Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alumni Association

Reaching Out

An e-Newsletter by the IU Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alumni Association

Celebration Weekend is Near!January, 2013
In This Issue
1. Fifth Celebration Weekend
2. Maurer LGBT Project
3. bloomingOUT
4. Member Profile
5. Facebook
6. Member/Ally Notes
7. Did You Know?
8. Academic Scholarship Recipient
9. GLBTAA Scholarships
10. Membership
Connect with us!

   

 

 

 

   

   

East Gate/West Gate Sculpture on IUPUI Campus (photo by John Gentry)

We are anxious to greet you at our Fifth Celebration Weekend February 1-3. The weekend will be launched at the Lilly Library reception on Friday, February 1, with welcoming comments by Provost Lauren Robel and the presentation of our 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award. The Grazie reception on Saturday, February 2 remains our main attraction. The silent auction that evening provides our largest fundraising activity of the year. The net proceeds help fund our scholarships, mini-grants and various other programs. Please think if you have any item(s) you wish to contribute to our silent auction. If so, please contact Stephanie Burks at [email protected] or Rachael McAfee at [email protected]. Also, for the first time, you are able to donate "student" tickets to the Grazie reception on our reservation site at:

http://iuaa.imodules.com/s/1377/event.aspx?sid=1377&gid=2&pgid=1571&content_id=2140

We will wrap up the weekend with coffee and bagels at the GLBT Student Support Services Office on Sunday morning, February 3.

 

All faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends, please join us for this fabulous weekend and see for yourselves why IU has received "five stars" and recently was ranked in the "top 25" LGBT-friendly universities and colleges in the nation! We look forward to visiting with as many of you as possible!

 

 

Mike Shumate, GLBTAA President

[email protected]  

 

 

 

1. Fifth Celebration Weekend
     

                                                  

 

The GLBTAA is proud to host the fifth annual Celebration Weekend February 1-3! Coinciding with the Bloomington PRIDE Film Festival, our Celebration Weekend offers faculty, staff, alumni, students and friends a wonderful schedule of diverse and fun-filled events throughout the first weekend in February. The main events are:

 

Reception at the Lilly Library

~ Friday, February 1, 2013, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.

~ For parking information and directions to the Library, please visit click here

The Lilly Library is one of the largest rare book and manuscript libraries in the nation, home to such rare items as a Gutenberg Bible and a copy of the Declaration of Independence. What a fabulous way to to start the evening of films at the PRIDE Film Festival! Admission is free with complimentary hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. We will be bestowing the GLBTAA Distinguished Alumni Award at this event. The GLBT Student Support Services office will also be presenting its annual Spirit Awards.

 

GLBTAA Annual Board Meeting

~ Saturday, February 2, 2013, 10:00 a.m. - noon

~ DeVault Alumni Center,1000 E. 17th St. (parking available in lot west of building)

 

Grazie! Reception and Silent Auction                     

~ Saturday, February, 2, 2013, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.

~ Grazie! Italian Eatery, 106 W. Sixth St.

~ Cost is $20 per person, which includes a glass of wine

Please join us for an early evening of hors d'oeuvres, rainbow martinis, jazz piano, a silent auction and much, much more! What a great way to see old friends and make new ones before attending one of the films, or any of the other events, during this special Saturday evening. All net proceeds benefit our various GLBTAA scholarships, mini-grants and other programs. If you wish, you can also contribute to pay for one or more Grazie tickets for IU students. The GLBTAA Board will administer the distribution of all such donated tickets to students. Thank you in advance for any student ticket donations you may elect to make. Reservations may now be made at:   http://iuaa.imodules.com/s/1377/event.aspx?sid=1377&gid=2&pgid=1571&content_id=2140 

 

Bagels and Coffee at the GLBTSSS Office

~ Sunday, February 3, 2013, 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.

