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Youngin Chung | Phoenix Staff

At a panel entitled “Activism at the Intersections, ”Reina Gossett from Queers for Economic Justice, Yasmeen Perez of FIERCE and Caitlin Breedlove from Southerners on New Ground (SONG) spoke of their experiences as activists in different queer communi

BY AMELIA POSSANZA

In print | Published April 2, 2009 — Updated April 05, 2009 16:48

Reframing the notion of a monolithic lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community with a single set of concerns, Sager Symposium 2009 focused on the interconnectedness of queer experiences within and across marginalized communities. The symposium, entitled “Intersections of Queer: Coalition Building Across Our Communities,” featured a film screening, workshops, lectures and a panel, and ended with a banquet and closing party.

According to Sager Symposium Committee Co-Chair Sasha Raskin ’09, the symposium not only informed participants of these issues, but also created a space for students, specifically activists within the LGBTQ community, to strengthen to discuss coalition-building on campus.

“There was space in the symposium in a way there hasn’t been in the past to really build a coalition around it and to enjoy each other’s company and to get to know each other in a whole new way,” Raskin said. “[That’s] really what we’re going for because it’s pointless to talk about coalitions and not do that work.”

Further, in a departure from past symposia, this year’s was less academically oriented, and more pragmatic.

“[The Symposia] have been academically focused in the past,” Raskin said. “I don’t think the activism and the academic parts of anything we do are separate. We were looking to talk about our role as activists and academics.”

The Symposium opened on Thursday, March 26 with a screening of “A Jihad for Love” by Parvez Sharma, a documentary that illuminates how queer experiences intersect with Islam around the globe.

The next day, a queer storytelling workshop run by author Sassafras Lowrey created a space for expressing their personal experiences, often silenced in the mainstream media, through the vehicle of the spoken word. A lecture given by Juan Battle entitled “Race, Sexuality, & Social Justice: A View of the Future Through the Lens of a Public Sociologist” dealt with politics and race relations with a focus on Proposition 8.

“We were seeing the ways in which Prop 8 was being defined as a gay issue but the campaign in general — issues of race, issues of class — were not being defined as gay issues, and we really wanted to interrogate that,” Raskin said.

A performance by Lowrey entitled “Stories of Cell(ve)s Replaced” capped Friday’s events.

On Saturday, a workshop held by Colin Kennedy Donovan called “Anti-Racism For (Dis)abled Folks: An Interactive Workshop” linked white privilege, the queer communities and the (dis)abled community.

For Cecilia Marquez ’11, a member of the Sager Symposium Planning Committee, the workshop highlighted the absence of disabled activism and perpetuated marginalization on Swarthmore’s campus. “Accessibility is still a big problem,” Marquez said.

Amber Hollibaugh’s lecture, “Claiming Age: Creating a LGBT Movement We Can Afford to Grow Old In,” was for many the most interesting event. “The talk on queer aging was really meaningful because it’s not a topic that’s talked about in terms of queer activism ever,” Dina Kopansky ’11 said. “She made the conversation really relevant to all the young activists in the room.”

Jessica Holler ’10 agreed. “Amber made apparent the issue of considering the intergenerational perspective. It was looking at aging and invisibility in a compelling way,” she said.

A panel entitled “Activism at the Intersections” brought the theme of the symposium home. Reina Gossett from Queers for Economic Justice, Yasmeen Perez of FIERCE and Caitlin Breedlove from Southerners on New Ground (SONG) spoke of their experiences as activists in different queer communities.

“We saw [it] as our capstone event,” Raskin said. “It really took the themes of the symposium and tried to really discuss what activism at the intersections looks like for people who are really doing that work.”

According to Marquez, the panel was particularly useful because while activists at Swarthmore discuss theories of activism, the panelists illuminated the kinds of tactics activists are actually using to promote solidarity across various LGBTQ communities.

“It let us see what folks are actually doing,” Marquez said, “and what strategies and tools are successful.”

The Symposium closed with a banquet and a party. “The banquet was a great culminating event,” Marquez said. “It was nice to have a space to decompress.”

According to attendees and organizers, the diverse slate of events brought out large groups of varied students. “We had wonderful attendance at all these events,” Raskin said. “We filled all the rooms we had.”

The particular issues that the symposium addressed were also relevant for many on campus. “It made me want to incorporate all of these different parts of what they were talking about into my own activism,” Dina Kopansky ’11 said.

Alex Weintraub ’11, who was not involved with organizing the Symposium but is a member of the Genderfuck party planning committee, agreed. “I think there was a large breadth of topics that were covered so I think everyone found something they could engage with,” Weintraub said.

This diversity also may have marked a departure from previous years’ symposiums. “The focus this year was much more around activist work in intersections of the queer community — intersections with people of color, the elderly, the disabled and other communities. It’s a perspective you don’t usually hear,” said Leah Rethy ’10, who was not involved in planning the symposium.

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