OMSA educates on allyship

As part of LGBTQ History Month, the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) concluded its series of ally trainings on Oct. 26 with a session geared towards white allies of LGBTQ people of color. A panel of speakers answered questions posed by facilitators, later responding to questions from the audience.

“I think that the panel is just providing a space for these conversations to begin happening. There are different mediums absolutely, but I think a panel just has that face-to-face interaction,” panelist and VCU senior Ayanna Ogaldez said.

According to OMSA Assistant Director Camilla Hill, the panelists were selected, “based on people who have done past work in our office, who are passionate and who identify as queer and as a person of color.”

The brief presentation before the panel discussion began defined allies as those with privilege who support individuals within marginalized communities, such as those of LGBTQ people of color.

“It’s very important to recognize that the intersections of race and your LGBTQ identity are ones that imply socioeconomic status, there are ones that imply access, there are ones that imply different stereotypes being put upon you,” Ogaldez said.

Hill said that racial bias within the queer community is an important issue to address, and formed the program around it.

“Previous trainings include a program for straight allies, one for cis allies to trans and nonbinary individuals and one specifically geared towards resident assistants,” Hill said.

According to Hill, the focus of the program was to give people the tools to transition from saying that they’re allies to participating in allyship.

“I think that allyship is a buzzword that we throw around a lot, but we have trouble as a community focusing on how to actually do that,” Hill said.

Hill identified factors like discomfort around discussing privilege as a hindrance to these types of conversations. She said it’s important to navigate how to be productive in our privilege rather than just being a member of a privilege class and being blind to the things that other people are facing.

“[Allies] should play a role that is supporting more than anything else. I think that if you’re doing it correctly, then that can be powerful and that can be very impactful,” Ogaldez said.

Ogaldez said she’s had a range of both positive and negative interactions with allies–oftentimes those wishing to provide support will upstage the voices of marginalized communities.

“It’s actually been super problematic and harmful to have these ideas about their places as allies be kind of overshadowing the real issue, especially when we’re talking about QTPOC [queer and trans people of color] and the intersections of those things,” Ogaldez said.

As an example, the panelists discussed their opinions on the overarching responses to the June 12 Pulse Nightclub shooting; they felt that the media coverage improperly handled the incident by inappropriately revealing LGBTQ identities and oftentimes using incorrect pronouns. In addition, during vigils, many individuals outside of the community obstructed the voices of LGBTQ people of color who were significantly affected by the events, they said.

“I think that it’s important to amplify the voices of  QPOC [queer people of color],” Ogaldez said, “Especially on VCU’s campus in terms of being able to hear those narratives and share those stories. I think it’s vital because being on this campus is a privilege and having these conversations can potentially help folks that don’t have the access to this university like we do. I think it’s important for us to recognize our place and use that.”

Both Ogaldez and Hill stated that VCU as a university still needs to take further steps to accommodate the needs of LGBTQ students of color.

“So let’s say [OMSA] does do a good job, but the university as a whole should always be working to progress and always should be working to make it more inclusive and accessible,” Ogaldez said. Hill said that the sessions of ally training will continue in the future.

Georgia Geen, Contributing Writer