SU Commemorates LGBT History Month
SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University commemorates LGBT History Month in October with a series of films, discussions and other events.
Highlighting public activities is a display of a section of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt near the Library Service Desk of the Patricia R. Guerrieri Academic Commons through Wednesday, October 31. A reception is 5-6:30 p.m. Friday, October 5, on the second floor of the Guerrieri Academic Commons’ café area.
Begun in 1987, the full quilt is comprised of more than 49,000 panels, each memorializing a person in the U.S. who died of AIDS. New panels are added each year. It has been named the largest piece of ongoing community folk art in the world.
The first of two film screenings, Major!, is 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 17. The award-winning documentary explores the life and campaigns of Major “Mama” Griffin-Gracy, a formerly incarcerated African-American transgender elder and activist who has been fighting for the rights of trans women of color for more than 40 years.
The second, Philadelphia, is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 30. The Academy Award-winning 1993 movie tells the story of Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks), a man with HIV who finds an advocate in a homophobic attorney (Denzel Washington) following wrongful dismissal from his law firm due to his condition. Dr. Elsie Walker of the English Department leads a discussion following the film.
Both are shown in Fulton Hall Room 111.
The series culminates with the panel discussion “Stigma in the Fabric of Society: A Discussion of the LGBT Experience During the 1980s and ’90s” 3:30 p.m. Thursday, October 25, in the Guerrieri Academic Commons Assembly Hall. Panelists speak from multiple perspectives on the LGBT experience.
Led by guest speaker Tamar Carroll, associate professor of history at the Rochester Institute of Technolgoy and author of Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty and Femnist Activism, the panel includes Drs. Michéle Schlehofer, chair of the Psychology Department; Brandye Nobiling, chair of the Community Health Program; and Ken Forrest, History Department graduate assistant. Dr. Diane Illig, chair of the Sociology Department, moderates. The discussion is co-sponsored by SU’s Fulton Public Humanities Program.
Sponsored by the SU Libraries Diversity and Inclusion Committee, LGBTQ+ Alliance, Sexual Health and Advocacy Group (SHAG) and Sexuality and Gender Awareness (SAGA), admission to all SU LGBT History Month events is free and the public is invited.
For more information call 410-677-0118 or visit the SU website.