The
Lounge offers more than just a place to unwind
By Angela O’Brien
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
Cal State Long Beach’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center,
also known as the Lounge has offered help to students and provide a place to
convene on campus for over 10 years.
Currently, the LGBT Resource Center offers various social events, but Program
Coordinator Efren Garcia Ramos said he is looking to add more activism and visibility
to the center’s repertoire.
“
[I want to add] more education on sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS awareness
and equal rights campaign,” she said.
As part of their campus outreach, professors can request a panel of students
from LGBT Resource Center to speak to classes. It is a question and answer session
where students may ask the panel anything they are curious about.
“
Last semester, there was one student who wrote a letter to one of the panelists
because before she didn’t understand homosexuality and she used to think
that it’s a choice,” Ramos said. “After seeing and actually
speaking to people she saw that people are just people.”
In addition to outreach, the LGBT Resource Center is working on becoming more
visible on the Cal State Long Beach campus.
Ramos said even though there is such a large gay community in Long Beach, the
Center is not as present on campus.
There are many programs and services within the LGBT Resource Center. Women’s
Rap and Men’s Rap, Rainbow Alliance and Delta Lambda Phi fraternity are
all services under the LGBT Resource Center.
Rainbow Alliance provides a fun, social environment where discussions of topics
within the LGBT community are held, said Cory Allen, president of Rainbow Alliance.
“
[We] just have a good time together and find friends we probably wouldn’t
have found otherwise in our community,” Allen said.
In conjunction with LGBT Resource Center, Rainbow Alliance is also working on
getting its name more prominent to the CSULB campus by holding social events
and tabling, Allen said.
“
It’s kind of a newer club, so not a lot of people know who we are, what
we are [and] what we do,” Allen said.
Rainbow Alliance will be starting a monthly movie night where they will be viewing
gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themed movies, Allen said.
“
We know that a lot of people can’t watch them at home or in their dorm
room because they might not be out to everyone they’re around,” Allen
said. “We want to provide an atmosphere where they can see gay films and
gay literature.”
Later this month, the LGBT Resource Center will participate in an open house
with the American Indian Student Study Center, La Raza Resource Center, African
Student Association Center, Asian Pacific Resource Center and Women’s Resource
Center.
LGBT Resource Center has the closest ties with La Raza Resource Center, Ramos
said. However, he wants to establish better connections with the other resource
centers, such as Women’s Resource Center and the Multi Cultural Center.
“
We do help each other out, but I’d like it to be more so we collaborate
on events,” Ramos said. “Instead of [just us doing] an event, and
a few people come across it, it doesn’t make much of an impact. If we collaborate
[with the other resource centers], we can make it an even bigger event and then
more people will know about it.”
Next month, the LGBT Resource Center will observe the annual Day of Silence,
a silent protest against discrimination and harassment of LGBT students on April
26. There will be a breaking of silence ceremony where Ramos hopes to get a live
band to play.
“
[Day of Silence] is a protest where if you want to show your support you wear
a lavender bandana or you vow to be silent for a certain time period or until
[a certain] time of day,” Ramos said.
The LGTB Resource Center is located in FO4-165. For more information about the
center and its programs call (562) 985-4585.
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