FOUNDERS OF LGBT STUDENTS OF COLOR GROUP
ATTEND NATIONAL SUMMIT

Rachel Robbins '05 knew that there were many students of color in the Bi-College community who were grappling with gender and sexuality issues — but their numbers weren't reflected in the membership of existing groups for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students.

"People of color have some distinctive concerns with issues of sexual identity," Robbins explains. "Sometimes it's a struggle to reconcile a cultural identity with a queer identity, and they feel that they have to choose one over another. Students might not feel comfortable discussing those issues either in an LGBT group that's predominantly white, or a group of students with similar cultural backgrounds that deals primarily with issues of race or ethnicity. So people end up being a lot more secretive than they need to be."

Last fall, Robbins began to explore the possibility of creating a new Bi-College group for LGBT students of color, and the idea was greeted with considerable interest. That was the genesis of Zami, which has already co-sponsored events with the Rainbow Alliance, a Bryn Mawr LGBT group, and with Sisterhood, a Bryn Mawr organization for African-American women.

Student organizations come and go, and the new members of Zami sought out advice about how to make the group strong, healthy and long-lived from the staff of the Office of Intercultural Affairs and from leaders of other student organizations. Then Then OIA Director Christopher MacDonald-Dennis told them about an ideal opportunity to learn about the challenges that lay ahead and strategies for addressing them: a national summit for LGBT students of color sponsored by the United States Student Association and Ohio State University.

With sponsorship from Intercultural Affairs, Robbins and Romina Gomez '05, who is also a founding member of Zami, attended the conference, which gathered more than 50 students from all around the country in Columbus, Ohio, Jan. 15 to 17. They returned inspired, with insights and practical knowledge that might otherwise take the members of Zami years to acquire.

"There was a valuable exchange between larger schools whose organizations had been around for a while and those, like ours, that were just forming," says Robbins. "They gave us the benefit of their experience, and we helped renew their enthusiasm and commitment. We gave them our fire."

"There were students from every geographical region of the United States and from a wide variety of schools — from big state schools to small liberal-arts colleges," Gomez says. "We were the only women's college represented. But it was interesting to see how many of us are dealing with the same issues, although on different scales. We're dealing with funding issues, with representation in the curriculum, and with visibility on campus — in dorm life and in student government," she observes.

Group Picture of Conference Attendees

The conference included sessions on creating and nurturing spaces for LGBT students of color, building coalitions with other student groups, increasing membership, outreach and political organizing, among other topics.

"We learned a lot of techniques and strategies for structuring time, setting goals and working toward them, being very clear about what tasks are assigned to whom, and making sure specific tasks are given to people who are able and willing to do them," Robbins says. The students returned with thick conference packets that gather much of this sort of information and advice.

"A lot of the best discussions were informal," Gomez pointed out. "They sometimes got pretty heated because people had strong opinions about these things. But we all felt such a strong bond with each other that we felt safe expressing differences of opinion. The camaraderie among all the students was great."

Says Robbins: "It was exciting to be around so many passionate people who were so active on their campuses — and to know that they'd go back and maintain that kind of momentum."

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