LGBT Center - Abigail Rogers
I would like to start by thanking the Peace, Justice and Conflict Transformation program for inviting us here today and giving us the opportunity to speak about peace.
My name is Abigail Rogers. I am a senior here at U of L, where I am studying Sociology, Women’s and Gender studies, and obtaining a certificate in Peace, Justice, and Conflict Transformation. I am currently an intern for the LGBT Center here on campus (right next door actually). And tonight I am going to speak on behalf of the LGBT center about what peacebuilding means to us, and how we create peace within our environment.
When trying to summarize the LGBT Center, I was having difficulties because the center means something different to each person that walks through the door and everyone’s perspective varies. For some its as simple as a place to come and eat lunch with no judgment, or maybe a place to meet friends. For others, it the only place they are validated for who they truly are. And I was compiling all these different experiences, I thought about our mission statement and couldn’t think of a better way to describe the center and its connection to peacebuilding.
Our mission is as follows:
The LGBT Center works to strengthen and sustain an inclusive campus community at the University of Louisville, one that welcomes people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions through support, educational resources and advocacy. The center works in partnership with other diversity efforts on campus supporting the Vice Provost for Diversity and International Affairs.
This is our definition of peace. Acceptance. Protection. Healing and most importantly, through our words and our actions, NONVIOLENCE.
At the center, we offer security by hosting a safe place where people are free to be their authentic self without any judgment on a daily basis. We have resources and connections to healing services on and off campus. We provide support and unconditional acceptance for those who have been rejected by their families and friends.
We offer many different groups for everyone will be included, for example:
- Shades, an RSO for LGBT students of color
- Speed Spectrum, a group for LGBT Speed School Students and Allies
- Transformations, a support group for transgender, genderqueer, intersex, and two-spirit individuals
This list goes on and on.
In order to promote nonviolence, we follow Martin Luther King Jr.’s Six principles of nonviolence. These principles teach us courage, positive connections, friendship, education, love, and justice.
This is what peace and peacebuilding mean to us. Acceptance, protection, healing, and nonviolence.
Thank you again for allowing us to share our definition of peace and it you have any questions, please feel free to talk to me tonight or come by the Intersection during the week.