Sacramento State students, faculty, and staff were encouraged to voice their concerns about affirmative action issues in the fall forum, “CSUS Gives a Damn, Do you?”

“The most important thing is that CSUS needs to be a community and I think that is lacking right now,” said Pegah Naemi, a psychology graduate student. “I think we need to work really hard on being aware of who’s on this campus and talking to one another and making this community a safe place for us to talk to one another.”

The discussion took place Thursday morning, and was presented by the California Faculty Association’s Capitol Chapter’s Council for Affirmative Action. The event was focused on how to prevent bullying toward the queer community. More than 120 people showed up.

Cecil Canton, associate vice president and chair Council for Affirmative Action and criminal justice professor at Sac State, believes hate and discrimination of any kind is wrong.

“LGBTQ issues are happening all over the nation,” said Cecil Canton, “We need to raise awareness and send a message out to the community that we are concerned and it needs to stop8212; now.”

The event was organized to address the string of teen suicides that have occurred because of bullying due to sexual orientation.

“We should respect the gay and lesbian community,” said Duy Lu, a junior criminal justice major. “We can’t put them down or discriminate against them, because they are people, too.”

The event started with addresses from a panel of several involved members of the queer community, followed by staff-led student discussions on round tables spread throughout the University Union’s Redwood Room.

“I think the most important thing people can learn from this is the lesson of personal responsibility &- the lesson that bullying can be subtle, inflammatory, or completely obvious,” said Jackson Harris, a panelist at the event and program and event coordinator for the PRIDE Center at Sac State. “It can be something that you say that is not even intended to offend anybody. People need to check what they say, and people need to be aware that what they say can be offensive to those around them, even if they don’t anticipate it to be.”

Among the other panelists were Ben Hudson, co-director of the Sacramento Transgender Coalition, Libby Hartman, director of Microsoft Corporation’s New Product Introduction Program, and Susan Eggman, Sac State social work professor and Stockton city council member. The speakers offered stories and advice relating to how to help make a more inclusive environment by being a strong ally to the queer community.

Lindsey Slama, senior social work major, said the events would be more effective if more non-members of the queer community attended them.

“I think that if you have everybody there that’s from the community, you’re preaching to the choir in a sense,” Slama said. “We need to get out to those that don’t know anyone who is gay.”

Harris said the event was very beneficial for both students and teachers who showed up.

“I think that this was a very important event for the campus to have, and I look forward to the impact that the students and faculty and staff who were here can bring to the campus community that ally mentality,” Harris said. “Regardless of whether you’re LGBT-identified, you always have the opportunity to be an ally to another community, and that standing up for another community &- that overall respect &- that’s the message of this event, and I really, really look forward to that showing up on this campus.”

Micah Stevenson can be reached at [email protected].