 Good morning and good evening to all our viewers joining from around the world. My name is Timothy Kane and I am the Associate Director for Inclusion Initiatives at the George Washington University right here in Washington, D.C. I use male pronouns, he, him, and his. I'm very excited to be participating in this web chat on LGBTI Campus Life for International Students. We have a wonderful group of students from different educational institutions, backgrounds, and identities to help answer your questions about studying in the United States. First off, I would like to thank EducationUSA, IIP Interactive, and the LGBTI Public Diplomacy Working Group for helping to make this important event happen. I now would like to turn it over to our three panelists in studio, Siobhan, Quileos, and Hua, to briefly introduce themselves. Would you please share where you are from, the school you're attending, and what you are studying, and please add your pronouns. Hi there, my name is Siobhan McGurk, and I'm from the U.K. I'm a PhD candidate in Anthropology at American University, and I use she and her. Hi, my name is Quileos Clark, I'm from Jamaica, and I currently attend the Howard University in Washington, D.C. here. I'm a broadcast journalist in major and an English minor, and my pronouns are he, him, his. Hi, my name is Najchale Bunyapisophan, but you can go with my nickname, Hua. I come from Thailand, and I am studying at Trinity Washington University with the master of science administration, with the concentration in public health and community health. And my pronunciation, a goal for females pronunciation, which is she, her, and hers. I also want to welcome a very special group joining us from Maseru in Lesotho. Thank you all so very much for participating today, and we'll be coming back to you throughout the program with your questions and valuable input. Lastly, if you have questions that you would like our panel to address, please ask them in the chat space next to the video player, or on Twitter using the hashtag study in the USA. That's hashtag study in the USA. We'll try to answer as many of your questions as possible, and we'll also provide links to resources. Helping to moderate the chat space, we have ESA, a master's student at GWU originally from Pakistan, as well as a visa expert from Counselor Affairs to help answer any visa-related questions you may have. I'm going to start the conversation with a question to our panel. Would you please tell us what led you to study in the United States and did being an LGBTI person play any part in your decision? Krillios, let's start with you. Okay. I had always planned during high school, I had always had some plans of doing my tertiary education here in the US, but being an LGBTI identified person, that really put me over the edge to allow me to know that this is the place that I wanted to do it. At the end of my last year, when I graduated high school, I had applied to about 11 colleges altogether. I got into 10 here and won in Jamaica. However, I was waiting to see which one would give me the best scholarship. At the time, so I took a semester off to see which one would do that, and my parents were like, oh, you should just stay here in Jamaica and go to the one that you got into here. Because I didn't want to do that, because I wanted to be free in a place where I could be free as a gay identified man, I chose to sit out that semester and then I came here to Howard, in D.C. Being LGBTI, I had a huge impact and a huge influence on why I chose to come here. Did your parents know that being gay was a consideration for you and your choice of colleges? Well, at the time, my parents didn't know that I was gay. How about you? What motivated you to study in the United States and was being an LGBTI identified person part of your decision making? I think it's very simple that higher education brings more opportunities. I learned from my life experience and my professional experience that being a transgender person, you have to face with high employment and discrimination. So you have limited choices of job to do if you're a transgender person identified. Because of that, that's why I choose to get higher education. I just hope that after graduation, I can do more for myself and I can do more for my community. So as a transgender identified person, you felt that job opportunities were key for you and that higher education would help you in that area? To get that, yes. Great. Siobhan, how about for you? Well, for me, maybe it was a little bit different because I was applying for graduate school to do a PhD program. So I was thinking about being in the States for quite a considerable amount of time and I was really looking to work with particular scholars. So people I admire and that was really guiding my choice of which school to apply to. I wanted to work with specific people. Two other big things were funding, looking for a place that was going to fund my education and looking for other opportunities. I love teaching. I want to go into teaching and going to a school that offered extra training in teaching excellence was something that really appealed for me. In terms of being a queer identified person, I was honestly a bit wary. I came to the United States in 2011 and at that time, the president and the senior politicians hadn't decided that they were pro gay marriage. They were pro gay people or queer people or trans people. And so I was wary about would this be a country that I could be accepted, that I could find community, find like-minded people. But I have done that. So it ended up being the right choice. Great. All right, let's now hear from our friends viewing in Lesotho. Do you have a question that you would like to ask the panel? Would you mind speaking up just a little bit, please? Okay. Can you hear me now? Yes. Thank you very much. Okay, my first question would be, do you encounter any challenges around the campus? Are you able or are you free to talk to the public in terms of forms and degrees? So I believe the question was, have our panelists encountered any campus challenges being open as a trans woman, as a gay man, and as a queer lesbian identified person? Is that the question? Okay. Hua, let's start with you. Do you feel that, I mean, you have a very unique situation. You're at an all-women's Catholic university here in Washington, D.C. Did you experience any discrimination or did you have any pushback about your participation as a student at your university? This is my first semester, actually. So far, I haven't encountered with any, you know, discrimination or now I feel different from the other students. It was very funny because when I started looking from, you know, university, I went to Trinity Washington and submitted my application and I asked them if they have a policy that, you know, have