More than 100 students, faculty and staff members crowded into LAPC Monday night for an educational event on sexual orientation within the APU community.
The session, hosted by the Counseling Center and SGA, was one of two educational events to prepare attendees for an upcoming student summit about sexual minorities at APU. The summit will be held Wednesday, March 19, according to Christy Johnston, SGA communications director.
“The student summit will provide a conversation about sexual minorities on campus between administration and students,” said SGA multicultural senator SGA Katie Vasseur, a senior psychology major. “There are two educational events: sexual orientation and gender identity.”
According to Bill Fiala, director of the University Counseling Center, event organizers decided to host the event due to the publicity last semester about Dr. Adam Ackley. The former APU theology professor was known as Heather Clements and made national headlines when he decided to make his identity a transgender man.
Fiala led the Monday night event and started by going over rules for meeting. Attendees were required to stay polite and steer away from derogatory language such as, “That is so gay.”
Fiala gave a PowerPoint presentation that went over specific issues relating to how APU students should act and how they can accept one another and treat each other with respect.
One of his slides went over the statement of APU Student Conduct, which every prospective student signs before attending Azusa Pacific.
According to the APU Student Conduct section 9.0 “Sexual Misconduct,” students may not engage in same-sex relationships. Section 11.1, “Inappropriate Sexual Behavior,” states that the university only recognizes a marriage between a man and a woman.
Freshman psychology major Isabella Acosta said she thought the APU Student Conduct was hypocritical, but she enjoyed the event itself.
“Coming to this event I expected the speaker to tell us that we need to convert the ‘LGBTQUIA’ community,” Acosta said.
Fiala also cautioned attendees against microaggressions, which are brief, daily “indignities” that, whether intentional or not, insult a particular group. For example, he said, asking about a man’s wife and children assumes he is heterosexual.
In the middle of his presentation, Fiala passed out an “LGBTQIA terminology” quiz to test the attendees’ knowledge of terminology like “androgyny,” “cisgender,” “heteronormativity,” “intersex,” “outing” and “queer.”
Sophomore mathematics major Brittany Pollard said the quiz was her favorite part of the event.
“I had never heard of some of the terms,” Pollard said. “Honestly, taking this quiz showed me how narrow-minded I was.”
After the pop quiz, the discussion turned into how students can create “brave spaces” for one another.
“Brave spaces are spaces where we can be our true selves and authentic with one another and knowing the other person is going to honor that and not shame us or hurt us when we are being authentic with them,” Fiala said.
The second educational event, this time on gender identity, will be held Monday, March 3 at 8 p.m. in LAPC.