The following statement was jointly crafted by UMBC's Counseling Center, University Health Services, Campus Life’s Mosaic, Interfaith, and Pride Centers, and Women’s Center
We celebrate the monumental ruling from the Supreme Court on June 15, 2020 that upholds protections for the LGBTQ+ community against discrimination in the workplace. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination on the basis of sex is prohibited and this ruling declares that this includes discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
At the same time, we are deeply troubled by new Federal guidelines that place limitations on non-discrimination protections in healthcare by removing the inclusion of transgender and gender non-binary (TGNB) individuals. We are troubled not only by the ruling, but also the fact that these decisions were made during Pride Month, on the fourth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre, and in the midst of both a global pandemic and a movement to defend and affirm Black lives.
The erasure of these healthcare rights for TGNB people can significantly impact their access to health insurance, resources, and providers, making it more likely for them to experience inequities and unfair treatment in healthcare. Moreover, these guidelines do not align with UMBC’s commitment to inclusive excellence. We feel it is essential to reaffirm our support of the trans and non-binary communities at UMBC.
We want to assure our UMBC community that, regardless of this change at the federal level, Maryland state law protects healthcare access (including insurance coverage) for transgender and gender non-binary people. Other states may not have the same protections. UMBC students who have out-of-state health insurance that might not be as inclusive can select our student health insurance to be covered in Maryland.
The Counseling Center and University Health Services are available for questions, support, and guidance around getting your healthcare needs addressed in an inclusive and affirming manner. The Women's Center and Campus Life’s Mosaic, Interfaith, and Pride Centers will also continue to hold steadfast in our commitment to providing support services and educational programs, and will advocate for trans and non-binary community members' well-being and belonging.
Your identities are valid. Always. You are deserving of equitable and affirming care. Always.
We see you. We believe you. You matter. Always.
We also offer the following non-exhaustive list of local resources as options for affirming care in the areas of physical and mental health, legal support, housing and food security, and community advocacy:
Center for Black Equity (LGBTQ Focus)
On Campus Resources Include:
Counseling Center: The Trans Support Group is a group for transgender, non-binary, gender nonconforming, and gender questioning students. The group is discussion based with topics based on group consensus, with flexibility to explore current issues faced by group members. Look out for recorded webinars based on the Trans Support Group as well as news regarding Trans Support Group in the Fall semester.
LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Association
LGBTQ Student Union and the Queer and Trans People of Color (QPOC) Student Org
Office of Equity and Inclusion
The Mosaic, Interfaith and Pride Centers
Women’s Center: Spectrum is a discussion group for community members who identify as trans, genderqueer, gender fluid, outside of the gender binary, and/or those who are questioning their gender identity. Spectrum will begin meeting virtually again in the Fall. ]]>Title: I Risk My Life Each Time I Leave the House...and so Does Every Other Black Person in America.
Subtitle/Headline: A passionate analysis of the relationships between Black Americans and the police.
This post was written by Tiwa Oni ‘20, UMBC Alumnus and former Student Diversity and Inclusion Peer.
Let's start with a personal anecdote:
Yesterday, my friend asked me to help him move, so I put on my clothes: a t-shirt, a du-rag, and a pair of grey joggers (kinda dirty, a bit worn out and torn, very ugly...you get the picture). After dressing up, I thought to myself “dang I hope these aren't the pants I die in today”. The end.
Now let me explain the significance of that:
For thousands of Black Americans, deciding to go out for a walk, drive, or shopping has now become synonymous to risking one’s life, on the off chance that they will be stopped and accosted by the police. In short, every time I leave the house I am potentially picking what could be my last outfit...and looking good while doing it. Every time I tell my friends and family I am leaving the house I may be telling them my last words. Isn’t it heartbreaking to do this kind of mental gymnastics everytime and assess the risk/benefit ratio (the risk being my life) for something as simple as getting groceries? Or wearing a hoodie? Or laughing too loud? Bryan Stevenson (2019) states “New language has emerged for the noncrimes that have replaced the Black Codes: driving while black, sleeping while black, sitting in a coffee shop while black… All reflect incidents in which African-Americans were mistreated, assaulted or arrested for conduct that would be ignored if they were white”. In recent weeks “drive safely” has taken on a completely new meaning; from drive competently and avoid bad drivers to “I hope the police do not stop you for any reason today” or “I hope the police officer that encounters you isn't racist or can be merciful”. We live in an age where a violent arrest by the police is a cause for Black people to be grateful, because the alternative is us losing our lives. Comments like “at least you got out alive” have become all too common and desensitize us to the fact that being physically harassed by the police are not, and should not be, normalized.
