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The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh–and it’s varying services, organizations and initiatives–aims to make all people feel included and welcome.

At UW Oshkosh, the LGBTQ Resource Center is one of those places that serves as a spot where students, faculty and staff can get support and information to help them adjust and thrive in the UW Oshkosh community. Annually, the Center, which  located in the Center for Equity and Diversity near the Fletcher and Horizon residence halls, offers several events, speakers and seminars.

On Thursday, Sept. 25, the Center will host a queer talk show where the center’s director Liz Cannon will interview the associate director of the Undergraduate Advising Resource Center (UARC), Sally Masters and Masters’s partner Chris Zingler. Masters is a wedding officiant who has married more than 700 couples with 500 of those being same-sex couples; Zingler is a former assistant principal at Menasha High School. The discussion will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Center.

Throughout the semester and academic year, the Center offers several events per month that cater to LGBTQ+ students and those who support them. Upcoming functions include, but are not limited to, a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for Gender Outfitters, a queer person of color panel and the annual LBBTQ Ally March.

“It’s been proven that gaining knowledge of people who are different than you as well as hearing an actual person tell their own story goes a long way in helping us talk and connect across differences.  It is in these ways that the events at the LGBTQ Resource Center provide knowledge that helps create an inclusive environment on campus,” Cannon said. “Even for those of us who are LGBTQ+, these events help us learn about other identities within our own community–and about how others who share our identity have different experiences based on differences in race, class, ability status and more.”

“It is also important to remember that when we move into careers beyond the University, we will need to be competent in diversity knowledge.  We will be working with, working for, managing and serving people whose gender and sexuality differs from own,” Cannon said.

Some of this semester’s events include:

  • Queer Film Series: Beginners (2010)–Thursday, Oct. 9, 7 p.m. in the LGBTQ Resource Center
    • A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer and that he has a young male lover. Talk-back following the film.
  • Queer Talk Show: Courtney and Doug Bauder–Wednesday, Oct. 15, 6:30 p.m. in the Reeve Union Theater (307)
    • Cannon will interview Bauder, director of the social justice program here at UWO, and his father Doug, who is the coordinator of the Office of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Support Services at Indiana University in Bloomington.
  • Queer Talk Show with Chad Hershner–Monday, Nov. 10, 6:30 p.m. in the LGBTQ Resource Center
    • Cannon will interview Hershner, Director of Development at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
  • World AIDS Day–Monday, Dec. 1, 6:30 p.m. in the Reeve Union Ballroom
    • Join in for a night of entertainment and education that will help you ACT AWARE. Community partners Winnebago County Health Department, Planned Parenthood, AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, and others will be there to help you learn the facts about HIV/AIDS.

To get involved or to check out a full list of events, visit the LGBTQ Resource Center website.