A virtual SafeZone LGBTQIA+ workshop took place on April 27. The Zoom event discussed current issues within the LGBTQ community.
Sergio Grimaldi, a viking coordinator from student affairs at LBCC hosted the event. The guest speaker of the workshop was Joel Gemino, the youth and family services manager at the LGBTQ Center of Long Beach.
“This is a very important topic everyone should know about starting with our local Long Beach community and I’m so glad all of you showed up for the presentation as participants,” said Grimaldi.
Gemino discussed the topic of pronouns, and then conducted an exercise that involved participants renaming themselves on the Zoom app.
The goal was to change to a pronoun one identifies with. An example would be he/him or she/her which are referred to as gender pronouns.
“We have to understand how students and people identify themselves, this is very important to learn,” said Gemino.
According to Gemino, even before birth there is that idea that certain things are either for girls or boys. When you go to a gender reveal the colors are either pink for a girl or blue for a boy.
“If someone is telling you this is who I am, you accept it for who they are,” said Gemino.
Gemino said, “Just be open of what we are talking about because our system and institutions are all referring to certain types of identities, mainly the straight people and the cisgender people. We know the world is set up as a cis world.”
This information is for everyone to puzzle the pieces though. This is not just for the LGBTQ people, everyone has their own sexual orientation and everyone has their own gender,” said Gemino.
Towards the end of the virtual workshop, Gemino also addressed the topic of bathroom usage faced by some members of the LGBTQ comunity.
Gemino said, “There has been incidents where some of the youth at my program get scared to use the restroom because their transgender and feel as if they don’t belong in society.
In other words, transgender means when someone is not being aligned with ones’ gender at birth.
“Being trans and in a world that doesn’t understand you, see you, or hear you is a mental health issue, you have to understand people’s preferences in society” said Gemino.
The workshop provided information for members of the LGBTQ community and allies as well.
The LGBTQ center in Long Beach offers equity for the LGBTQ community through education, programs, services, and culturally responsive advocacy.
Gemino has been working at the center for seven years and manages both group service and social programs for the LGBTQ community.
This center is the one and only safe haven and retreat where people of all sexual genders, sexual orientations, ethnicity, cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic levels can be able to receive HIV information testing, counseling, healthcare referrals and also many other supportive services.
For support the local LGBTQ center in Long Beach can be reached via phone by calling (562) 434-4455.