Thursday, October 23, 2008

Half Penny post: Visiting folks and QOC support group

I went home to OH this past weekend and can say with relative certainty that I had fun. It was nice to hang out with my bro and sis as well as see old friends.
Now I do need to mention that home is in rural OH and the photo on the left demonstrates what I had to dodge as I was driving to and from. It's harvest season so we share the roads with combine harvesters which require both lanes of the road.

I stopped by my alma mater to see a few old friends. One of the folks that I saw was very suprised to see me on campus. I haven't been to campus on a weekday since I left OH eons ago. The way I looked threw her off. She thought I was new student and was about to tell me that I looked like a past student when I greeted her and she figured out who I was.

What threw her off you might wonder ... Well I've been gone for a year and a half and in that time my hair's grown out quite a bit. I now have locs which further threw her off. I used to be notorius for wearing jeans and sweaters, even when I was in grad school. This time around I'm more into khakhis (courtesy of having a job). She kept going on about how different I looked and the how the prep look was really in agreement with me. Now said lady was one of the many moms that I had out there. As I was looking around her office I saw a button that made me smile. It was for Christian LGBT youth.

One of the ladies' that I visited asked me if I had a boyfriend. Did she not see the rainbow bracelet on my hand? Everyone else was astute enough to ask if I was seeing someone special.

Recently I attended a support group for queers of color in Chicago. Most of the queer student groups that I know of in town are geared towards our caucasian brethren and it was a change of pace to attend one with more darkies than not. I connected with another staff member from our university and hopefully something can be put together on our campus for queers of color, with an invitation extended to students from the campus which hosted the last support group.

Teach Tolerance!

Ty

1 comment:

readyornot said...

where in ohio were you?? near antioch? oberlin??

i am from ohio. the things i miss most are: school cancellations due to snow & high street in columbus

the christian lgbt button sounds like a good omen. :-)

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