Orientation Orientation offers those with various sexual orientations a way to orient themselves on campus and in the Athens community.
It's a crash course in being an LGBTA (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Ally) student in Athens
said LGBT Center Administrative Assistant Kate Steven, who will be one of the student facilitators at the event.
Orientation Orientation is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. tonight in the LGBT Center, Baker University Center Room 354. The goal is for students of the LGBTA community to feel more comfortable on campus by acclimating to the LGBT Center and the various LGBT outlets on campus and in Athens.
It can be pretty intimidating going into the LGBT Center for the first time said LGBT Commissioner and Ally Secretary Sean Martin, the other student facilitator of tonight's event. Once they are in the door they see it's a normal place. Just a room with some couches.
Last year the event filled the room to capacity, as students in conjunction with Mickey Hart, the LGBT Center director, gave the new wave of LGBTA students a rundown of the various LGBTA groups from Open Doors, Ally and Shades to affiliated groups like Outgrads and Nontrads to Athens community groups like PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), said Steven, a senior studying community health.
The textbook version is given at the meeting: Open Doors is a social and discussion group, Ally is a programming and fundraising group and Shades is for multicultural students, Steven said.
You find your own little place where you feel comfortable
said Martin, a sophomore studying applied mathematics and political science who attended Orientation Orientation last year. I felt a lot more comfortable after (Orientation Orientation) last year. It humanizes the community
so you feel like there are others like you.
The event focuses on delivering information and sustaining discussion for all of the new LGBTA students.
I would be thrilled if people walked away with a sense of community
belonging and comfort
and a sense of what they can do here
Steven said.
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