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• It's been a year since DADT was repealed, so now academies have a lot of LGBT students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 

Minutes 10/12

• Discussing funding of bringing S. Bergman to campus. Nobody has our account number apparently.
• Talking about wearing our Gay: Fine by Me Shirts to the Taylor Swift concert
• We have a new shipment of the shirt at OID
• Including smalls!
• We need to access OID over the weekend so people can pick them up?
• Send out a students-l email.
• What is the nature of activism?
• Would wearing our Gay: Fine by Me t-shirts be activism?
• Is it too passive to qualify?
• What is a clear example of activism?
• The Hey Hetero! campaign from 2 years ago, potentially?
• Got people thinking.
• Definitely provoked a response.
• In retrospect, considered somewhat successful, but could have gone better.
• Well-recieved by prospective students.
• Made some feel uncomfortable.
• Made a few feel threatened.
• Kevin McSwiggin: a friend had 500 posters of a renaissance statue in a bright, tight-fitting ski outfit.
• What are the goals of activism?
• Raising awareness
• Change opinions
• How does queer-friendliness relate to schools?
• The attitude of a school towards queer issues is not as well advertised as other aspects of a school.
• There are religious schools that require you to sign a contract saying you will not be gay.
• College brochures often do not advertise the level of acceptance of the school.
• Not in the Harvey Mudd brochures.
• Would we want it to be? Response seems in general to be yes.
• Do we want to talk to Admissions about this?
• Though some school guides have begun to do grade schools on acceptance.
• Compiled from student surveys.
• Darbi from Pitzer introduces herself
• is studying the lives of various queer people on the 5Cs
• Cameron talks about Inner Varsity
• Inner Varsity is organizing a group of people of different faith backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities
• goal is to discuss bible passages at Saturday at 1
• Discussing people's first impressions of Mudd
• Google's primary image of Mudd is of West
• People's first visits to campus were kind of underwhelming
• Miranda: "The dorms are like motels from 60's horror movies"
• Beginning of queer activism and queer community
• Chance explains the Stonewall riots

Minutes 9/28 and 10/4

9/28 - Coming out and family/friends

• Greg Rae, alumnus, board member, and one of the founders of PRISM, and his partner Tyrus joined us for the meeting. Some things we talked to him about:
• PRISM (People Respecting Individuals' Sexualities at Mudd, now just Prism) was founded  because the only big queer groups on the 5Cs before were the QRC and QQS (Queer and Questioning Students). QQS was primarily for people already out as queer or questioning, so some were unable to join. Also, Mudders were taking over this organization, so they needed their own club.
• Middle School Dance is on 9/29 at 10pm in Edmund's Ballroom
• QRC run event, good DJ, nonalcoholic (but you don't have to be sober to attend)
• Rohitashwa brought the play "Just in Love" to our attention
• If people are interested, we can plan an event
• Occurs regularly on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays (I think - double check me on that!)
• Topic of the week: Coming out and family/friends
• Easier telling parents than grandparents often, but depends on the people of course
• Should we consider how people will take it before telling people?
• Most people said yes, that it would not be beneficial in some cases to bring it up.
• Does age make a difference?
• Somewhat. Again, depends upon the actual people
• Friends? Facebook?
• More people should put things on Facebook, it's helpful. Also misleading, however.
• Lots of times people don't give a big deal reaction, even when you want one
• Sometimes better to be out in some places, but not in others

