From: Out in STEM Date: October 11, 2023 Subject: GMM This Friday + Drag Race Utopia
Queers Read This!
what would you do if when you ok so he said yes would go? [reply]
Hi, *$@*#! This week your lovely Supreme, aka Club President Ellie will be writing your email. Why? Bc it’s Kevin’s birthday today!!! Everyone who does not personally wish them a happy birthday will be barred from all future oSTEM events…I’m just kidding, maybe. Anywho, Rochester weather is finally upon us. While we all dig out our sweaters from the depths of our dollhouse-sized wardrobes (no bc fr how could the university expect me to fit all my clothes in those things) please remember to practice some self-care as homework and midterms stack up. In this email, we will cover some upcoming events, updates for this week's GMM, and our final E-Board Takeover of our In The News section, written by the lovely Leyla!
This Week
Join us this Friday (October 13) for our third general member meeting from 5-6 pm at Douglass 407! We’ll discuss the upcoming O4UE conference, give updates on oSTEM conference planning, and discuss our upcoming HPO collab event. Bring a friend or opp!
Coming Up
Updates
- oSTEM E-Board Instagram Takeovers: October 19 - 22
Next week, all of your favorite E-Board members will be attending the Out for Undergrad Engineering Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota! For Kevin and Ellie, this is their second year attending, and it is Leila and Katie’s first year! Out for Undergrad is an unforgettable experience that we hope every oSTEM member gets the chance to experience at some point in their lives. In case you’re not quite sure it’s for you, or want to hear more about it, our E-Board members will be doing takeovers of our Instagram story! Each member will be giving you the ins and outs of each day at the conference, giving you a sneak peek of all the amazing events and workshops that make up the weekend. Be sure to follow our Instagram page to make sure that you don’t miss out!
oSTEM
- Website
Browse through our CCC website to take advantage of our compiled Resources & Opportunities (scholarships, conferences, etc.), read more about our iconic E-Board, and find other general oSTEM links. The website is regularly updated, if you spot any issues or know of an R&O we haven’t included, our Feedback Form is always open!
University
- National Coming Out Day Speaker: Today @ 7:30 pm
Our friends at BIC are celebrating National Coming Out Day by hosting Miles Perry today at the Feldman Ballroom (2nd floor of Douglass Commons) from 7:30 - 8:30 pm. Register here.
Miles is a University of Rochester alum best known for being an HIV activist who is an Afrocentric and SEX-positive community catalyst. Miles will share his story from fundamentally shifting the LGBTQ landscape here at Rochester to the importance of pleasure-based approaches to sexual health. Miles will also discuss spearheading a groundbreaking capstone project during his time as a Health Literacy Fellow titled "Beyond Status," which focuses on assisting Black queer individuals in making informed decisions regarding PrEP, showcasing his commitment to health equity and advocacy. - LGBTQ+ Half-day Mindfulness Retreat: October 21, 2023
Join the University’s queer-centered retreat of shared experience and support, following the practices in A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation by Jacoby Ballard, and develop mindfulness skills for stress reduction and relaxation. The retreat takes place Saturday, October 21, from 12 - 4 pm via Zoom, register here.
Outside
- Point Flagship Scholarship: Applications due December 5, 2023 @ 12 pm EST
The Point Foundation’s Flagship Scholarship is open to LGBTQ+ current college students of all levels, offering up to four years of financial support, leadership programming, mentorship, and community support. Read more and apply here. - Point BIPOC Scholarship: Applications due October 19, 2023 @ 12 pm EST
The Point Foundation’s BIPOC Scholarship is also open to current college students of all levels who identify as both BIPOC and LGBTQ+ for up to $1.5k in funding. Application factors considered include financial need, personal history, academic achievement, and community service history. Read more and apply here.
Note: Both Point scholarships require you to be “out” as a person who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
In The News: Leyla's Week
Hi everypony!! ^_^ It’s Leila, your lovely social chair, and I am here to bring some (relatively old) but positive LGBTQ+ news that keeps me feeling somewhat hopeful amidst all of the hatred going around. With midterms, work, and Life™ happening, I think we could all use some positivity (I certainly need it T_T …).
