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Circle City IN Pride Parade |
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We had a booth again this year on June 8 at the Circle City IN Pride Parade, one of the nation's spectacular LGBT celebrations. The weather was ideal, and we reached a good range of ages. We signed up 110 new members! The greatest success perhaps was that we provided support to the LGBT young people as they celebrated "exactly who they are". And we reminded them that they have a "home away from home" at IU.
We have reason to continue to celebrate following the two recent Supreme Court decisions. Following our jubilance, however, we need to continue our life-long quest for full equality. GLBTAA Board member Steve Sanders has an excellent analysis of future marriage litigation in paragraph #7 below.
Mike Shumate, GLBTAA President
[email protected]
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1. GLBTSSS Office
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We receive numerous requests for information about the IU GLBT Student Support Services Office ("GLBTSSS") on the Bloomington campus. The GLBTSSS has provided a "home away from home" and rendered critically important services to our students for over 17 years. We are only too pleased to pass along information about the GLBTSSS and its countless good deeds. We intend to post this and related information in future Newsletters periodically.
The GLBTSSS website is: http://studentaffairs.iub.edu/glbt/. As you move from its home page, you'll want to click on "About Us" to become acquainted with some of the amazing people, who work in the office. Also click on "Our Services" to scan a list of various services the Office provides on a daily basis. Next click on "Annual Reports & Final Report", where you'll find a number of the GLBTSSS Annual Reports. Written in narrative style, you'll learn the stories of the various students, staff, faculty, alumni and parents, who have been associated with the Office over the years. The 2012 Annual Report will give you news of the latest interactions in the Office between students, faculty, staff and alumni.
It's an exciting, yet challenging, time to be advocating for LGBT issues and supporting LGBT individuals. As you peruse these web pages, feel free to e-mail
([email protected]), call the office (812-855-4252), or drop by and visit when you're in the neighborhood - and see first-hand the extraordinary work being performed by the GLBTSSS! The coffee pot is usually on, and personnel will be delighted to share with you some of the positive energy experienced each and every day. Special thanks go to two of our heroes: Doug Bauder, Coordinator, and Carol Fischer, Office Supervisor, of the GLBTSSS!
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2011 ribbon-cutting ceremony for renovated GLBTSSS |
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2. Member Profile
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Julia Heiman (photo by Herbert Ascherman, Jr.) |
Julia Heiman, Advancing Sexual Health and Knowledge Worldwide
When Julia Heiman agreed to come forward as Director of The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction in 2004, her goal was to build up the research program and to make the work relevant today. She was "captivated by all that the Institute has been in the past, and also what it has the potential to be in the future."
Dr. Heiman has many talents: she is a devoted and internationally recognized scientist, with a deep appreciation of brain, body and emotional interactions, a clinical psychologist with special skills in sex and couples therapy, and a leader with a vision. That vision, developed over her first years as director of The Kinsey Institute, is to conduct broad and innovative research in order to "advance sexual health and knowledge worldwide." The words "and knowledge" reflect Dr. Heiman's keenest focus: to add to what we know about how people lead their lives, their relationships and sexuality and identities, and to pass that knowledge on to a global audience. Information, whether it be directly health related or not, can be essential to personal well-being, to societal understanding and, internationally, to human rights.
"I am certain that deep knowledge about sexuality and identity through information and research can have an impact on human rights around the world. By gathering and sharing better research on such topics as variations in human sexual and gender experience and the sources and drivers of sexual violence, we can clarify who we are, what being human is about, and what changes are desired. Knowing not just about sex but how it fits into a person's life helps in real understanding."
Julia Heiman trained as a psychologist in the 1970s at Stony Brook University, where she boldly stepped into sex research. She made her initial mark in the 1970s with a new methodology to measure female sexual response and a research-based popular book for women, Becoming Orgasmic, which has helped many women with sexual issues. She was "out" as a sex researcher and clinician, and there was no returning to the safety of her initial training in child psychology research!
Dr. Heiman served on the medical school faculty of University of Washington as Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where she co-founded the interdisciplinary Reproductive and Sexual Medicine Clinic before moving to Bloomington. Besides being director of The Kinsey Institute, she is a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and in the Department of Psychiatry at IU. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, the Masters and Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Sex Therapy and Research, and others. In 2012, she was honored as an AAAS Fellow from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
As both the director and The Kinsey Institute evolve, certain goals come into focus. "How can basic research in human sexuality, connected as it needs to be with biology, neuroscience, informatics and social science methods, really flourish and relate to the larger issues of human existence as evidenced in art and the humanities? This is an extremely important idea, one that has a centuries old history and crucial value today."
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3. Did You Know?
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Brian Powell |
Brian Powell, the James H. Rudy Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, has been monitoring how Americans' definitions of family-and especially their views regarding same-sex couples-are shifting over time. In 2003, 2006, and 2010, Powell and his research team asked approximately 2500 Americans to answer a simple question: which living arrangements count as family and which do not? These surveys confirm a dramatic movement in Americans' definitions of family across all three years, with over two-thirds of Americans now including some types of same-sex couples in their definition of family. His interviews also indicate that Americans' are much more likely to count a same-sex couple as a family if the couple is legally married. In other words, the legalization of same-sex marriage may powerfully reshape Americans' views of same-sex relations.