~ GLBT Student Support Services Office, 705 E. Seventh St. (across from the IMU)

Wrap up the weekend with coffee and bagels at the GLBTSSS Office, a "home away from home" for countless of our IUB students for over 17 years. If you haven't already done so, come by and take a tour of the fairly recent renovations to the office - a perfect way to complete the weekend's festivities.  

  

                       

                              

Grazie '11

 2. Maurer LGBT Project   

 

As has been reported in the past, opponents of same-sex marriage passed a proposal in 2011 to write the ban into the Indiana Constitution.  The proposed amendment likely will be introduced in the Indiana Legislature in 2013, and if passed, will be put to the Indiana voters in a referendum in 2014, as required by the  Constitution. Research by the Maurer Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project (which was highlighted in our November Newsletter) has identified 614 laws in Indiana that base various benefits and responsibilities on a person's marital status.  The Project urges lawmakers to consider the consequences as they consider once again enacting the constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. 

 

The 614 legal provisions have been detailed in a compendium, entitled  More Than Just a Couple, and serves as a valuable resource for examing how legislative action concerning marriage can affect all Hoosier couples and families.  More Than Just a Couple is now available online at Indiana Equality's website at: http://www.indianaequalityaction.org/ 

  

3. BloomingOUT 
 
Helen Harrell
Carol Fischer
                      

 

 

BloomingOUT is the only LGBTQA radio show station in Indiana and one of very few in the nation. Anchored by GLBTAA member Helen Harrell (and co-hosted by Associate Director of IU's newly formed School of Public Health Michael Reece) and produced by GLBTAA member Carol Fischer, bloomingOUT airs live from Bloomington, IN every Thursday evening from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. (Eastern) on WFHB Community Broadcasting. You can also hear the broadcasts around the world and available via live-streaming, podcast (iTunes) or download anytime. For one hour each week, you will be informed of local, national and international news and local and statewide events, and hear interviews with community leaders, politicians, academics, students, celebrities, entertainers and just everyday folks, as well, from IU Bloomington, our state and around the country.

 

We are proud and fortunate that bloomingOUT provides a forum for everyone in our LGBTQA community. Thank you, bloomingOUT and please keep up the good work! To view its website, please see: http://bloomingout.wordpress.com/  Its Facebook page is at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/groups/361185557256363/?fref=ts

 

 

4. Member Profile 

Bryce Wininger.

 

Bryce Wininger is a fourth-year medical student at the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis. He graduated from IUB in 2009, and spent his first two years of medical school on the Bloomington campus, as well. He spent his first summer of medical school in Mumbai, India, learning to treat developing world illnesses, including malaria, tuberculosis, and leprosy. Recently, Bryce spent two months in Eldoret, Kenya with the IU-Kenya partnership, where he was involved with several of IU's important initiatives, including: providing primary/preventive medical care; working in hospital wards with Kenyan colleagues; helping provide HIV/AIDS treatment for over 50,000 Kenyans; teaching mental health education; and supporting sustainable cooperative agriculture.

 

He is currently the Community Outreach Chair of the Medical School's Gay-Straight Medical Alliance, coordinating educational seminars monthly for the Indiana Youth Group in Indianapolis. Bryce also co-chairs the Psychiatry Student Interest Group, organizing monthly dinners with faculty and Psychiatry-bound students and spearheading a new program, Student 2 Student, which provides volunteer peer mentoring for at-risk and struggling medical students across the state. Bryce will be graduating with his M.D. in May 2013, and will begin his residency in Psychiatry in the summer. Congratulations, Bryce!  Keep up the good work!

5. Facebook

 

The GLBTAA has had a Facebook page for some time now, but some of you may not be aware of it.  If you haven't already done so, check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/iuglbtaa.  "Like" our page and then you will automatically get our Facebook posts regarding news, updates and information of our events.

