The GLBT Resource Center begins its Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Week at A&M on Monday, including events from coming out stories to searching for GLBT-friendly jobs.
Awareness Week, which will continue through Saturday, will feature several events put on by the GLBT Resource Center to promote education and understanding of the GLBT population at A&M. The week commemorates the April 1, 1985, court decision that first opened the door for GLBT recognition at Texas A&M, according to its website.
Sidney Gardner, program coordinator for the GLBT Resource Center, said GLBT activist Robyn Ochs will speak Tuesday about identity and sexuality to increase awareness and understanding toward the GLBT community.
At Wednesdays awareness week events, a Career Center staff member will discuss job searching as a member of the GLBT community for Wednesday Wisdom.
It is helpful for anyone searching for a job, Gardner said. It will be geared more toward giving students the knowledge in figuring out if an employer has a particular statement of nondiscrimination around sexual orientation or gender identity.
Marimar Miguel, senior womens and gender studies major and vice president of GLBT Aggies, said some GLBT students are unsure how to convey activity leadership experience in the GLBT community on resumes.
I have all this experience and leadership and I have struggled with whether or not to put it on my resume, Miguel said. If I cannot be myself in the interview process, I dont think I can be myself in the workplace. The GLBT Resource Center has helped me so much with my resume and job search already.
GLBT Aggies are putting on an event Thursday titled Hidden Voices: The Lives of LGBT Muslims. Faisal Alam, a GLBT Muslim activist, will be the keynote speaker.
This whole idea was well received by the administration because this event will really encompass an intersection of identities, said Kim Villa, junior community health major and president of GLBT Aggies.
The Coming Out Monologues will wrap up the week Friday and Saturday, an event where students tell personal coming-out stories.
Miguel is sharing her story in the Coming Out Monologues, an event that personally impacted her and so many others.
Villa said some of the stories are intense and some of the storytellers very passionate.
Carlos Figueroa, junior wildlife and fishery science major, said he has attended the Coming Out Monologues before and will attend this year.
“They are inspirational, Figueroa said. The ones that I have gone to in the past have been helpful to what I was going through at the time.