- Okay, let’s pause. -
Do you wanna hear a joke? It's 2 a.m. and a toddler calls their mum in the room screaming “there’s a monster under my bed!”. The mum goes “oh no baby, I checked and there’s no monster...but if you want I can call the police to check for you.” and reaches for her phone to make a fake call. The kid’s face goes blank and they say “nevermind mum, I’ll take my chances with the monster.” Not funny? I’m glad you think so too.
Let me explain why:
As a society, which is to say as a group of people inhabiting the same space with similar values (e.g. freedom, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and right to own property), and as citizens of our respective states, we all pay a significant amount in taxes that, supposedly, go toward infrastructure that is meant to enrich our lives and protect society’s values. Infrastructure like roads, electric lines, and water pipes are generally enjoyed by all. Yet, the policing of our societies is not distributed equally at all. Now, I realise that the previous statement is polarising and may seem like a hyperbolized reality, but let me throw a few facts your way real quick. In this state, Maryland, “Black people comprised 29% of the Maryland population [in 2019]” but were “69% of people killed [by] police” and were “killed at five times the rates of White people” (Joycelyn Lee & Michael Robinson, 2019). According to Mapping Police Violence (2018), a research collaborative working to systematically document incidents of police killings in the United States, “Black people were more likely to be killed by police, more likely to be unarmed, and less likely to be threatening someone when killed” than all other unarmed persons killed by police; yet, police officers are rarely prosecuted for these deaths.
Now, given these facts, it is jarring how unfair the same people who invest their money into our society’s pockets to receive the same privileges are not only being refused them, but are also being attacked by them regularly. When young Black kids yell out “Fuck 12” and I hear people say “Oh you don't mean it” I cringe. Of course they do! Every week Black America has to watch their screen turn into a casket as Black people, regardless of their socioeconomic class, gender, or political stance, are being murdered by the people they pay and expect to protect them. Every evening at 7pm the news turns into a funeral procession, people see strangers that look like them humiliated and killed on camera for the world to see, knowing fully well they could be next. For Black America, the fear and hatred of police “is situated in a long history of racial violence perpetrated and permitted by law enforcement”. Black America’s experience with this long history “may heighten a sense of powerlessness to protect themselves from the threat of police violence and shape their coping responses to the traumatic stressors of witnessing or experiencing police violence and killings” (Joycelyn Lee & Michael Robinson, 2019).
So yes, many Black people would rather deal with the uncertainties of life without involving the police in their affairs, in fact by avoiding the police all together Black people are increasing their life expectancies (Santhanam, 2019).
I’ll be honest: I don’t know exactly why I wrote this blog post. I was scared and angry when I began writing this, now I am angry and scared while finishing this. There is no catharsis at the end of this blog post. No happy ending or ray of hope or prophecy of a greater future (yet), just reality summarised in a few paragraphs.
I will say this: For all my fellow Black people out there, you do not need to explain your fear or anger at the system. You do not need to validate your need for protest or your desire to want to change the system. Your experience is valid. Your experience is real. You are precious and you definitely matter!! If you are looking for words or facts to back up your debates, then feel free to refer to this piece, but lived experience can be a much better reference point.
And to the non-Black POC and White people reading this, please educate yourselves. Black people have been forced to learn through gruesome and traumatizing first-hand experiences...the least you could do is click on the links and learn. I promise you that what you find will shock you, it might even appall you enough to shed a tear, but that just shows that you are human and empathetic to the cause, and you can help make the country a better place. The first step to making this country livable for all people is to always be in a learning mindset, which is to say you are never “woke” enough on a topic and there is no such thing as the perfect ally. I implore you all to continuously check yourselves, and research ideas and philosophies that challenge your reality (after all information is always an informed google away!).
