SoS Blog 2

There’s much to be said about the gay liberation movement, specifically on the impact it had on the public psychologically. Since Stonewall there was a need for exposure. The main purpose of any GLBT event was to establish grounds. We needed to at least be able to put our names on the table before we could actually begin any plan of attack for change. In the early 1970s (even late 1960s), there was a great need for pride parades and protests. It was a dangerous time to be gay and out.
Not only was the public unforgiving, but they were even violent. Reported crimes rates relating to sexual orientation disagreements were not as high as they are now, but that was largely because they were unreported. That of course is probably a result of a number of factors other than the corruption of the police force.
As we moved past the assignation of Harvey Milk there was still a need for the riots. The public needed to know we were “queer and here.”

In the social climate of today there is a new struggle which for the most part is an internal problem in the community. Through all the degradation we tried to resist we inevitably internalized way too much of the stereotypes in hope of devaluing them and formed a frame of mind that would inevitably cause somewhat of a social chasm in our community. The GLBT community was separated between those who reinforced the model of the gay image and those who deliberately tried not to. Both groups were wrong in their own ways.

This quest for self-identity has led us into what I now consider to be the age of gay social enlightenment.

This Is basically a little snipit of what I am defending in my research paper. Let’s see where it goes next!

SoS Blog 1

Hey everyone. I know I’m posting these blogs late, but I am at least posting them! However, since I’m posting these blogs late I decided to edit all of them and begin all of the posts from the perspective of having finished my service. So instead of a blog this is probably going to be more like a series of chapters.

At the beginning it was quite interesting. I had a rough plan for what I was going to do, and took it (for the most part) and then ran a whole different direction unexpectedly.

My main purpose was to do something somewhat intensive and long-lasting in regards to the gay liberation movement. So my proposal contained a three part plan to fulfill that goal.

The first part was I wanted to make a research paper that would focus on the psychological progression behind the movement and suggest its flaws and solutions. To do that of course requires that labor intensive job that is ACTUALLY RESEARCHING. The only way this paper can actually get any attention is if I make it credible through statistical analysis. At this point in the summer I had NO IDEA how to do that. I didn’t even know where to begin. There are so many articles and novels on the subject it would take years to be an expert. Well, luckily I don’t have to be an expert; I just had to prove my point.

I went to Dupont Library and checked out a few books I thought might be of use, printed almost every article and pdf file on the Human Rights Campaign website, and actually started reading the newspaper regularly! This is of course way in the future, but as of July 8^th 2010 the New York Times published an article on the unconstitutional act of banning gay marriage. This was pretty big in the state of Massachusetts and sent a shockwave through the nation. Side anecdote over…

We’ll talk more about the paper later in another post, but for the sake of laying out the rest of my proposal, I’ll continue. The second part was to begin building what would be the first gay music organization at Stetson. This was probably less ambitious than the first part, but much harder to facilitate. The first question anyone should ever ask when starting an organization is WHY? To say it plainly I find some GLBT composers to be under represented. I wanted an organization that would foster the performance and presentation of music by GLBT composers. In the current climax of the movement it is most evident there is a need for role models. This is something I’ll continue to talk about in my paper, but role models like these composers would reinforce the inclusive state of mind in the general public. There are of course many other reasons for having an organization that are probably more generic than anything; however, that’s the gist of it.

Finally the third portion of the service is of course the nitty-gritty-get-your-hands-dirty hands-on service! In my opinion this is the most exciting part, because this involves the planning with my community partner. This includes workshops for the public, speaking to the elderly and the younglings, and speaking up to our businesses in Deland. Ideally the goal was to educate, but as you’ll read later, it turned out to be much more than that. I was immersing myself in the minds of others. It was almost the most thrilling thing I’ve done in a long time. I got a chance to understand the minds of my community and how they arrived at their conclusions and opinions. Of course you can imagine the hardest part of hands-on service is communication and planning. I officially know how to reserve rooms at Stetson! A tool I plan to utilize again and again during my last two years here. I can also talk in front of a crowd without stumbling on my words not nearly as much as I use to!

I think after week one I was pretty certain no matter what I did, even after my hours were completed, I wasn’t going to really finish anything. Most of this service is carrying on into the fall semester. I won’t spoil anything just yet, but things are looking really exciting for the fall!!!

Completely Delayed - Week 8 (the last!) at CSL

So it has been far too long of an amount of time between my last week and this blog post. Since then I've been up in Connecticut, enjoying the cool(er) weather, working at the food pantry and researching for my town hall's website to make up for all the hours I didn't do while I was at Oxford. Anyway.

During my last week at the CSL, I interviewed a few more people for my "CBR" project, became even more frustrated with the state of the food assistance programs, and decided that food assistance is not enough. It's not helping the problem, it's only patching it. There is no antibacterial cream, no stitches, no plaster cast, no plucking out the glass shards embedded in the wound ... just a splash of water and a band-aid. NOT ENOUGH. Rah. It's frustrating to see so much water pouring into such a big, desperate, empty bucket with a big hole in the bottom. OK. Enough metaphors. But does that make sense? And I want to do something about it, but just working at the food pantry or volunteering at the SNAP (food stamps) office ISN'T ENOUGH. It's not fixing anything. I mean, it's good to be helping people in the meantime, because hey, if they need food they need food and they obviously must be provided for. BUT. What about in a week, when the food from the pantry runs out or the EBT card has no more benefits on it? What about after six months, when they have to reapply because nothing has changed? So frustrating. It's just another instance of the issues that are so clear, but yet again the solutions are so ... nebulous (love that word :D). Something I've been confronted with a lot this summer through my work at the CSL and the interviews with the community partners. So much need, not enough solutions.