the LGBTI inclusive policy or do they have any policy, prevent us from getting to the university. So in my situation, I just go there and up front to myself and just ask them whether they support or they not support. And they told me that, you know, we have no, we don't do this cabinet against anybody's here. You know, it's, even though it's a Catholic university, but, you know, it's very open, it's very progressive, it's very liberal. Excellent. Krillios, I'm curious. You're attending Howard University, which is a spectacular historic black college and university. What has been your experience? Have you felt that you've encountered discrimination based on your gay identity at Howard? Since I've been at Howard since attending Howard August 2014, I have not experienced any type of discrimination, nothing that would make me feel uncomfortable since I've been there. And as I got there, I joined this, I joined the GSA that is there, it's called Cascade, which is the Gay-Straight Alliance. And the one that is there, it's called the Coalition of Activist Students Celebrating the Acceptance of Diversity and Equality. Wow, that's a mouthful. That is a mouthful. And currently it is the longest running, the longest running gay or LGBT themed organization at any historically black college or university in the United States. So being a part of that was very beneficial to me. And since I've been there, everyone at Howard is pretty open, they're pretty progressive, pretty liberal there, so I haven't had any problems at all, at least not yet. I haven't run into anything. Well, that's great. Just before, I think it helps that the university is also in Washington because Washington, the city itself is very progressive and the laws that are here protect LGBTI identified students from discrimination from the school as well as the students. Siobhan, I'm curious about your experience as a PhD student. So my sense would be a PhD student has a different interaction with the college campus. You might not be living in the residence halls, you might be a commuter student of sorts. Could you describe your experiences around support or possible bias as regarding your queer lesbian identity? Right, yeah, absolutely. You're right, I think, to say that there's maybe less scope for graduate or PhD students, especially people who are engaging in independent research to get as involved in campus life. But at American University, there is a clear effort, like you guys have described, to make clear that there's policies to protect students. But I think similar to Cascade at American University, student-led groups are really clearly leading the push for more progressive policies. They recently introduced a gender-inclusive bathroom policy, so every building has to have a gender-inclusive bathroom. So those are the kind of things that you notice as a graduate student or as any student, which I think are all steps in the right direction. I do know that trans students at my university have continued to face some discrimination, some barriers, but as far as I can see, they're really doing a great job of pushing back against that when it happens and making the rest of the school community aware of it and aware of how painful it is and aware that something needs to change there. Sure. Maseru, do you have another question for our wonderful panel? My name is... ...question. No? I'm so sorry. Would you please repeat that question? Okay, this is a follow-up question. I'm asking if in a case where you have been harassed, a student has been harassed. Does the university take any action or do they help a student to anything? Sure, that's a very good question. So the question was, if there is a case of harassment or bias, is there a protocol? Is there a response that the university would make to address that concern? Krillios, let's start with you. Do you know at Howard University, are there a protocol in place that specifically would address a bias incident against you or anyone else whose LGBTI identified? Yeah, there should be. I believe there is. We were discussing it earlier last semester in Cascade where the leaders of Cascade, they had met with the school board and the president to go over some of the protocol that should be in place, especially when it comes to trans student and gender non-conforming students, because I think that's where they're a bit slower, you know, getting everything, like getting everything on the ball when it comes to that. So they went there specifically for that. But I am quite aware that for gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, there is a protocol in place so that if one does feel discriminated against, you have a way to report that. And when it's reported, strict actions are taken with that. So now they are catching up when it comes to trans issues and gender non-conforming issues at Howard. So that's as much as I know about that. Great. Hua, do you think that that's the situation at your university where they're playing a little bit of catch up regarding trans inclusion? And are there policies and protocol in place to address any bias incidents? To be honest, I don't know if they have any policy regarding to harassment of LGBT individuals, but I do think they probably have, like, you know, if you're a cisgender student, they may have that policy in place. But I don't think that LGBTI inclusive. However, when I study at Montgomery College. So Montgomery Community College right here near DC, downtown DC. Yes. Like, if LGBT-identified students have that problem, they may go to, you know, we have the, we call it Pride Alliance. Pride Alliance. Yeah, which is a group of faculty, professor, students that they do, like, that they support LGBT students on campus. Sure. So you may go to that group of people to ask for help. Sure. I'm curious. When you applied to Montgomery Community College here in Washington, DC, did you know that they had an openly lesbian college president? I saw the video because she, I think, my first year at Montgomery College, they have this video called It Get Better. And, you know, the Pride Alliance and Montgomery College be a part of that campaign. Terrific. All right, let's go back to some questions from our online viewers. So there's a question, can you talk about the process of adjusting to the United States? That's a very, very good question. Were there any notable differences between views on sexual orientation and gender identity between your home country and the United States where you're studying now? Ashuban, what do you think? Well, I have to think back a few years now. I've been here for five years now, and I think that there has been a change. I think that when I first got here, there was a big focus on same-sex marriage, marriage equality, which in many ways, you know, has really helped the visibility of the