Last semester, WSU’s Spectrum: LGBTQ & Allies ushered in a new executive board of mainly freshman and sophomore students. In the spirit of their fresh start, they decided to regroup and take some time to transform their “safe space” into a “brave space.”
Ruby Godsey is a freshman studying political science. She is in charge of campus outreach on Spectrum’s executive board and thinks the new vision for Spectrum will allow their members to have tougher conversations in a space they are already comfortable with.
“The goal with the ‘brave space’ is to push the limits a little bit,” Godsey said. “To, you know, engage head-on with those kinds of uncomfortable conversations because we believe that’s more effective, being an agency at WSU, and a demographic of people that have been very targeted by legislation recently.”
Spectrum has already implemented this new vision into their weekly meetings, held every Thursday at 7 p.m., by hosting informational meetings about subjects like the “ins and outs” of issues within the LGBTQ+ community.
Spectrum’s goal is to find a good balance between having more serious conversations and cultivating an environment where members feel close enough to have them in the first place.
“I know a lot of people are probably seeking a more comfortable, fun environment, which I think is completely fair and valid,” Godsey said. “We’re looking at more intentionally balancing them out. So like, last week we had ‘Just Dance’ and this week is ‘state of the world’ (for our meeting themes).”
Freshman education major and member of Spectrum, Moe Hatfield, highlighted how the executive board has managed to integrate more serious themes into a fun space.
“There was (a meeting) about aromantic identities, and it was set up as a quiz thing,” Hatfield said. “We were quizzing ourselves on what knowledge we already knew. And then afterward, we went through it and kind of explained things, and they gave people a chance to explain their own relation to those identities.”
Starting this semester, Spectrum has also begun executing conversation-based meetings, rather than meetings focusing solely on networking.
“We believe that, as college students, we’re all adults,” Godsey said. “We are capable of having these highly intellectual conversations with each other, having disagreements, working them out, doing those sorts of things.”
This idea came about largely in part due to the recent spotlight on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Some lawmakers are looking to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. More locally, Kansas Senate Bill 63, a bill that limits gender-affirming care for minors, passed.
“I think mostly it’ll just give people a space to express their worries, but then also get people rationalizing those things,” Hatfield said.
Hatfield called attention to the importance of understanding the legal process.
“There are a lot of steps, and also, people are going to be on our side every step of the way. It’s not likely that any of those things are going to move quickly at all,” Hatfield said.
In light of these events, Spectrum has also teamed up with WSU’s Hispanic American Leadership Organization (HALO) and the Black Student Union (BSU) for a few of their meetings.
During their combined meeting with BSU, they did an activity called the “beads of privilege” where participants got paper stars that corresponded with the types of privilege people can experience like gender, race or economic privilege.
“It was kind of just recognizing how, even though we are both two groups that are oppressed, we both have some differences in privilege and intersectionality. There were definitely a lot of good conversations during that meeting,” Hatfield said.
Godsey and Hatfield said that regardless of recent events, Spectrum only plans to grow and evolve.
“We’re trying to be really present on campus and just show queer people exist everywhere and not just in this designated box,” Godsey said.
Godsey said that, as of right now, there are no policies that threaten Spectrum’s existence on campus. But even if that were to change, queer and transgender individuals aren’t going anywhere.
“No matter how much legislation is passed,” Godsey said. “You can’t erase us.”