10/4 - Queer Culture and Art

• Funding request about bringing a S. Bear Bergman, a transgender author, to the 5Cs
• Wiki description: "S. Bear Bergman ... is a transgender author, poet, playwright, and theater artist. Bergman identifies as neither male nor female and prefers pronouns 'ze' and 'hir.' "
• Will be a lecture/performance about the Origin of Transgender and Chanukah
• Held by a variety of groups, including QRC and Claremont Hillel
• It will be taking the place of the regular Shabbat Dinner held by Claremont Hillel 
• Event will be taking place sometime between National Transgender Day and Chanukah
• There is interest from members of Prism! Yay! 
• Requesting $100 for transportation, etc. 
• Request granted! Need someone to front the money. 
• National Coming Out Day
• Traditionally, we hold a panel of students, faculty,  and staff that range from people who themselves identify as queer to parents/family/friends of someone who is queer. 
• Talk to Angelica about doing something
• We should try to do something this year. Try for a panel otherwise we can do a general discussion open to students, faculty, and staff
• Try to rent out the Aviation room or another room during lunch
• This meeting's topic: Queer Culture in Art (other than media)
• Is queer art everything a queer person creates? Does it need to be queer themed?
• Erica Moen, author of webcomic Dar! (www.darcomic.org) writes about her sexuality and how its changing. 
• Lambda Literary Awards (celebrating LGBT literature) allow queer authors to win, even if not queer content
• Some people talked about how drawing heterosexual people as a queer person feels more "queer" because it's something they don't identify with.
• Popular items being interpreted or performed by queer people = queer art? 
• Drag shows = queer art, even though they're for entertainment purposes only? 
• Resolution - none of the present Prism members are going to be art majors. :P
• Running out of topics for the meetings! Suggest more!

Meeting Minutes - 9/14

9/14 - Depiction of Queer Characters in Media

• A survey will be sent out soon regarding preferred meeting times
• Movie tonight at 8pm! Fantastic Mr. Fox in Galileo! Snacks will be provided!
• Any other movie ideas for the future?
• Media + Queer characters:
• True Blood, Desperate Housewives, Glee, Modern Family, Torchwood, Greek, Dance Academy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Teen Wolf
• Glee is very fixed on dichotomy of gay or straight, no in between
• Often, gay characters are flamboyantly so. This may be to make it obvious without outright saying their sexual orientation
• Greek has a non flamboyant gay character; Teen Wolf does a good job as well
• Degrassi has a person who is transgender
• Online: which tumblrs you follow labels you as queer
• On Starcraft, a transgender MTF was defended and supported
• Books: not many big publishers that output stories with queer characters
• Sometimes gay/lesbian characters, but nothing else
• Sci-fi also has gender swapping characters
• Is it better to have queer characters that are depicted stereotypically or not have any at all?
• Sometimes, the queer community gets angry when they are not depicted stereotypically 
• Hard to have this due to complicated scripts, etc.
• Is incorporating the fact that the character is queer into the story necessary?
• E.g. Dumbledore was mentioned after the series was written, almost. 
• People accused J.K. Rowling of making it an afterthought
• People also wondered why she had to bring it up if it wasn't relevant to the story
• Automatically assume that the queer character is then associated with the protagonist 
• A lot of the time, the fact that the character is queer is the main focus of their plot line. 

Meeting Minutes - 9/7

9/7 - What is it like being queer at Mudd?

• Prism - part support group, hold events, discussions every week this year
• Send people to the Out to Innovate Conference, Western Regional LGBTQQIAA Conference
• At Mudd, we have a very welcoming environment
• Varsity sports don't have much experience with queer students, but they're still welcoming 
• In fact, people are almost enthusiastically accepted
• Walker Wall painted rainbow colors during "Gaypril"
• Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) is a great resource - go talk to Dean Sumi!
• Holding an event for National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11th
• Erin O'Brien, an intercollegiate professor for Asian American studies, is teaching a class at Mudd this year called Queering Asian America
• She's also out and is a great resource for students
• QQAMP (Queer, Questioning, & Ally Mentor Program) is another resource that's completely confidential and lots of fun
• Apply to be a mentee or mentor online!
• People who are genderqueer are also well accepted, even in the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship group
• QRC (Queer Resource Center) - has a library, meetings 
• Open house on September 24th - Prism should walk down together
• On 6th Street near Frary Dining Hall
• Mudd is one of the more accepting schools, though none of the 5Cs are really hostile
• Family (at Scripps) is the largest queer group outside of the QRC
• Mudd students are more empathetic because we think about things more, also we don't like confrontation/conflict
• Also a lot of queer faculty members - Prof. Bernoff, Prof. Dyson, Prof. Yong, Dean Guy
• What does Prism do on a day to day basis?
• This year, we're going to have discussions every week, especially to get more information and break us out of the "Mudd bubble"
• We plan events occasionally
• Have fun/chill, and build community
• Prism shirts are available! And if you have an idea, submit it to Chance/Kevin!
• More Gay? Fine by me! shirts are being ordered!
• Also tell the prezzies about speaker ideas!
• A survey will be sent out with preferred meeting times