Minutes 2/22/13

• Dinner with Prof. Bernoff this Thursday
• Prof. Yong in March
• Dean Maggie also interested
• Others? Prof. Dyson? Angelica?
• Co-sponsor Pitzer workshops that Jacelyn presented the week before
• Agreed to give $100
• Jozi will front the money?
• Let's throw a party!
• Probably a private party
• In May sometime
• Venue: Case courtyard, probably
• Student DJ? Know anyone?
• Let's do more outreach-y things! 
• Local GSA's can tour around Mudd with us!
• Get help of Angelica, admissions
• May take more than just this semester to plan
• Campaigning! 
• For example, against the idea that men who have had sex with men can't donate blood
• Current events:
• CMC: tore down posters for the QRC party that said "Are we men or are we dancers?" - rewrote them to say "Your a man, act like one" (with the incorrect spelling and all)
• What can we do? Nothing really at this point. No further aggressions after that, and it's being filed as a hate crime
• Uganda - Anti-Homosexuality Bill says "imprison homosexuals for life"
• Stephen Fry challenged the bill on Ugandan radio 
• 1 of the prime candidates for pope, an African man, says "in my country, homosexuality is not a thing"

Meeting Minutes - 2/15/13

• We have been invited to a Progressive Dinner among 6 Claremont Colleges resource centers
• March 1st, from 5-7:30
• Travel from one location to another and eat everywhere!
• If we're interested, we need to add a list of clubs. Also, we can do a 1 minute presentation about the work we're doing here
• A student from Pitzer student (Josie?) that has embarked on a large project on being mindful of people's personal space with two of her friends
• 3 components: community discussion, artists/activists doing workshops, and a performance 
• They are fundraising for the workshops
• Currently, 4 workshops have been confirmed - first one on March 9th by Mia Mingus
• They currently are trying to raise another $1250 
• We will give between $100-200, and we will probably need someone to front the money when we decide
• Current (and old) Events:
• Illinois state legislature passed gay marriage, and now it's off to the Democratic Senate
• Great Britain also did, a few weeks ago
• New York Times article on how more universities are adding gender reassignment surgery under the insurance policies
• Has Claremont done this yet? We don't think so...
• A high school in Indiana suddenly switched to straight couples only for their prom
• Cause of parents' petitioning
• Missouri school said dates must be where a "girls take boys and boys take girls." When they got a negative response, they apologized and said it was mainly to stop people from circumventing the singles' rate
• Orrison Scott Card said in 2004: "If gay marriage is legalized, civilization will collapse" 
• More recent, similar statement as well
• In Ghana - article called "A Tsunami Called Homosexuality To Destroy Global Moral Fiber"
• Allows more ways for the U.S. to exploit other countries
• How does South Africa feel about homosexuality? - Okay with it
• Two retired soccer players came out as gay today (independently)
• (As opposed to bad athlete news:) Oscar Pistorius (the disabled Olympian) accidentally (maybe) shot his girlfriend
• Pope resigned - too old and sick to continue his post
• Russia NP banning homosexual websites
• Iceland has a ban on online porn because promotes abuse 
• Nordic country is the first to restrict lap dancing on feminist grounds 
• Part of a large sexual feminist movement in Europe
• U.S. (or at least CA) has a rule that strip clubs with fully nude dancers cannot serve alcohol

Meeting Minutes 2/8 - Guest Appearance from Dean Sumi!

• In three weeks' time, we will have dinner with Prof. Bernoff
• Details still to be hashed out
• Funding for Alex Sanchez - Mexican American author, writes gay teen fiction. 
• QRC wants to bring him to Claremont
• Asking for $100
• Approved
• Boy Scouts was considering allowing gay members and scout masters
• Decision has been deferred until May
• Atheists aren't allowed to be Boy Scouts either
• In both cases, you are simply considered to "never have been a scout"
• Movie Night at 8:30 - Paranorman
• Mormonism will probably reverse position on gay rights eventually using a "revelation"
• Currently, LGBTQ people can be members but must abide by Mormon rules - including heterosexual marriage and having children
• Tabling for Crush for Your Crush:
• Saturday dinner: Nicole at 5pm, Natasha at 6pm
• Sunday dinner: Kevin M. 
• Monday lunch: Karen
• Monday dinner: Jozi
• Tuesday lunch: Kevin H. and/or David 
• Tuesday dinner: Chance and/or Natasha
• Buying soda: sometime soon with David? Anyone else with a car that is free Tuesday evening or Wednesday?

Minutes 2/1

• Campus of Queer Leaders meeting was at lunch!
• If a meeting of 7C queer groups happens, the topic of discussion should be acronyms. LGBTQQIATS? It's getting out of hand. 
• Gaypril stuff - calendar for events due by March 11th
• Event with alumni - Does anyone know of alumni to contact? 
• Crush For Your Crush
• Email about tabling will be sent out soon
• First soda free, any extra $1. Off campus deliveries are also $1
• Poster?
• Dinner with profs/faculty? 
• People will talk to Prof. Yong, Prof. Bernoff, and Dean Sumi
• Fix ASHMC page about Prism officers
• Should we make a prism-presidents-l? Or an external email? That way we won't have to refresh the contact address
• We have a flag for Prism now! 
• Film screening for Perks of Being a Wallflower is delayed because of the Duck! show