]]>LGBTQ+ PRIDE is the celebration of the lives, self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and many others (such as asexual, nonbinary, pansexual and Two Spirit) people as a social group. PRIDE, as opposed to shame and social stigma, is the predominant outlook that bolsters most LGBTQ+ rights movements.
PRIDE month is currently celebrated each year during the month of June in honor of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. Sadly, due to COVID19 many PRIDE events and festivities have been cancelled this year.
But fret not, The PRIDE Center and The Women’s Center invite you to celebrate LGBTQ+ PRIDE with us on Friday, June 26th at 8PM with our very own virtual PRIDE celebration.
Please join us for a one-hour virtual PRIDE party! All members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies are welcome. Feel free to come with your very best PRIDE outfits and swag to get your dancing, joy and resistance on!
Women of Color Collective (WOCC) provides a supportive space for women of color to come together for conversation, networking, and advocacy. WOCC will continue through the summer in holding a healing space and will center community support + solidarity and self-care for UMBC women of color.
WOCC will take place online on Tuesday June 30th, July 14th and July 28th at 4pm. The meeting link will be sent to the WoCC list-serv.If you are not on the list-serv and would like to attend this meeting, please email womenscenter@umbc.edu.
These programs follows the Women’s Center Brave Space model to provide a welcoming community and learning environment for women of color interested in cultivating visibility, advocacy, and engagement around the intersections of gender and race. The Women of Color Collective meets bi-weekly throughout the fall and spring semesters. ]]>
The following survey aims to examine the mental health needs of Queer and Trans students of color at UMBC. Any information shared will be confidential. Deidentified data (data that does not contain information about an individual’s names or email address) will be presented to selected UMBC campus staff members who have an active involvement in Queer/Trans People of Color (QTPOC)-specific support to ensure that the campus is working to provide the needed mental health services for students within this community.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Jen Martinez (pronouns: they/them) at jenm@umbc.edu.
In the spirit of #UMBCTogether, the Women’s Center is committed to providing care space for faculty and staff to truly come together as we continue remote work, distance learning, and navigating the ever-evolving context in which our lives go on.
We invite faculty and staff interested in coming together to explore various topics like grief + loss, empathy, wholeness, and showing up for others and how these experiences intersect with the necessary physical isolation of working and living through a pandemic. This care space will also be intentional in holding space to explore the ways in which these topics intersect and inform our experiences with the movement for racial justice, healing, and accountability.
In this 4-part summer series, the Women’s Center staff, along with its Advisory Board members, will carve out large and small group discussions online. Over the course of 90 minutes, all participants will begin the conversation together by exploring the topic/issue of the day. Topics may be explored through the discussion of an article, podcast, or a presentation/speaker.
Participants will then be invited to break out into smaller group discussions to dig deeper into the topic based on the social identities/roles/situations they are navigating through the pandemic. Proposed affinity groups may include Parents, Caretakers, Partnered Relationships/Cohabitation, and Singles/Independents (though we are open to other suggestions or the idea that different break-out groups may be needed for different sessions). Participants can switch groups from session to session or choose to not select a particular affinity group by selecting a heterogeneous discussion group.
After the conclusion of the small group discussion, participants will rejoin the larger group to discuss important take-aways with the goal of informing our perspectives for greater care and empathy for ourselves and others moving forward in the day and beyond.
Discussion dates and details will be posted on our myUMBC group soon with the hope to have one discussion in late June, two in July, and one in early August.
Participants will be required to RSVP via the myUMBC event post prior to the discussion taking place in order to receive a pre-discussion survey that will help us prepare for and assign the small group discussions.
Participants are not required to participate in all 4 discussions and can sign-up for discussions based on interest and availability.
Participants are encouraged to engage in whatever time frame is most accessible to them and to not view the 90-minute session as a barrier to participation.
Access to the discussion link will be sent via email to registered participants.
UMBC faculty and staff of all genders are invited to participate in this series. This summer discussion series follows the Women’s Center Brave Space model in order to create a community environment that fosters care, learning and critical discussion.