Harry Hawkins channels his undergraduate experience in the new role
UMSL’s
first
LGBTQ+
By Sara Bell
The air feels lighter when Harry Hawkins enters a room, bringing with him a contagious optimism and a dash of tension-easing sarcasm. As the first LGBTQ+ coordinator for the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Hawkins’ approach helps during those tough conversations he’s eager and humble to broach. This is a vulnerable version of himself he’s still crafting, though. His more confident and driven form is likely unrecognizable to his 18-year-old self. An undergraduate at Mississippi State University at the time, Hawkins was mostly closeted and ambivalent toward advocacy efforts. He admired that passion in others – particularly one leader he met through MSU’s gay-straight alliance – but Hawkins remained idle on the sidelines. And then the phone rang. On the other end was tragic news that the role model he only knew for a short time had been beaten to death in a hate crime for being gay. “That moment really changed my thinking,” Hawkins remembers, “because I said, ‘People are dying for being who they are. This is a thing. I can’t just sit back and be quiet when people are dying.’ And so I really jumped in at that point.” Hawkins is still gaining momentum from that initial leap from an “armchair activist” to a frontline advocate.
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