The Opportunities I've Had as a Queer Person at Calvin College

I recognize that Calvin still has a long way to go, and many of my friends daily experience discrimination, prejudice, and rudeness toward them because of their gender and sexuality. But my experience, as someone with a bit more privilege - as a single, cis, femme enough, "normal"-looking, white woman that pretty recently had a boyfriend - has been more positive. In fact, I have a hard time imagining a much better place for me, specifically, in regard to LGBT issues. Here are the opportunities I've had by being in Grand Rapids and on Calvin's campus.

• Exposure to large amounts of religious/cultural diversity in regard to homosexuality and gender with a student body that is undergoing an extremely rapid degree of social and theological change
• A Fun. concert and conversation over the ensuing controversy
• Meeting the members of the band as a campus queer group, and the conversations that were started with people from the administration and people touring with Fun. as sponsors
• Meeting lots of queer people that have become my dear friends
• Getting to follow pretty closely two or three of my close friends' transitions as they are happening, from the beginning, including helping shop for clothes, picking a name, being present at a first hormone injection, and getting to see their prescriptions
• The continued opportunity to listen to many of my friends' stories as they come out, sometimes even for the first time, to me
• Feeling safe, if slightly daring, to talk loudly and passionately about trans and other LGBT issues with my friends in the dorms
• Feeling safe, if slightly daring, to engage conversations with people on my floor about LGBT issues as well as larger, related issues about the nature of gender, sexuality, and privilege
• A large, school-sponsored, on-campus student organization (maybe 40 students) dedicated to providing a safe place for students, and which is involved in lots of conversation about how to deal with controversies and differences between people
• The ability to safely and proudly wear bright orange shirts identifying us as members of or supporters of said group and what it represents to campus
• A presentation of the results of an extensive campus-wide survey on people's thoughts about and experiences with homosexuality on Calvin's campus, as well as free access to a copy of the 100-ish-page document outlining Calvin's administrative response to this survey
• A class on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which has several gay characters.
• Seeing a drag show at a gay club with friends
• The opportunity to attend a scientifically-accurate and thorough lecture on intersexuality
• The opportunity to meet with the professor that gave this lecture for two hours of follow-up conversation, amounting to a switch in advisors, a book to read, ideas about possible future Interim classes, tons of advice on how to be thinking about my trans friends' attempts to move to correctly-gendered dorms, and insight into the ways I could come alongside the trans community as an ally
• Meeting some members of the LGBT community at Hope fighting for recognition and acceptance on campus
• Access to a weekly small-group meeting of under 10 LGBT students and a very warm counselor to talk about our experiences and thoughts
• An LGBT pannel, where 3 stories were told in-depth, questions were asked, and conversations were had
• A presentation by the first trans person that was ever out at Calvin
• The opportunity to get involved as a volunteer with the Transgender Education Collaboration through the aforementioned trans person
• The opportunity to attend an event called the "Transgender Visibility Celebration" in Grand Rapids, where I met something like 15 more trans people of a variety of ages and stations in life
• The opportunity to attend a transgender clothes swap
• The opportunity to talk to the Vice President of Student Life about our community and experiences on campus
• The opportunity to talk to the President of Calvin College about his warm attitude toward the LGBT community and how he might act to improve the lives and experiences of LGBT students on campus

The list is ever-growing, so I will be adding to this post indefinitely as cool things continue to happen. In my wildest dreams, I never thought that I would find so much freedom and life surrounding LGBT life and community at Calvin, and especially not within six months of showing up. My gratefulness is profound, and I fully intend to use it to the fullness of my ability to build on what has been done already to make this experience possible.