Minutes 1/25/13

• Introductions/What did you do over break?
• Let's do Crush for your Crush again
• Program that allows students to send an anonymous crush soda with a note to anyone for free. Additional sodas cost $1 each.
• Need to table next week
• Lots of professors want to have dinner with members of Prism. 
• Prof. Bernoff definitely interested
• Other professors? - Prof. Yong, Prof. Dyson, Dean Sumi
• Gaypril is coming up in a little while. We should not be outdone by the other colleges! Plans:
• Let's have a career forum
• Ally training?
• Other things to do this semester? 
• More movie nights! Anyone know of good movies?
• Anyone who wants to go to the Western Regional Conference at Santa Cruz near the end of February, let Chance/Kevin know! The QRC is sponsoring it.
• Tonight, Bring a Friend to the QRC Social. Chance is walking down at 7pm
• Current events:
• Russian state Duma is banning "gay propoganda" and it's backed by the parliament
• They are also weeding out gay recruits
• Rhode Island is starting to weigh approving gay marriage
• It will be the last New England state to approve it
• An email will be sent out about changing the date of meetings soon!

Catch-Up Minutes!

11/16

• Transgender Day of Remembrance on Tuesday
• body outlines in blue tape representing the number of people who were killed in the last year due to hate crimes against trans* people
• over the weekend: plan to flyer and finish body outlines
• Angelica is doing a Trans101 workshop in the Aviation Room
• It's been a year since DADT was repealed, so now academies have a lot of LGBT students
• The talk on being genderqueer and Jewish talk tonight

11/30

• We answered questions for a project that analyzed the way religion (specifically Christianity) and LGBT issues coincided at the 5Cs
• some questions asked:
• Is religion necessary?
• Has anyone felt oppression from religious groups?

12/7

• Supreme Court has agreed to take up 2 gay marriage cases from NY and Cali (Prop 8)
• United States vs. Edith Windsor (from 1996)
• trying to repeal DOMA
• federal government will not withhold gay marriage (currently up to each state)
• if DOMA fails, then no state can have anti gay marriage laws
• Decisions will come out in June 2013
• CA has passed a law to ban conversion therapy (an attempt to "cure" homosexuality) for minors 
• main argument against law is that it violates therapists' free speech
• most find this "therapy" invalid since homosexuality was removed from the DSM in the 70s
• Queer Burlesque - talk about how it went

12/14

• What events should we throw next semester? Still lots of money!
• big welcome back event?
• Univ. of Iowa added a question on its application about being LGBT
• specifically: "Do you identify with the LGBTQ community?" 
• does this include allies?
• Elmhurst College had this on their application at one point too
• use it for giving students information about campus groups/housing
• when will Mudd start asking this as well?
• we should start reporting statistics in our literature and brochures
• always say we are very queer friendly, but don't advertise it
• will it be used to fulfill a diversity quota?
• Affirmative action? Thoughts?
• necessary. not the best solution but best we have
• need small community at a school to attract others from that community
• LGBTQ will be treated similarly soon?
• Iowa recently passed gay marriage
• Boeing, which has offices in a state that just passed gay marriage (Seattle, WA?), refuses to extend benefits to same sex couples :(

Meeting Minutes

11/9 - Politics (After the Election)

• First lesbian senator - Tammy Baldwin
• 2 LGBTQ* in House of Representatives
• France's Cabinet approved gay marriage, waiting on final decision though
• 16 yrs ago, supporting gay rights would hurt a campaign, now it seems to be a reason that people voted for Obama
• Some Republican candidates: "Rape is a sign of god." Glad most of them did not win. 
• Demographics changing - targeting older white men is not good enough to win the election anymore (Republican strategy)
• New Hampshire has a transgender senator
• Colorado has a gay state senator
• CA has super majority in state level for Democrats 
• Porn stars in LA must wear condoms - passed :O

11/2 - Queer Representation in Politics

• Chance and Kevin had lunch with QRC and other leaders of queer groups
• Calendar with all queer events being created
• Workshop of intersectionality of various identities on 11/5 
• Wednesday 11/7 - Mental Health at QRC from 5-6:30pm
• 11/8 - Documentary reading 4-5:30pm
• Queer Men's Social 7:30-9:30pm
• Queer representation in politics
• pretty high government positions are filled by LGBTQQIA folk
• as long as you're openly out, your job is safe
• only care if you're not out - blackmailing material
• all states have had LGBTQQIA representatives
• however, no governor, senator, or president
• Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin running (lesbian)
• Replican gay man in San Diego running for a position - has decided not to make his sexuality an issue to run on
• Is this good or bad for the queer community? 
• Should queer issues be brought up more in politics?
• Is it better for elected positions to champion queer issues or be queer themselves?
• Ideally both
• Victory Fund - gives money to identifying runners if they are within 10% of winning a race

10/19 - How are your experiences at Mudd so far?

• Right before fall break, so how is everyone doing so far? 
• Any good movie suggestions?
• Surprise guest - Arturo, gay activist from Columbia, doing his PhD in the Claremont Colleges
• In big cities in Columbia, they have a lot more rights than America
• civil unions that are almost equivalent to marriage
• currently fighting for adoption rights
• Other areas are still extremely conservative though, especially rural areas 
• Trans* rights are a lot worse off