Rally to occur on College Green on Friday to increase visibility of issues and injustices in the LGBTQ community.
Rates of suicide are increasingly higher for LGBTQ youth than non-LGBTQ youth, according to The Trevor Project.
Other injustices for queer and trans individuals are still problems in this country, and the LGBT Center wants to rally in solidarity to correct these prejudices.
On Friday at 4 p.m., the LGBT Center and individuals are gathering at College Green by the Civil War Monument. Beforehand at 3 p.m., the center also will be hosting a workshop to make posters to use during the rally.
Delfin Bautista, director of the LGBT Center, said this an opportunity to come together in support of those who have lost their lives and those who are still fighting.
“It puts names and faces on this movement as well as showing the resiliency of the community and that there are folks who…have suffered, who have gone through different challenges and have been rejected and they’re here,” Bautista said. “Life isn’t perfect but they’re fighting.”
Over winter break, Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen from a town north of Cincinnati, committed suicide by stepping in front of traffic on a highway.
In Leelah’s suicide note that was posted on Tumblr, she talked about her inability to live her life to the fullest, her parent’s disapproval and not accepting of her life.
Rallies and vigils took place all over the country for Leelah, and the LGBT Center advertised resources such the Trevor Project, Trans Lifeline, Counseling and Psychological Services and the Ohio University Survivor Advocacy Program, Bautista said.
“We don’t know if people took advantage of those resources,” Bautista said. “I did see, especially on Twitter, that many things were retweeted and so hopefully people got what they needed. And if it didn’t seem that it was a need at the time, hopefully they can have it in their back pocket.”
Issues of injustice do not exist within one realm of identity. Four trans women have been murdered in the past year in Ohio, Bautista said, and just this week in the United States, two queer individuals were killed in police-related incidents. Simply existing in public spaces can be dangerous for LGBTQ individuals and for Ohio University student’s issues arise when the preferred name policy is not full effect, Bautista added.
“It’s an opportunity to call upon folks to raise awareness about queer and trans injustice as well as some concrete things the university can do, like implementing the preferred name policy,” Bautista said.
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