• Arkansas Federal Judge Strikes Down Anti-Trans Law:Official Court Statement
As someone from Florida, I received my fair share of awful news concerning anti-LGBTQ+ bills, such as the Don’t Say Gay law, a bathroom law based on sex, and even witnessing friends lose access to hormone replacement therapy (HRT). While I am lucky enough to not feel the need to use it, I was still scared for my future, as well as the future of those I love.
This is where Dylan Brandt et al. v. Leslie Rutledge et al. comes into play in saving me from my woes. In the summer of 2022, I had received word about a federal court blocking an anti-trans law from taking effect in Arkansas, with most of the official statement being used to finally refute popular anti-trans arguments. Some of the most impactful statements made regarded:
Allowing minors to use hormone therapy so long as it aligned with their sex (i.e. being assigned male at birth means testosterone injections or breast-removal surgery are allowed, but being assigned female at birth and doing this would be “disrupting normal development” [7]) is indeed discrimination on the basis of sex.
There are legitimate studies that have shown the positive effects of HRT “on the mental health, suicidality, and quality of life of adolescents with gender dysphoria” [9], and that for this law to try and block access to this life-saving treatment would mean to block an internationally “recognized standard of care.”
The anti-trans law has no true interest in protecting the children.
Being denied access to HRT, especially in the case of the minor Plaintiff, can and will cause irreparable harm.
Many of these anti-trans arguments have been said time and time again, but to see them being refuted by a government power brings some hope that not everyone is entirely against us. With that being said, love and peace to all of y’all, and stay safe (until our next meeting at least)!! <3
Performing Gender (Part III): Drag Race Utopia
“Drag breaks the fourth wall, which is why it’s never been quite accepted, because nobody wants to be told that they are really a caricature of themself and to not take yourself too seriously.”
Part I of our Performing Gender highlight broke down ballroom culture, looking at the roots of performance drag, and contextualizing the surrounding violence that ballroom offered an escape from. It also evaluated the utility of performance drag and its employment of gender subversion through Sex, Drag, and Male Roles: Investigating Gender as Performance by Diane Torr and Stephen Bottoms. Part II looked at camp as a queer survival coping strategy in the midst of the HIV/AIDS epidemic decimating queer populations. It also followed Moe Meyer’s The Politics and Poetics of Camp and his critique of Susan Sontag’s sanitization and reduction of camp through Notes on Camp, describing it as a mere esoteric form of expression disconnected from queer, nonnormative roots.
875 words later, we are ready to talk RuPaul’s Drag Race! RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR) is a reality TV competition show aiming to find “America’s Next Drag Superstar” through a series of challenges geared to test the queen’s sewing, acting, comedy, and make-up skills (among others). Standing at 27 Primetime Emmy Awards, with its host, RuPaul now the
recordholder for most Emmy wins by a POC, the show has broken into the mainstream making its legacy and influence important to dissect.
RPDR has brought exclusively-queer spaces into the spotlight and allowed for the visibility of a variety of gender expressions/sexualities. Its success and expansion to 15 international adaptations have proven the mainstream’s longstanding interest/dependence on queer culture-only this time actually acknowledging and celebrating queer existence/contributions. The safe haven and escape that Ballroom provided in housing drag is now accessible through the powerhouse that Drag Race has become. Previously suppressed stories, like those in Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, are finally being embraced and its culture accredited.
However, Drag Race is not a drag monolith in a queer utopia. While Drag Race has become a vessel for queer representation, its potential for even further change is immense.
While I’d love to go into these residual areas of growth, I have to push it off to Part IV (probably next month) so this newsletter doesn’t break the record for longest student org correspondence in UR history (if it hasn’t already). Also yeah it’s my birthday, wtv. Next week, look forward to a Halloween-themed highlight!
