LGBT

Dear Straight People poetry slam draws upon important, emotional topics
By Rawan Ashoor
October 29, 2015 - 5:10pm
The LGBT Resource Center hosted four poets at "Dear Straight People," the keynote event for Coming Out Month.

“Dear Straight People: Congratulations, we made it to 2015 without having this conversation,” Yazmin Monet Watkins said in front of a lively audience that snapped and cheered at Hendricks Chapel on Tuesday night.

Changing her body to match her gender
By Christine Rushton
October 29, 2014 - 3:58pm
Freshman Dez Rivas plans to undergo surgery to alter her male physical appearance to fit her female identity.

Several trips to the doctor and weeks of shooting hip pain revealed a harsh reality: with surgery comes risk for some transgender people.

Dez Rivas, 20, endured the sharp pain in her infected hip after her body rejected a liposuction treatment. She wanted to add feminine curves without artificial implants.

Instead, she lost 75 percent of the fat moved in the procedure.

“The pain is starting to going away progressively, but I was still in pain when I went back in August for work,” Dez said. “Even to this day I still get little pains where the scars are.”

Taking a chance at truth
By Christine Rushton
October 22, 2014 - 9:49pm
She struggled to understand her emotions until she came to Syracuse University and learned about the transgender community.

Hiding an identity from friends and family takes strategy; it takes giving up a certainty to live in safety, one Syracuse University student said.

“The easiest way I think to hide something is to get very close to the truth, but just turn slightly,” she said, identifying as a transgender student on campus.

The 20-year-old student — who asked not to be named for safety reasons — left her hometown in Franklin, Mass., to study English and illustration at SU. Two years in, she realized her male body didn’t reflect her female personality.

Delta Lambda Phi fraternity for gay, bisexual and progressive men recolonizes at SU
By Tamara Rasamny
October 15, 2014 - 11:49pm
The fraternity disbanded in 2010 after originally coming to campus in 2004.

When Ivan Rosales-Robles went through the rush process during his first year at Syracuse University, he didn’t feel like the fraternities were for him. But when Robles heard about Delta Lambda Phi, a social fraternity for gay, bisexual and progressive men, he said he found a great outlet on campus.

“It’s a nice group of people I can go and hang out with, spend time with, and feel comfortable with,” said Robles, the current president of the fraternity.  “And I think that’s a great outlet to have.”

Putting down the mask
By Christine Rushton
October 15, 2014 - 11:52am
One Syracuse University student finds truth in his identity as transgender.

Note from the writer:

October marks national LGBT History Month and observes National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11. As a reporter for The NewsHouse, I reached out to transgender students to help our community at SU better understand what gender identity means for our colleagues regardless of appearance. Each of the three students I worked with shared their personality and passions with me, and now wish to share them with our NewsHouse readers. Follow the profile series on Oct. 15, 22 and 29.
Students speak out in open discussion, offer thoughts on viral video
By Irfan Uraizee
September 12, 2014 - 5:56pm
More than 100 students joined Friday's forum on the issues of race and identity at Syracuse University.

Taryne Chatman admitted he sometimes has trouble saying exactly what he wants to say. But when he tried to come to terms with the hate speech heard in a viral video circulating across campus, he was left speechless. That is -- until he turned his thoughts into poetry.

"I mean you know it's spelled. Starts with an 'N' ends with 'er.' Man-made manifestations that remind us, that our history ain't too far," Chatman recited.

Hate Expires at second annual LGBTQ conference
By Hani Taha
April 16, 2013 - 1:01pm
The second annual LGBT conference at SU focused on important issues like bullying, HIV and providing support to the LGBT community but what it did crucially well was demonstrate the separation of church and hate.

There were just a handful of people at the second annual Life Gets Better Together Conference this weekend at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, which is telling about the polar attitudes towards LGBT issues in the country.

Currently only 9 out of the 52 states within North America have authorized same sex marriage and the last two weeks saw the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition Eight being hotly contested in California courts.

Author Dean Spade speaks about gender and social issues
By Jingnan Li
April 2, 2013 - 1:19pm
Dean Spade,writer and associate professor of law at Seattle University, spoke on campus Monday about the intertwined issues of gender and other social issues.

Dean Spade stood behind a platform at Watson Theater Monday night to educate the campus community on gender issues intertwined with other social issues, such as poverty, racism and immigration.

Spade is an associate professor of law at Seattle University, teaching administrative law, poverty law, and law and social movements. Also as a lawyer, writer and transgender activist, he gives speeches to different universities on sexual orientation, gender identity and poverty. He mainly focuses on civil rights of LGBT group and people of color.

Life in (Trans)ition
By Emily Pompelia
April 10, 2012 - 1:27pm
A student, a friend, an architect ... and a transgender, Bryan McKinney opens up about his transition experience.

Bryan McKinney is a fourth-year architecture student at Syracuse University. He holds a job at Shaw Dining Hall and is involved in organizations on campus. And he is transgender.

“Defining my gender’s always tough,” McKinney said. “Just a one word answer, it would be male, but that doesn't wholly sit right with me because that denies my history.”

Since he has been at SU, McKinney has been an active member of the LGBTQ community.