1. I know I’ve already spoken and written about it, but Stephen Lein’s letter to the editor in the campus times really did strike me as being significant for our school community. From my perspective, while there has been considerable progress regarding the inclusion, protection, and even celebration, of LGBT+ students on campus, the University of Rochester still has a way to go. This letter pushes the school to take responsibility for its inadequacies and to actively disavow homophobic actions on the part of its own faculty. People who hold power over others usually don’t relinquish it unless compelled to, and Lein definitely did some compelling. Showcasing this letter would be a reminder to both students and faculty that their actions, whether they are interpreted as positive or negative, impact the school as a whole in many cases.
2. The other day, a friend of mine wrote a Facebook post tangentially related to the experience of having a vagina, and used the phrase “women and/or uterus havers.” While her post didn’t explicitly exclude trans women or nonbinary people who were assigned male at birth (that “and/or” certainly complicates things linguistically), it still didn’t sit quite right with me. I try not to get too hung up on language when I can tell people’s intentions are good, and this really wasn’t a big deal, but it shows that progress is a process, I think. Hopefully, if we all keep at it, we’ll find a way to make the language of identity even more respectful and meaningful.