USAS Queer Caucus

Below are some questions I drafted to serve as discussion guides to caucus/ally time during regional conferences.  People don’t have to follow this, but I’m offering it as a way to spur discussion.  If people could take notes during the caucus/ally time and post them over this blog, it could serve as a great way for us to start coming to some International (US and Canada) consensus about the work we’re doing.

Questions for Regional Conference Queer Caucus Participants.

1. What are some experiences in your activism (both within and outside of USAS) where being queer has been an issue or has been an important part of your organizing?
2. How are we directly affected by heteronormativity/homophobia/etc. (in general and as part of social movements)?
3. How are heterosexual people affected by heteronormativity/homophobia/etc. (in general and as part of social movements)?
4. Has being queer ever been an issue in working in solidarity with workers?
5. Has being queer ever been an issue in working with other student activists?
6. Are there times when being queer makes you feel uncomfortable or alienated from USAS or other activist groups with which you work?
7. How well does USAS handle issues (both on the national level and day-to-day issues) that specifically involve queer people?
1. How can USAS do better at addressing the needs of queer people, both activists and workers?
2. How can USAS be more actively anti-oppressive on all levels?
8. What can we, as a caucus, do to make USAS more actively anti-oppressive and responsive to the needs of queer activists and workers?
9. What can the queer allies group do to make USAS more actively anti-oppressive and responsive to the needs of queer activists and workers?
10. How open and accepting is our caucus?  Do bisexual and questioning people feel welcome to participate fully in the caucus?  If not, how can we make this so?

REMINDER:  If anyone would like to be part of the Queer Caucus organizing and discussions outside of conference time, please contact Enku at Michael.ide@usm.edu and get signed up for the USAS Queer Caucus blog.

Also, please assign a note-taker during the caucus for a national report-back either over the blog or to the Caucus Rep to add to our discussions leading up to the February conference. If anyone in the caucus has any ideas of things I could do better or need to address as the caucus rep., please do not hesitate to contact me with these concerns…in fact, if you have any ideas at all, please DO contact me.

Ally Questions

Questions for Queer Ally time at Regional Conferences

1. Are there any Queer people in your local group?
2. Is anti-oppression taken up at the local level?
1. If so, is Queer liberation/equality part of this anti-oppression?
2. What can we do at a local level to improve on this?
3. What is heteronormativity?
4. As non-queer people, how are you privileged by heteronormativity, both in general and as part of a movement?
5. As non-queer people, how are you hurt by heteronormativity, both in general and as part of a movement?
6. What affect has heteronormativity had on USAS as an organization?
1. What does USAS do to undermine heteronormativity?
2. How can USAS be more anti-oppressive in general and in issues of heteronormativity?
3. How can USAS better combat oppression and heteronormativity?
7. In what ways is queer oppression similar to other identity-based oppressions? In what ways is it unique?

REMINDER:  If anyone would like to contact Enku, Queer Caucus representative, please feel free to do so at Michael.ide@usm.edu.

Also, please assign a note-taker during the ally time for a national report-back either over the Queer Caucus Blog or to the Caucus Rep to add to our discussions leading up to the February conference.  All parts of this discussion are essential to making USAS the best, most representative organization it can possibly be.

(Click Picture for Regional Conference Information)

Midwest has come and gone and many more are to be had! If people from the caucus will be attending regional conferences, and would like to facilitate Caucus time, please contact your Regional Organizers.

Caucus time is really important in seeing where we are and what we need to do on a national level (as well as giving us some much-needed face-2-face time).

Even if you’re not up to facilitating, could we make sure that a few things happen at each conference?

1. List of people and contact info.
2. Get people information about the blog.
3. Something written up (to be put over the blog) as a check-in to see what was discussed and what needs to happen.
4. anything else y’all want.

Northeast kids: email jamila (your RO) at jamila@usasnet.org if you’re interested in facilitating at the conference.

Hey y’all, this is Enku the USAS Queer Caucus Rep.

Please get in touch with me if you have any concerns, questions, ideas, or whatnot concerning the queer caucus.

I study Sociology and Spanish at the Univ. of Southern Mississippi (USM) and have been active in both Queer and Labor struggles for a while. I helped found our USM GSAand then, in getting frustrated with the mainly middle-class and white dominated LGB movement, broadened out into a wider Human Rights focus. In 2003 I spent a year in the UK where I got more focused on Labor and joined the Socialist Party. I already considered myself a socialist before going, however. In coming back to the US I began working pretty heavily with Amnesty International and eventually got hooked up with the Student Farmworker Alliance. We began working on the Taco Bell boycott here in Hattiesburg but the national campaign won (woot!) so we used the interm to start a USAS chapter and begin working on USASery down in Southern Miss. I’m also a member of the New Orleans branch of Solidarity: a democratic, revolutionary socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization. In USAS, I’m also a member of the Working Class caucus.
You can check out my Myspace for more info or you can just ask me.

Enku: michael.ide@usm.edu
601.590.1260

In peace,
Enku
Groups I work With:
Amnesty International
Student Farmworker Alliance
USAS
Solidarity