[iDC] It Doesn't Just Get Better, This Is Political

[micha cárdenas]

http://occupyeverything.com/features/it-doesnt-just-get-better-this-is-political/

Last week was the first Queering the Campus Mixer at UCSD, organized by
SPACES and the Transnational Queer & Transgender Studies Research and
Curriculum Group, including a large effort from Sarah Shim. I wanted to add
a comment to the discussion in the open forum, but I left the event crying
and didn’t really feel like talking to people at that point.

Early in the conversation, the group was discussing the need they feel for
more queer and trans spaces on campus. One person in the circle, to
paraphrase, said that they feel that this campus is the most homophobic
environment they’ve ever been in. This person went on to say that they don’t
know how the rest of us manage to do it, to come here day to day and face
the coldness, the hostility, the feeling that everyone here is against you.
Going on, they said that they feel like this campus is so cold that it goes
beyond just homophobia, that everyone ignores each other, that the buildings
feel like they are against you, the air, the cement. It’s like death, they
said, this place is like death.
...

The question I want us to ask is: who feels welcome here? And why? Certainly
some people feel very welcome on this campus, from the looks of how they
walk around. I’m sure you have someone in mind who you’ve seen on campus
recently. Since the mixer, I’ve been haunted by this question, reconsidering
what I see at this school.

Read the rest at:

http://occupyeverything.com/features/it-doesnt-just-get-better-this-is-political/

-- 
micha cárdenas

Co-Author, Trans Desire / Affective Cyborgs, Atropos Press,
http://is.gd/daO00
Lecturer, Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego
Lecturer, Critical Gender Studies Program, University of California, San
Diego
Artist/Researcher, UCSD School of Medicine
Artist/Theorist, bang.lab, http://bang.calit2.net

blog: http://transreal.org

gpg: http://is.gd/ebWx9
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