Event Attendance & Response – HPU Pride Club

I attended the HPU Pride Club meeting on February 26, 2020. I have never attended a pride meeting before, but I found it to be very interesting. Everyone was super friendly when I walked in. We started the meeting by introducing ourselves; this included using our first names, saying our pronoun we prefer to be called by, and spoke about how our week was going. I was not aware of the LGBTQ+ complexity and multitude of different identities and pronouns. We also spoke about micro aggressions that those within the community face throughout their lives as they encounter discrimination and slander. Growing up in a Jewish household and attending a boarding school in Massachusetts, we were never really taught about LGBTQ+. This meeting has opened my eyes to a lot of things I was not aware of before. We live in a society that has a lot of distractions and a lot of stereotypes which are not right. Today, with all the constant social media going on, we get too busy and lost in reality. It is so important to constantly spread kindness and love. As a society, it is imperative that we strive to accept everyone. No matter who you are and what you identify as you equal to everyone else and deserve to be treated that way. Noticing all of our differences should create unity. If everyone was the same the world would be a boring place. This meeting is connected to what we are learning in class through a lot of injustices people face in the world today. In my opinion, women should be treated equally to men worldwide. I find this class to be so interesting because I am always learning something new and are seeing different perspectives from other women around the world. There are so many differences yet certain similarities as well. I like learning about how their lives work and how they view our society. In addition, learning about how many negative effects are caused by stereotypes. It shows it is so important to be open minded not let stereotypes control your opinions of anyone. This meeting has helped me reflect on my actions from the past and the importance of always standing up for what I believe in. I feel like the current President of the United States, Donald Trump is a big part of promoting inappropriate actions and behaviors against people in the LGBTQ+ communities. I find this to be so sad and discouraging to both the present and the future. No one should be discriminated against for their sexuality or race. When an act of hatred occurs President Trump brushes it off like its nothing and does not deem this behavior unacceptable. In my opinion, this is normalizing and unacceptable behavior that is a very dangerous idea. I was always raised to create and spread love and peace in society. This meeting helped me understand sometimes people say things and do things out of ignorance or unconsciously and do not realize the effect of their words and actions. This speaks to the importance of educating younger generations and helping people understand that their words have meaning. Three of my most important takeaways were all about learning new words and meaning I did not know before. For example, micro insults are unconscious stereotypes that we follow. Micro invalidations are actions that “exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality” of a marginalized group. Micro assault acts “meant to attack the group identity of the person or to hurt/harm the intended victim through name-calling, avoidance behavior, purposeful discriminatory actions.” Overall, I found this meeting to be very informative and it has reminded me of the significance of always being open minded, empathetic and stray away from ignorance.