{"id":40229,"date":"2016-03-14T11:02:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T15:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=40229"},"modified":"2016-03-21T10:49:03","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T14:49:03","slug":"office-of-lgbtqa-affairs-making-difference-at-wright-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2016\/03\/14\/office-of-lgbtqa-affairs-making-difference-at-wright-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Office of LGBTQA Affairs making difference at Wright State"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"From<\/a>

From left: Josh Scacco, the Office of LGBTQA Affairs graduate assistant, and Petey Peterson, the first director of LGBTQA affairs at Wright State. (Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

An array of colors, plentiful resources and passionate workers can all be found in Wright State\u2019s new Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Ally (LGBTQA) Affairs<\/a> in 011 Student Union.<\/p>\n

Wright State\u2019s first director of LGBTQA affairs, Petey Peterson (pronouns: they, them, theirs), hosted an event in January that sparked enthusiasm across campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt the LAUNCH event was a great success,\u201d said Peterson, who joined Wright State last July. \u201cWe had a good turnout of about 55-plus people. We had great support from the Office of Communications, President David R. Hopkins, Kimberly Barrett, vice president of multicultural affairs and community engagement, and Rick Danals, director of student activities, and many Wright State faculty, staff and students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a full-time staff member and an official office space \u201cputs us on the same level as other departments,\u201d said Catalleya Storm (pronouns: they, them, their), the graphic design and marketing coordinator in the Office of LGBTQA Affairs. \u201cNow that there\u2019s someone on the level as other department staff … if students say something, there\u2019s more resources to feel it will actually get done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, students formed a taskforce to advocate for more space on campus for the LGBTQA community. Staff endorsements eventually included Hopkins, Barrett and Danals. \u201cI\u2019d also like to thank Student Government, who put in a resolution to accelerate the conversation,\u201d said Josh Scacco, the LGBTQA Affairs graduate assistant.<\/p>\n

\"Opened<\/a>

Opened five years ago, the Community Engagement Room is a welcoming space for Wright State students.<\/p><\/div>\n

The university has added a pair of gender-neutral bathrooms in the Student Union located across the Office of LGBTQA Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWright State is a really unique institution,\u201d said Peterson. \u201cWe\u2019re midsized, we have a lot of nontraditional-aged students, students with disabilities. There\u2019s such a diverse community here, and I wanted to be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were impressed by the amount of volunteer work and the passion students exemplify to maintain LGBTQA organization and other organizations.<\/p>\n

The Community Engagement Room has been at Wright State for five years and Rainbow Alliance, an undergraduate LGBTQA community group started by student volunteers, has been on campus for 25. TAIGA and Boonshoft Pride are newer LGBTQA community groups.<\/p>\n

The Office of LGBTQA Affairs joins three other identity-based centers in the Division of Multicultural Affairs and Community Engagement<\/a> \u2014 Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center, Asian and Native American Center and the Women\u2019s Center.<\/p>\n

One way the LGBTQA community is growing is by getting recognized at campus board meetings and by participating in events not only on campus but also in the Greater Dayton area, working with kindergarten through high school-level LGBTQA students.<\/p>\n

Peterson and Scacco are also welcoming new student staff positions to round out their staff. From helping students build their leadership skills and consulting with campus offices on LGBTQA-related education, to building LGBTQA health and wellness initiatives and collaborating will each identity center, the Office of LGBTQA Affairs never has a dull moment. In addition, the office staff meet with faculty and staff for gender-based concerns on applications, tailor lesson plans to LGBTQA students and address gender inequity.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome visit 011. If you\u2019re unsure or nervous to visit for the first time, this would be a less intimidating first way to contact us, with it just being the two of us (Scacco and Peterson) and maybe later go and hang out in the Community Engagement Room,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cI can go meet you somewhere else on campus. … There\u2019s not one way to access us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Ally Affairs and its first director, Petey Peterson, are expanding activities at Wright State. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":40231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[729,725,715,2024,4293],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-campus","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-staff","category-student-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40229"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40238,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40229\/revisions\/40238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}