Q Center
A lecture and workshops
Janna Barkin Lecture: A Collaborative Effort
This fall, the Alumni Office was contacted alumna Janna Barkin ’88, who asked about visiting campus to give a lecture following the publication of her personal memoir about raising a transgender child, He’s Always Been My Son. As the mother of a transboy, Barkin has developed a reputation as a trans advocate and provides workshops and advocacy for trans people and their parents.
While a general LGBTQ student audience would not have much interest in Barkin’s story as a parent, her story is invaluable to Binghamton students studying in our professional programs. Future nurses, teachers, pharmacists, social workers, psychologists, and even student affairs and marketing professionals can learn from a mother’s story of how the professionals she and her son encountered along their journey (today her son is a 21-year-old college student) could have been most helpful to them. Barkin’s inquiry provided the perfect opportunity for a collaboration between the Q Center and a number of our professional departments.
Barkin addressed an audience of 54 composed of undergraduate and graduate students, alumni and community members in late September. Her lecture was cosponsored by the College of Community and Public Affairs, the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pride and Joy Families and the Institute for Justice and Wellbeing. Additionally, the Decker School of Nursing provided great support in advertising and encouraging their students’ participation. There were also 22 professionals who received continuing education credits in education or social work for their attendance.
LGBTQ Active Ally Program Train-the-Trainers
The Q Center is ready to launch the LGBTQ Active Ally Program in the spring after a successful train-the-trainers workshop in November attended by 16 students and staff who learned how to facilitate the introductory workshop, “On Becoming an Active Ally.” The three-hour workshop introduces members of the Binghamton University community to what it means to be an active ally, provides an overview of human sexual identity and engages participants in experiential learning about norms and privilege. The introductory workshop is just one component of the multifaceted program of workshops and events that expose Active Ally participants to new knowledge, opportunities for self-exploration and active engagement for skill building. Workshops for students and those for faculty/staff will be announced via Dateline and B-Engaged in the spring semester.