A taxpayer-subsidized university in Wisconsin is scheduled to host a public event specifically aimed at LGBTQ+ participants who identify as being white.
“Discussion: Whiteness in Queer Spaces” will take place on Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center. The event is being billed as an opportunity for LGBTQ students who identify as white to gather and discuss how their skin color oppresses others in the community.
“This is an intended for space, meaning intended for white identifying LGBTQ+ folks to address and discuss their role in oppressive whiteness in queer spaces, community, and beyond,” the event description reads.
While the idea of hosting an event that scolds LGBTQ+ white students for their white privilege may seem patently bizarre, this event is par for the course when compared to a number of other events that the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center at UW-Madison has hosted in the past.
Throughout the year, a representative of GSCC has also hosted “Bias Reporting Drop-In hours,” a type of setting similar to office hours except where students can come in and confidentially report any “bias incidents” they may have witnessed on campus.
Finally, the GSCC recently promoted an event featuring research on the intersections between sexuality and queer agriculture, including a talk of the many ways in which human sexuality can affect farming. According to one description, the event would feature an eye-opening look into the “implications for the lived experiences of queer farmers as well as for the future of the sustainable agriculture movement.”
“Though rarely discussed, sexuality is an important part of how farms operate,” claimed one Facebook post promoting the event. “Sexuality — who and how we build romantic and sexual relationships with others — also affects how and why people farm, where people farm, and how farmers access land.”
John Patrick (@john_pat_rick) is a graduate of Canisius College and Georgia Southern University. He interned for Red Alert Politics during the summer of 2012 and has continued to contribute regularly.
