights

    Communication instructor, Jerry Thurston, won the ovarian lottery.

    Thurston said being male, white, and heterosexual accord him a privilege which he believes is undeserved.

    “I think it’s my ethical obligation to do anything I can to destroy my unearned privilege. I should not be treated better than other people; it’s just flat wrong,” Thurston said. “So it’s an ethical issue for me.”

    He added, “We have at least a thousand rights that same sex couples simply do not have; we are allowed to get married and they are not.” Thurston said, “People put masculinity, femininity and gender in boxes and claim that no other way is acceptable to society’s standards.”

    Thurston made these remarks during a colloquium on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights which was held in the in the Skylight room on the second floor of the Old Administration Building on Jan 27.

    Other panelists include Robin McGehee, professor at the College of the Sequoias and founder of Get Equal, a political action group that highlights homophobia and transphobia; Wendell Stephenson, philosophy instructor at FCC and cofounder of the colloquiums, and Dylan Domingos, FCC student and writer who has written articles on “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, Proposition 8, and suicides among gay teens.

    Among the major questions addressed in the colloquium is whether the LGBT Rights Movement is the new Civil Rights Movement and if there are similarities between previous civil rights movements and the present one for LGBT equality.

    Domingos argued that it is a civil rights movement because it involves people’s lives. He spoke compellingly and about his experience and the fears he lived under because of who he is. He effectively put a face to the commonly stereotyped homosexuals in Fresno.

    Speaking gently, Domingos urged people to get involved and reassured young people in the audience who might be struggling with their own sexual identity that there is support for them and that they should stay true to themselves. As someone who was once afraid to unveil his sexuality, he emerged as a voice to the voiceless.

    McGehee who is known for organizing pro LGBT events across America, also urged action.  “The reality is, unless were actually moving, were not a movement,” she said. She explained that there are “lunch counter” moments, moments that expose the gross discrimination against the LGBT community. She is currently working to display such moments through Get Equal.

    Thurston urged heterosexuals to join the fight. “Heterosexuals have a moral obligation to support LGBT rights,” he said. This belief inspired him and his wife to co-found Straight Advocates for Equality, SAFE.    

    Stephenson laid out philosophical arguments about the morality of homosexuality but concluded that even if one deems homosexuality to be immoral, such judgments were not relevant to their access to equal rights.  

    This is not FCC’s first colloquium event, but it is the first of its kind, said Paul Gilmore, a history instructor who moderated the event. In 1997, Philosophy instructor, Wendell Stephenson and his colleague, Alan Beck, implemented events in which faculty members made formal presentations on interesting topics.

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