 

Like us on Facebook

6. Member/Ally Notes

 

 

Tim Lemper

Tim Lemper, GLBTAA director and Clinical Associate Professor at IU's Kelley School of Business, is responsible for correcting an error in a federal trademark statute.  His research and two published articles (co-authored by GLBTAA member Josh Bruce) led the American Intellectual Property Law Association and others to lobby Congress to amend the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006.  President Obama signed the amendment on October 5, 2012.  Congratulations, Tim!  IU's press release is at:  http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/23544.html?emailID=23544

7. Did You Know? 
 
You can choose to contribute to sex research.  Justin R. Garcia, PhD, Kinsey Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, has an online study regarding romantic relationships and sexual behavior.  Participation is confidential.  You can elect to participate at: https://acsurvey.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3WZQmP5qEPKReVD  
8. Academic Scholarship Recipient
    
Daniel Rossi 
Congratulations are extended to Daniel Rossi, another 2013 Spring Academic Scholarship recipient.  Daniel expects to earn his Master's in Public Affairs from the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Bloomington in 2013.  He has made time to be involved in many extracurricular activities while an IU student, including a number within the LGBT community.  More specifically, he has worked tirelessly for the transgender community.  He is the coordinator of IUB's Bathroom Project, which identifies safe bathroom facilities on campus that are gender neutral and more accommodating to persons with disabilities.  He, along with administrators in the Residential Programs and Services, the GLBT Student Support Services Office and the Student Advocates Office, serves on the Transgender Committee that identifies the needs of transgender students and intends to formulate new guidelines for transgender students as they face many regulations and University bureaucracy.  He more recently has helped organize Gender Warriors, a peer-led support group for trans-identified students.  He also participates in the Indiana Transgender Rights and Advocacy Alliance Speakers' Bureau.  He has accomplished all this while maintaining an impressive 3.81 GPA!   
  
9. GLBTAA Scholarships

 

GLBTAA Academic Scholarships  Academic Scholarships are awarded to IU students enrolled at any IU campus, who are academically strong, as well as active in promoting diversity, tolerance and social justice. Scholarships are awarded to students based upon academic achievement, career goals, financial need, leadership experience, community service and extracurricular activities. Involvement in activities promoting diversity and raising awareness of GLBT and related issues on the student's campus or in his or her community is carefully reviewed by the Board. The maximum award for an Academic Scholarship is $1,000 per semester. An individual student may not receive more than $2,000. The deadline for the Spring 2013 semester is November 15, 2012.

  

IU GLBTAA Emergency Scholarships
Emergency Scholarships are awarded to those students who experience the loss of financial support when they make the courageous decision to disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity to their families. Emergency Scholarships help to ensure that students need not choose between their education at IU and living life openly and honestly. Emergency Scholarships are awarded to students attending any IU campus. The maximum award for an Emergency Scholarship is $1,500 per semester, and a student may not receive more than $3,000.
  
You can learn more about the GLBTAA Scholarships and apply online at: http://alumni.indiana.edu/affiliates/glbt/supporting-community/scholarships.html

 

10. Membership

 

Encourage your friends to join the GLBTAA. They can visit our website here  and join.  There are no membership dues, and you do not have to be a member of the IUAA. We are approaching 1,400 members, and we're growing! We appreciate your continued commitment! It is because of you that the GLBTAA is in existence, continues to grow and continues to serve our important mission on all eight of IU's campuses. If you are a member and wish to continue receiving our newsletters, please make sure we have a current e-mail address for you.   You can visit https://alumni.indiana.edu/my-iu/index.html to see if your official record, including your e-mail address, is current.  Thank you for your support through your membership. We look forward to serving you now and in the years to come. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Rachael McAfee [email protected]  or Mike Shumate at [email protected] .

 

If not already a member, please consider joining the IUAA by visiting https://alumni.indiana.edu/membership/index.html, by [email protected]  or calling (800) 824-3044. By joining the IUAA, among many other things, you help fund the various GLBTAA programs, along with gaining access to IUAA member-only events.

 

If you would like to unsubscribe and terminate future communications from the GLBTAA, please respond to:  [email protected].