In celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month (October), we are shining a spotlight on the students, alumni and faculty within the College who are making a difference in LGBTQ+ communities by advocating for change and elevating diverse voices.
Celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month in CCI
Former Student Uses Media, Communication Skills to Advocate for LGBTQ+ Issues Behind the Scenes
Rebecca (who asked that their last name not be disclosed) studied journalism at Kent State in the late 90s and early 00s and recently shared their story as part of LGBTQ+ History Month.
Rebecca entered Kent State as an architecture major in 1998, but they found themself spending more time creating designs and illustrations for Kent State Student Media publications in Taylor Hall than in the architecture studios on the building’s fourth floor. So, they switched their major to journalism, gaining a vast amount of experience in a short time.
“I got to experience some incredible things,” they said. “I was able to start my own comic strip. I was able to do my own reporting. I covered the 2004 presidential election ... I was able to lead cultural magazines and actually help develop messaging for the local art scene. I was on the staff of several magazines.”
Despite the good, at the time, Kent State did not have the support for LGBTQ+ students, faculty and staff that it does today. And as a trans woman, Rebecca experienced a hostile environment, including an assault which eventually led to their decision to leave the university.
“It was a hostile environment,” they said, “and what I’ve put forth in every job I’ve had is to reduce the suffering of my community.”
Today, they use what they learned at Kent State to advocate for trans issues. Based in Chicago, Rebecca has been able to connect with LGBTQ+ podcasters and other small organizations to set up Twitch channels to elevate their voices and develop media management plans to help sell products to advertisers — “doing a lot of the heavy lifting so they can focus on the front-end work,” Rebecca says. That’s one of the things that has stuck with Rebecca since their days at Kent State: “It takes a lot of bodies for that face (on TV) to do the work.”
As a behind-the-scenes player in LGBTQ+ issues, the work is real, hard and tiring, Rebecca says, and the only reward so far is that “the floodwaters stay far enough back for another day.” They currently are focused on making phone calls and organizing communities to fight Ohio House Bill 454, which would prohibit offering minors any kind of gender affirming treatment.
Rebecca encourages today’s media, communication and design students to stick up for themselves and the truth in this era of rampant disinformation. In doing so, they can help ensure better representation of voices for LGBTQ+ communities
“You learned how to access the actual truth,” they said. “Do your research. Go forward. be an advocate. Edward R. Murrow did not roll over for lies. He was an advocate. He stood against people telling lies and the falsehoods that underlaid them. The biggest thing is to stand up for yourself.”
POSTED: Saturday, October 30, 2021 02:32 PM
UPDATED: Saturday, December 03, 2022 01:02 AM
In celebration of National LGBTQ+ History Month, we are shining a spotlight on MDJ’s Queer Cinema course taught by Assistant Professor of Media and Journalism and Communication Studies, Dr. Karisa Butler-Wall. The course focuses on queer filmmaking and spectatorship as a critical practice that reflects shifting understandings of gender and sexual nonnormatively across space and time.
“From classical Hollywood cinema to contemporary independent and documentary filmmaking, this class examines how particular historical and cultural moments, geographical spaces, and political contexts have shaped the conditions for representations of queerness on screen,” Butler-Wall says.
The course allows students the chance to learn to critically analyze and discuss queer films from a queer theoretical point of view. They focus on how gender and sexuality intersect with other categories of power including race, class, and citizenship. Some films highlighted in the course are The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Two Spirits (2010), and Moonlight (2016).
Butler-Wall says that Queer Cinema allows students to actively engage with questions of identity, representation, performance, and activism from an interceptional perspective.
“Film is one of the most impactful mediums that has the power to shape our understandings of identity and culture, and for marginalized populations it can be a tool of oppression or of liberation.”
Rebecca (who asked that their last name not be disclosed) studied journalism at Kent State in the late 90s and early 00s and recently shared their story as part of LGBTQ+ History Month.
Rebecca entered Kent State as an architecture major in 1998, but they found themself spending more time creating designs and illustrations for Kent State Student Media publications in Taylor Hall than in the architecture studios on the building’s fourth floor. So, they switched their major to journalism, gaining a vast amount of experience in a short time.
“I got to experience some incredible things,” they said. “I was able to start my own comic strip. I was able to do my own reporting. I covered the 2004 presidential election ... I was able to lead cultural magazines and actually help develop messaging for the local art scene. I was on the staff of several magazines.”
Despite the good, at the time, Kent State did not have the support for LGBTQ+ students, faculty and staff that it does today. And as a trans woman, Rebecca experienced a hostile environment, including an assault which eventually led to their decision to leave the university.
“It was a hostile environment,” they said, “and what I’ve put forth in every job I’ve had is to reduce the suffering of my community.”
Today, they use what they learned at Kent State to advocate for trans issues. Based in Chicago, Rebecca has been able to connect with LGBTQ+ podcasters and other small organizations to set up Twitch channels to elevate their voices and develop media management plans to help sell products to advertisers — “doing a lot of the heavy lifting so they can focus on the front-end work,” Rebecca says. That’s one of the things that has stuck with Rebecca since their days at Kent State: “It takes a lot of bodies for that face (on TV) to do the work.”
As a behind-the-scenes player in LGBTQ+ issues, the work is real, hard and tiring, Rebecca says, and the only reward so far is that “the floodwaters stay far enough back for another day.” They currently are focused on making phone calls and organizing communities to fight Ohio House Bill 454, which would prohibit offering minors any kind of gender affirming treatment.
Rebecca encourages today’s media, communication and design students to stick up for themselves and the truth in this era of rampant disinformation. In doing so, they can help ensure better representation of voices for LGBTQ+ communities
“You learned how to access the actual truth,” they said. “Do your research. Go forward. be an advocate. Edward R. Murrow did not roll over for lies. He was an advocate. He stood against people telling lies and the falsehoods that underlaid them. The biggest thing is to stand up for yourself.”