into your whole queer identity. That’s kind of what I experienced,” Maaz Ahmed, a senior in the College of Communication, says about their experience as a nonbinary person. They started by identifying as bisexual, then gay, then came into their complete identity. They use any/all pronouns. “And I identify as gay, although that’s also in question, so who really knows?” Ahmed says. Being nonbinary is the experience of not identifying with either end of the bimodal gender distribution -- male or female. This is not to be confused with being transgender, which is often characterized by gender dysphoria; Intense feelings of unease with one’s assigned gender at birth. Eleven percent of LGBTQIA+ adults identify as nonbinary, 1.2 million Americans, based on a study by the Williams Institute. Marquette does not seem to publicly display the amount of students who identify as LGBTQIA+, nor does it display specific demographics within the spectrum outside of male and female populations. Indeed, uncertainty seems to still fill the air for some LGBTQIA+ folks on campus, a feeling fueled by past Marquette actions. Professor of social and cultural sciences
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Dawne Moon reflects on the Jodi O’Brien settlement in 2010 which contributed to the creation of the LGBTQIA+ Resource Center. “Ten years ago when Jodi O’Brien was so horrifically mistreated by the university and I didn’t have tenure, it was somewhat terrifying to be here, but now my concerns are far more for students and staff than myself,” Moon says in an email. She is referring to the 2010 rescinded offer of dean status to O’Brien. The New York Times has the story: “Marquette University abruptly rescinded an offer to a sociologist to serve as dean, angering some students and faculty members who said the university did so after learning she was a lesbian who wrote about sexuality. Marquette said the professor lacked ‘the ability to represent the Marquette mission and identity.’” Reverend Robert A. Wild, Marquette’s then-president, told The New York Times that the decision had to do with O’Brien’s “negative” papers about marriage and the family. Yet many colleagues of O’Brien were dubious. Wild himself would later call the decision a “shortcoming,” but still stood by it.
The LGBTQIA+ Resource Center, located on the first floor of the AMU, is a community space that offers resources and events. Photo taken by Isabel Bonebrake