Politics and Pints is holding the ABCs of LGBTQ alongside the LGBTQ Club on Thursday at The Knight Club as part of the #MakeChange: Speak Up. Speak Out series. The event begins at 7 p.m.
Claudia Herrero, a sophomore public service and global affairs major, typically helps to host the event each month. Each month there is usually trivia, free food and a discussion about the topic.
“It’s more of an event where we try to educate students on topics that they have heard before but not really understand and all the politics and social norms behind that,” Herrero said.
Politics and Pints is not new, but this month’s theme is. Every month there is a theme based on current issues — last event, the topic was recycling regarding plastic pollution.
Typically, the two facilitators of the event, the head of Gannon University’s history department, Jeffrey Bloodworth, Ph.D., and Peter Agresti, assistant professor in the history department, decide the theme along with a committee of students. This process is changing as the event becomes more established and is more successful.
“It’s been growing,” Agresti said. “We get different groups interested.”
One such group was Gannon’s LGBTQ Club. The club talked and worked with facilitators of Politics and Pints, and it led to the creation of Thursday’s event.
“I’m really happy they reached out,” Agresti said.
The decision to reach out came from Bloodworth and Herrero, who is part of organizing Politics and Pints and a member of the Love Is For Everyone (LIFE) Club.
At the event, the LGBTQ Club will be there to help facilitate discussion and ask questions about current events, said A.J. Flowers, a fifth-year senior software engineering major and LGBTQ Club president. The group will also be giving more diversity to the discussion and offer a different perspective.
Flowers said they aren’t sure what to expect from the evening, but that it’s an excellent opportunity for the club to spread awareness on Gannon’s campus. There is no set goal for the club Thursday.
With the event, the club will be “spreading the knowledge, spreading awareness of the club and just spreading that there are LGBTQ members on campus,” Flowers said. “Visibility is hard, but it’s important.”
Herrero, a dedicated attendee of Politics and Pints, said she is looking forward to the event on Thursday and will be attending.
“I think it’s a fantastic way to help students become aware of our LGBT community and to clear up questions that someone may be scared to ask,” she said.
Not only are participants excited, but so are the club’s facilitators.
“I think this one has the potential to be the biggest turnout yet,” Agresti said.
Politics and Pints is not the end of the LGBTQ Club’s collaboration with other activities on campus.
“I know we’re supposed to, or at least trying to, do something with the Legal Studies Club looking at current laws,” Flowers said, adding that the Supreme Court had several laws on the docket and they will be discussing this.
ALEXA ROGERS
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