During the GSA meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 9, freshmen Kimberly Ornelas Garcia and Noah Basso use laptops to plan ideas for posters.
In Shawnee
The “purple area,” as Zebley nicknamed the community around Mill Valley for its blend of liberal and conservative views, maintains a lot of variance in the way its LGBTQ residents are treated. In some places, LGBTQ people are treated well and accepted as members of the community. In others, LGBTQ people are ostracized and feel unwelcome. According to Augustine, one of the scariest places for LGBTQ people like her in the community is her church.
“Every time I walk into church, I feel like there is this huge target painted on my back. All it takes is one wrong word,” Augustine said. “I don’t know what they could do to me. But it’s going to be bad.”
Outside of a few select intolerant places, though, Augustine still believes that the larger community appears tolerant of her — however, she’s not sure how real the apparent tolerance is.
“I feel like we do have a pretty tolerant community. But the people who are upset about [my sexuality] will not say it to my face, or they assume that I am part of the straight community and they will just mention it under their breath,” Augustine said.
Due to the stigma surrounding her sexuality, junior Madelyn Augustine feels judged within the community at her church
McClure echoes Augustine’s sentiment; she agrees that while on the surface Shawnee appears accepting, there is still a less tolerant population where progress needs to be made.
That population revealed itself at a Shawnee city council meeting where a city ordinance to add LGBTQ people to the city’s nondiscrimination policy was discussed. The ordinance passed in a 5-2 vote; however, it passed only after four hours of deliberation that featured criticism of the ordinance from several members of the community.
At the meeting, councilman Eric Jenkins, who voted against the ordinance, claimed that there was “no evidence presented that there have been instances of sexual orientation or gender discrimination in [the Shawnee] community.”
Council president Stephanie Meyer, who voted in favor of the ordinance, disagrees with Jenkins’ assessment, citing the four hours of public discussion as an example of where progress is needed.
“I believe Shawnee is a welcoming place,” Meyer said. “That being said… it was clear from some of the public conversations that we still have some work to do in better understanding both the struggles these individuals still face.”
Loading ...Augustine is afraid of this intolerance in her personal life, and she notices the same concerns Meyer has about the adults in the community.
“I can’t handle the fact that adults that I am close to and I have known since I was young could one day be weird around me because of [my sexuality],” Augustine said. “I just I don’t know if the adults in this community are as welcoming.”
McClure agrees with this assessment: while the community is generally accepting, there are areas with a lot of work left to be done.
“I do know that there is still discrimination going on. We’re not perfect,” McClure said. “But I think [our area is] better than some other areas in the state of Kansas.”