"Why did you apply to be the LGBTQA Connection Associate?"

I thought this would be a good question to start with.

My lesser reasons include wanting to be more involved on the Ursinus campus and needing a job. How lucky was I to find something that I would love and be paid to do, amiright? I also wanted a job that would be a challenge -- not at all like my two glamorous years at Burger King or my current profession of counting things. (I'm an "inventory associate;" it's awesome.)

The remainder of my reasoning is more involved.



I mentioned in my self-introduction that I come from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and that Pottsville is "a place to escape." The entirety of Schuylkill County is severely ignorant, close-minded, and simply uneducated. I say with intuitive confidence and no quantitative evidence that the majority of the population of the "Skook," as my county is so affectionately called by its inhabitants (and certainly no others), are bigoted and intolerant heterosexists (among other lovely things). I was born into this cesspool and surrounded by peers and authorities who wholeheartedly supported the most loathsome of things. I remember as a small child being pulled through a sea of people at the foot of the courthouse; waves of them ebbed at the stone, and I looked up to see who or what could unite so many ... to see a line of white-clad figures with ridiculously tall, pointed hats that my mother told my sister and me not to look at, as they shouted blistering words into a bullhorn that my mother told us not to listen to. While I no longer have the dialogue that I once shared with my mother or see eye-to-eye with her concerning most matters, if there is one thing that she did right in raising me, it was teaching me to accept and respect everyone, even in the face of intolerance and hatred. The second, surely, was encouraging me to leave Schuylkill County and do something with my life.

More important, however, are the influences of two of my closest friends, "B" and "C."  I have known C since the fourth grade, and B since the sixth. Both of these friends identify as bisexual and are slowly becoming more aware of themselves and the LGBTQIA community. While I am not experiencing their turmoils first-hand, I do find my passions intensified when I think of these two friends in any harmful situation -- being the targets of a hate crime, having slurs slung at them, being told that they are unwanted, unnatural, worthless, living in a world where the collective of society views them as lesser beings. I imagine these things and wonder how I would feel and react in the moment if I were beside my friends when someone snarled "GOD HATES YOU YOU'LL BURN IN HELL FOR YOUR SINS YOU DISGUST ME" or said with less intimidation but just as earnestly "Why would you subject your bodies to something so unnatural? Why would you choose that lifestyle?" I think of these scenarios and immediately realize my instinctual need to protect those who I love and care about, and I know that I have to do something to counteract the blind haze of our "anti-gay" reality.

So, that's why I applied for the position of the LGBTQA Connection Associate. I thought of how despicable my hometown is, how strongly I stand for acceptance (or at the very least tolerance and respect), and my affections for B and C -- and my resulting discontent propelled me into an open Word Document and a resume template. While I am separated from B and C, I can act here, at Ursinus College, with them in mind and hope that with plenty of support and a little activism, the changes that I will help to institute at UC will ripple out and away from campus and inspire change elsewhere.

You'll hear more from  me soon!

- Jen