SMUT
Syracuse University held it's annual Tans Week of Liberation April 3-7.
student center gets people to think about those two identities intersecting. “I’ve seen snapchats from people being like 'what is this?’ or like putting it in a negative light, but that exposure is important—it opened to me, like, ‘ Wow I never realized there was that specific of a community that was suffering,” Williams says. SU prides itself on being an inclusive and safe campus, but judging by the campus climate report this may not be the case. The offices that are working to make this campus an inclusive environment are extremely understaffed and underfunded. The Counseling Center only has 12 counselors for a campus of about 20,000 students. “The way I experience SU does not feel safe as a queer trans person,” BCash says. “ I think that the more privileged identities one holds, the more they would probably say SU is safe, but I know for a lot of students that I know are marginalized whether that be their gender, sexual orientation, race, and ability status, or their class – depending how they
show up in those marginalized identities, I think SU stops feeling safe.” Walker recalls walking home from a party one night during his freshman year when he and a group of his friends encountered a few male students peeing on a nearby tree. The men started chasing after Walker and his friends, yelling after Walker, "Faggot!" SU has a lot to learn about inclusion with the years to come, especially in a political climate that continues to threaten the LGBTQ+ community. The longer we continue to think of sexual assault as something that only happens to straight girls at the hands of predatory frat boys, the less able we will be to recognize and address sexual violence against all identities. “I think that SU is working on being a safer institution, I think that’s a lot of what you see, like I see a lot of words about diversity and inclusion, I don’t know how much action people are putting into those things,” says BCash. JM
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