Anyway, other than that, we also finalized the new First-Year Bonner Experience (I think we should call it FYBE, rhyming with "vibe" because FYBE, as in "fib" is ... not really a good association!), called the partners, and they were all SUPER excited about everything, which I think I've mentioned before, but it was still really reassuring. Um ... what else? Our last day, we went to this place called Sweet Melissas for lunch which had quite delicious food, though it was completely sketch and boiling hot. But I loved it anyways.

I shall conclude my final SoS 2010 blog on a happy note: I LOVE BONNER (insert heart here). B-love to all Stetson Bonners, and to everyone else out there in cyberspace. There's plenty to go around :)

Tea Parties and Princess Dresses...

This past week was my third week at Girls Inc. The week flew by so fast since we were doing so many things. Monday and Tuesday I helped the girls make tiaras out of recycled cardboard. We decorated them using markers, glitter, beads, feathers, and anything else we could find. The girls got really into it and ended up making some really fantastic tiaras. These tiaras were for the tea party that we were going to have on Friday. The girls were super excited all week. Wednesday and Thursday we made fancy gloves out of old tights or panty hose. Since the theme of this summer is Girls Inc. Goes Green we try to make sure we are recycling and reusing with all of our arts and crafts projects.
Friday was the day of the big tea party. The girls all came dressed in their princess dresses wearing their tiaras and gloves that they had made. They were all soooo cute! We made cucumber sandwiches and tea and gave the girls a chance to practice their etiquette skills that Ms. Marcia had been teaching them all summer. All in all the tea party was a success. I'm not sure what we have coming up this week but I'm sure no matter what it is the girls will make it fun. Talk to you guys in a week!

The Heavy Lifting

I have to say this week was perhaps the hardest week yet of my SoS but also the most enjoyable. Instead of spending time in the office filing or making copies, I worked with a two other ladies (one who works in the office and a teacher) to organize and move textbooks. I know it sounds simple right? Well, it sounds simple but in reality sorting over 280 boxes of textbooks and then hauling them all over campus to their correct classrooms can get really tiring. By Wednesday morning, we were definitely ready for a break. Although it was hard work, we really enjoyed ourselves. We laughed when the carts of books went flying down ramps and when we thought we lost the only master key to all of the teachers closets! I also enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane with my fourth grade teacher, who was one of the volunteers. Thursday we completed this huge task and started on another one. Friday morning we started boxing up books from the school's library in preparation for the move to a different (and bigger) location!

After a very tiring week, I was so glad to be able to have the weekend to relax. This upcoming week will be my last at Meadowbrook so I'm hoping to get as much done as possible!

Not in real time

These first few entries are not in real time because I've been totally slacking on my blogging.
I'm doing fitness related things at Noah's Ark Baptist in Naples

Week 1
My first week was the last week of May. The kids were putting on a mother's day show for Haitian mother's day which is the last Sunday of May and they really needed help. The show being a last minute thing really was lacking some stuff. So that's how i ended up "choreographing" a dance and helping put up the show in one week.
It was definitely stressful but it was fun because the kids are hilarious and take their shows seriously.
I have a video of one of the dances I taught some girls but it's taking forever to upload so I will have to put that up later. I think it ended up very good considering the time some of the kids had to practice was not much.

Week 2
Totally diferent from week 1. I've been researching and doing office work this week.
The only fun thing I did was help 2 friends from the church come up with workout plans and I also went with them to the gym Mon, Wed and  Fri. They are now officially my workout buddies.
I'm making my plans on how to go about starting my awareness campaign because i've got lots of information to share. They want me to do presentations for different groups at the church. Like one day the women ministry, the men, the youth, and then do general presentations. I'm excited about
I've also started studying for my group fitness certification. I'm kinda confused about which one to take because there are so many different ones. All in all it was an ok week

Long Time No Post!

So my apartment doesn't have internet and I can't use the internet at work for personal use and getting up at 6 and home by 6 is a pretty long day, longer than I'm used to. SO. For an update: my internship at the Supervisor of Elections Office has been UH-MAZE-ING. I seriously had no idea that I would be learning so much so quickly. May 24 through May 27 the Outreach Team held events all over Polk County. I learned my way around backroads that I never knew existed!
The most exciting event of the week wad the Auburndale 2nd Annual Ladies Expo and Luncheon. We offered registration services to quite a few ladies at the Expo as well as sample the best cupcakes in town (courtesy of It's a Piece of Cake by Maggie, aslo home of the best cakes in town). Sometimes I feel like my internship is more about food than it is about voter services.
At this point, I am looking forward to learning more about the process of arranging Early Voting and the ins and outs of getting ready for a major election.
I can safely say that I know how to work a high-tech copy machine as well as how to transfer a call to a different line, but I am anxious to learn more about the elections office.
This weeks most unique experience was visiting the Rohr Home, an assisted living facility. It was a very small building, so Victoria and I went room to room with our clipboards and American Flags to offer Absentee Ballot requests to the residents. I met a few folks that were nearly 100 years old. What a life!
Well, that's all for now folks!