Queer rainbows graphic. Soleil de Zwart // AS Review
By Kiaya Wilson
During the COVID-19 pandemic, LGBTQ+ Western planned virtual events for students to stay connected. L.K. Langley, director of LGBTQ+ Western, reached out to faculty and staff at Western to gauge interest in helping with virtual events.
LGBTQ+ Western hosted three virtual events per week. Yoga on Mondays, mindful self-compassion on Wednesdays and queer arts and culture conversations on Thursdays. Details for these events can be found at the LGBTQ+ Western website.
Langley said they are so pleased to be working with faculty who are invested in supporting LGBTQ+ students at Western.
Some of the faculty members involved in these events with LGBTQ+ Western are Andrew Lucchesi, Josh Cerretti and Christopher Edwards.
Andrew Lucchesi, an English professor, has been at Western for three years with a focus on disability studies and advocacy around issues of disability access and pride. Lucchesi said he first got involved with LGBTQ+ Western at a Queer Arts and Culture event Langley put on.
“I wanted to come up with an activity that would be light-hearted, creative, and celebratory of queer creativity,” Lucchesi said in an email. “For this reason, I decided to focus on comics.”
Lucchesi said he gathered queer comic recommendations from a variety of people to discuss the best queer comics, graphic novels and webcomics. Lucchesi created a Google document for these recommendations that is still accessible to the public for contributions.
Lucchesi added that he hasn’t been highly involved in LGBTQ+ Western but he was involved in similar programs during undergraduate and graduate school.
“I never would have found my queer community as a student without some thoughtful structure and guidance,” Lucchesi said. “And I never would have made it through school without the support of my queer peers.”
Christopher Edwards, psychologist and outreach coordinator for the Counseling Center, said he would describe his experience with LGBTQ+ Western as amazing.
“Being a psychologist and the Outreach Coordinator for the Counseling Center naturally led to this partnership,” Edwards said in an email. “The fact that I’m also a part of the LGBTQ+ community means that this work holds a special place in my heart and makes it that much more meaningful.”
Edwards added he has worked with LGBTQ+ Western through the Counseling Center since he came to Western in 2018. He was involved in various programs and events including panel discussions, LGBTQ+ health and wellness work group, gender inclusive housing committee and the mindful self-compassion virtual workshop.
“I’ve attended a number of different social events for LGBTQ+ WWU since starting at WWU and have valued the sense of community this provides,” Edwards said in an email. “I intend to continue my involvement with LGBTQ+ WWU through ongoing outreach programs, collaborations, consultation, and referrals.”
Josh Cerretti, a history professor, has been involved with LGTBQ+ student work for years, both at Western and at previous universities, including the University of Buffalo.
“Since Langley founded the program here, I’ve been involved in a number of events they’ve put on, from organizing a letters-to-prisoners event for Stonewall@50 to facilitating a discussion about queer methodologies for the Queering Research series,” Cerretti said in an email.
Cerretti said he has really enjoyed the work he’s done with his co-workers and the LGTBQ+ Western staff.
“Anything we accomplish at the university is a collective effort and so it’s absolutely essential that people who are marginalized on campus and in society come together to build power,” Cerretti said.
Cerretti also added he looks forward to continuing his work with LGBTQ+ Western in the future.
Langley said in a phone interview that they have enjoyed this experience of hosting virtual events because it gave them ideas for future events including pre-recorded messages of care for students in unhealthy environments that would be posted in the LGBTQ+ Western website.
“I have been thinking about ways to be as inclusive as possible [in the future],” Langley said. “This experience has made me think of the utility of video.”
LGBTQ+ Western has no events scheduled for the rest of spring quarter but information about past events and the organization can be found on their website.