Point Park Universitys First Club That Supports LGTBQ Students

This is the first semester that PPU offered this one of a kind club
By Keont Bender

Heather Leasure, President of The Rainbow Club came out last year as a transwoman and faced bigotry and ignorance from others just because of how she
wanted to live her life, which inspired this club.
that kind of put a fire under me a little bit to educate people and say this is a real
issue and its not something thats a game, peoples lives are at stake and its a
very serious thing. Said Leasure.
The Rainbow Club is a place where meetings are held to educate and support
students that are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning, inter-sex and
asexual/ally. The club meets at five p.m. on Fridays at Point Park University in
Academic Hall in room 301.
Wednesday September 23, 2015 was Bisexual visibility day, which is a day to
celebrate those who like women and men. According to the Bi-visibility day website,
this event has been ongoing since September 23, 1999. President of the club
Heather Leasure and treasurer Silmari Munoz kicked of the meeting with a power
point that discussed what bisexuality was and the statistics about it. The evidence
shown was that 40 percent of people in the LGBTQ community identified as
bisexual; women from the age of 18-44 were 13 percent while men were 1.8
percent. After showing this statistic, the discussion of why it's okay for girls to be
bisexual but for guys it's a big deal played out. I had a friend that was dating this
guy and they went to this restaurant and her boyfriend thought the waitress was
hot and asked if she would have a threesome with them." said Leasure. The main
idea was that society and guys think it's so hot when women like each other and
people are grossed out with guys who are bisexual. The conversion of bisexuality
then continued with the discussion of celebrities that are bi. Munoz went through a
slide show of celebrities including Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, actresses
Drew Barrymore and Cynthia Nixon, and rapper Azealia Banks.
In addition to the discussion of Bisexuality, two events that the club is planning
were also a part of the meeting. The club will be hosting an LGBTQ movie night on
October 11 from 8 to 11 p.m. that will serve skittles because of the rainbow and
Kool-Aid. The second event will be an arts and craft activity for members on
November 9th. "The second event is 'make your own pride bracelet', so we're going
to get a bunch of beads of all colors doesn't matter what you do, you can make it
how you want it to be." said Treasurer Munoz. "So bisexuals can make their own
pride bracelets, if your trans, we have all the colors."

The final part of the meeting was a visit from Jason Lucarelli, who was a
spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Pittsburgh. GLCC is
located on 210 Grant Street and is open Monday through Saturday from noon to 9
p.m. According to their website, it's a place that offers resources and opportunities
to promote visibility, understanding, and equality within the LGBTQ community. The
GLCC isn't the only organization in Pittsburgh that helps out the community, there's
also Gay for Good, The Hub Outreach Center, and The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight
Education Network and many more that can be seen on GLCC's website.
The Rainbow club just joined all the other clubs being offered at Point Park
University this year and is only in their first semester says Leasure. The club will
also be having more topics to discuss in the LGBTQ community. Well we definitely
want to talk about asexuality as far as that stands, coming out because national
coming out day is coming up and I really want to discuss that as well." Leasure said.
"Because I know there are a lot of people who are LGBT, who have had their own
personal experiences like coming out to your parents, friends or just day to day
people." As president of the club Leasure's main goal is to educate people. "It's
important to have this club because it will be a place for LGBTQ students to feel
comfortable and help people who may not be educated about LGBTQ issues and put
a spotlight on them to be more aware and educated on what's going on in the
community." said Leasure.