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Marcus Pavilonis
10/4/2018
Despite receiving eye-rolls, Catherine Russell still brings up LGBTQ issues in her workplace to people because she thinks these issues are crucial for progress.
Ten staff members at Ohio University openly identify as LGBTQ, according to OU’s LGBT Center.
Russell, a human resources liaison, graduated from OU with a degree in organizational communication in 2013. She comes from a predominantly conservative family and identifies as a pansexual, Hispanic, Latina and cisgender woman.
Ellie Pontones | FOR THE POST
Catherine Russel poses for a portrait outside of the Human Resources and Training Center on Sept. 26, 2018.
Russell came out as bisexual in her senior year of high school because she did not know the terminology to describe her sexual orientation. She first knew she was bisexual when she realized she had feelings for different genders.
As a student at OU, she did not spend a lot of time in the LGBT Center or Women’s Center because she was a commuter who worked 40 hours every week. She first heard about the two centers from the Campus Involvement Center, and she now frequents both as an OU staff member. It was an eye-opening moment for her when she first learned the word “pansexual.”
Russell said people often question her identity as a member of LGBTQ community because she married a cisgender man she met in college.
On the day of her marriage, her close friend, who identifies as queer and nonbinary, said, “Aren’t you so happy that you don’t have to deal with this anymore because now you are straight?” The comment left Russell upset.
“Identity is not just this temporary status bound by time and situation, but it really can be long-lasting and permanent,” she said.
Russell said she has privilege despite her intersectionalities because she looks like a white woman. However, she also said that looks can be deceiving. Due to her white resemblance, she said others question her belonging at Latinx and other Hispanic events.
“I don’t look like the way I identify,” Russell said.
As a member of a recruitment and retention strategy workgroup, Russell looks at retention rates from the perspectives of diversity and inclusion.
“It takes people in positions of power and privilege supporting that,” she said.
Russell likes to surround herself with people who are supportive and more progressive, instead of people who reassess Russell after she tells them she identifies as a pansexual Latina.
Dale Masel, department chair of industrial and systems engineering, however, has not experienced any specific form of microaggression when he tells people he identifies as gay.
Masel first knew he was gay in high school. He initially thought it was a phase and he would get over it; he accepted it in his junior year of college. He later came out as a graduate student at Penn State in 1994. It was a stressful event for him, as he feared people would judge his identity back home.
As a professor of industrial and systems engineering, Masel thinks OU does a lot to support a vast majority of LGBTQ people. However, he thinks there are a lot more staff members at OU who openly identify as LGBTQ but are unknown to the LGBT Center because some choose to not disclose their personal information.
“People are private,” Masel said.
Charlotte Connolly, a junior studying geography, said she knows many students on campus who identify as LGBTQ but does not know of many staff and faculty members.
She said that staff and faculty members may often choose to not come out because they are afraid to be judged by their colleagues and students.
“People would look at them differently from what they did previously,” Connolly said.
Russell said she still encounters microaggressions on some days but is still impressed that OU tries to build an inclusive environment for everyone. She said that people who make hateful and homophobic comments have not necessarily changed over the years. The society, however, does react to it differently now.
“There is still work to be done,” she said. “There is a lot of work to be done.”
Correction: A previous version of this report misinterpreted Russell and incorrectly stated the workgroup she is part of. The article has been updated to reflect the most accurate information.
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