These patterns are reported in COUNTED OUT: Same-Sex Relations and Americans' Definitions of Family, coauthored with IU PhDs Catherine Bolzendahl and Claudia Geist and Lala Carr Steelman from the University of South Carolina. Information regarding this book can be found at
https://www.russellsage.org/publications/counted-out-0 Professor Powell also can be reached at [email protected].
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4. 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.
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5. Academic Scholarship Recipient
CONGRATULATIONS are extended to Aaron "Matt" Bloom, one of our 2013 Fall Academic Scholarship recipients! Matt is a sophomore at IU Bloomington majoring in Journalism and Theatre, with a concentration in Spanish. He is a reporter for the Indiana Daily Student, where he has interviewed, covered, written, edited and fact-checked articles about the Bloomington LGBT community. His front-page IDS article, A Way Out, won a "best story" award and was republished in paragraph #1 of our April Newsletter. He has also acted in IU Theatre and blogged about life at IU for
weareiu.com. Matt reflects "I have always been interested in bringing people together. Whether through art, performance, communications, or writing, I want to have impact and presence within peoples' lives." We're proud of you, Matt!
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6. Member Notes
Judges will no longer be permitted to determine autonomously a fact in a criminal case, if that fact increases a mandatory minimum punishment for the defendant, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled recently, saying any such fact must be decided by a jury. "The decision in Alleyne deserves credit for clearing up a strange feature of the Court's modern Sixth Amendment cases," said member Ryan Scott,
IU Maurer School of Law Professor, to The Christian Science Monitor. "Before today, the right to trial by jury played an important role in limiting the maximum sentence to which a criminal defendant is exposed, but no role in limiting the minimum," he said. "Recognizing that there was no persuasive reason to draw a constitutional distinction between the sentencing 'ceiling' and 'floor,' the Court has announced that the Sixth Amendment applies equally to both," Professor Scott said.
Cindy Stone has been elected to the GLBTAA Board of Directors for a two-year term commencing July 1. Cindy is a full-time lecturer at the IU Kelley School of Business. She is a former member of the IU Board of Trustees and co-founder of the IU GLBTAA. Welcome back on board, Cindy!
William L. Yarber, Professor in IU's Department of Applied Science, Senior Director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and Senior Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute, visited China last fall to introduce innovative strategies regarding fact-based sexuality education to Chinese high school and college instructors. Yarber co-wrote as the lead author the latest edition of the Human Sexuality: Diversity in Contemporary America (McGraw-Hill, 2013) which was chosen for translation into Chinese as the most up-to-date book on human sexuality published in China in the past 50 years. The American version of the book is used in more than 300 colleges and universities in the U.S. Yarber said that after 40 years in the field, his China trip "...has really energized me. When [young people] have information...they're ...more likely to understand the role of sexuality in life and make wiser decisions." Yarber has just learned that his book was recently translated into Korean. For more information about his China trip and related information see: http://info.iu.edu/news/page/normal/22932.html
Congratulations, Bill!
Please send any proposed inserts for "Member Notes" to any one of the following: Steve Bretthauer at [email protected]; Stephanie Burks at [email protected]; Tim Lemper at [email protected]; or Mike Shumate at [email protected]. |
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7. SCOTUS
On the last day of its term, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26 issued two historic rulings on marriage equality for same-sex couples. In the first decision, the Court struck down the federal "Defense of Marriage Act," which had passed in 1996, condemning it as an "injury" and "indignity" to lawfully married same-sex couples and a violation of constitutionally guaranteed liberty and equal protection of the laws.
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In the second decision, the Court declined on procedural grounds to review the 2010 decision of a California federal court striking down that state's "Proposition 8," which had banned same-sex marriage. That decision effectively meant that same-sex marriages in California could resume almost immediately, making California the 13th state where marriage equality is currently the law. The now-retired federal judge who first struck down Prop 8, Vaughn Walker, spoke at the IU Maurer School of Law in 2011 in a program co-sponsored by the GLBTAA. The complete video of the program is available at: http://www.youtube.com/user/iumaurerlaw
Neither of the Court's decisions directly affects (at least for the moment) laws in 36 states, including Indiana, where marriage equality is still banned by statute or constitutional amendment. GLBTAA board member and Maurer law professor Steve Sanders wrote an analysis for the influential site SCOTUSBlog on the potential impact of the Court's DOMA decision and the future agenda for marriage-equality litigators at:
http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/06/next-on-the-agenda-for-marriage-equality-litigators/
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8. Circle City IN Pride
The Circle City IN Pride Parade was held on Saturday, June 8. The GLBTAA once again had a booth to welcome all who shared in the celebration of this spectacular parade. We also continued to spread the word about IU's "five stars" and being ranked in the "top 25" LGBT-friendly universities and colleges in the nation. Seeing all of you who dropped by was a real joy!
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Some of our 2013 volunteers and members |
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Signing up new members |
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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 Fall 2013 semester is April 15, 2013.
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.
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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 at:[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].
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