LGBTI community. But I think that it maybe came during a time of big problems that maybe people weren't focusing on. And maybe personally for me, coming to Washington D.C., a big metropolitan center, I was quite surprised by the inequality that I saw around me, racism, sexism, you know, women's reproductive rights and freedoms are really not in a great situation here in the U.S. still. And so where I found that there was this big embrace of LGBT pride and same-sex marriage, I was struck by the lack of connecting the dots and looking at how discrimination hits people at different levels and in different ways. I must say that I was shocked to hear about so many transgender women being attacked in Washington D.C. But I think that there's scope for change, but really as an LGBT-identified person, as a queer-identified woman, I'm very interested in pushing that conversation further and making our community more inclusive and broadening its scope in terms of what we see as justice. Do you think you've had the opportunity to build coalition across equality movements, working with anti-racism Black Lives Matter folks, working with women's groups, working with folks to support all different minority identities? I think that there has been, but certainly I had a sense of an attitude of let's deal with same-sex marriage first and we'll get to that later. And unfortunately, I haven't really seen us getting to that later. One thing I would say, following on from the last question about policies at our universities, American University and some other universities across the U.S. have started recognizing, I think, the existence of racism on campus, sexual assault on campus, gender dynamics that are not necessarily healthy and starting to address that in forward-thinking ways that focus on education. So I think those are good initiatives that we are seeing taking place on university campuses. I love how you connect all those dots and you really are trying to build a coalition of folks working for the common good. Let's go to the topic of allies. We talk a lot in the United States, especially on college campuses, about building allies across identities, allies of majority identity with minority identities, allies of minority students with other minority students. So could you talk about a little bit of how you would see the role of allies to support LGBTI international students on your campuses? And Krillios, would you mind starting off with that question? Yeah, I could go ahead. Well, I have an interesting story. When I got here to Howard, I had said to myself that I wouldn't be friends with any Caribbean person when I got here because I had assumed that they would all be homophobic because coming from the Caribbean, you're used to. And so when I got here, I knew a couple people because in Jamaica they had this Howard banquet where some of us met the new students, the prospective students, so we kind of met. So I remember the first day when I got here and we were finished with the orientation and meeting each other, and I was leaving the building and I heard someone calling out my name, Krillios, Krillios, from behind. I was like, who on earth here knows my name? I just got here, who knows me? And then I realized it was this guy from that I had met at the banquet back in Jamaica like months ago and he had remembered my name. And it's not the easiest name to remember so I was kind of surprised that he did because to be honest, I didn't remember his name. So I saw him and I guess he was my first friend at the time but at the back of my mind I was like, well, I'm not going to be in the closet when I get here, I'm going to be out. So I had prepared myself for losing him as a friend over time. However, I became friends with all the Jamaicans that were at Howard and I've come to realize through me they have evolved, they have progressed and they are like actual allies of the community now. And that is something that I'm really thankful for and I think that the part or the role that they play is to show that we can all be loving and accepting of others because through them, through my friends I've seen other Caribbean people that are at Howard be accepting of who I am and of who gay people like queer people on the whole are because the thing is many of them, they were never, they never had a queer identified friend. They've known off-queer people. They've probably seen stereotypical representations of them in the media, even US media as well as Caribbean media. And so they've not actually had any contact with someone that they could call their friend. And interesting point, I came here with my best friend from high school who is straight and I was this gay best friend. And so many of them, they were really surprised. So I think that the role that allies play is they help the progression with other people and they sensitize other people to it. So I've had a good time with that. That's great. Hua, I'm curious, did you bring, as Creelius said that he did, did you bring assumptions with you when you came to the United States about how you would be received as a trans woman on a university here in Washington D.C.? Do I bring assumption? I probably say no because I have been here before when I was younger and I am an activist back home in Thailand and I do learn that there's this combination against LGBTI people, especially transgender people across the globe, not just in the U.S. or back home in Thailand as well. So I learned all that. But when I first come here, I have a very good friend who support me to go through all this adjustment. And because I am activist, so when I first come here, I try to look for opportunity to connect with LGBTI people in the area. And I've been to connect with different groups of transgender support groups and I do some volunteer with the organization that's working with LGBTI people. Great. So it sounds like you both think of allies as friends and you made these personal connections, especially with folks from your homeland and it made a really big difference. We have another question from an online viewer. I'm wondering what it was like being in the United States when same-sex marriage became legal? Well, that is a great question. I'm curious. I mean, we're right here in Washington D.C. Did folks go to the White House to see it illuminated with the rainbow colors? Did you go to the Supreme Court on the day of the decision announcement? Let's start with you. I didn't personally go down there to see it, but there was a sense of excitement around the city. So many people who live and work in D.C. had been really pushing for this fight for a long time. So it really meant something to a lot of people. From an international student perspective, although in some ways in my personal life marriage isn't something that's particularly important to me. Being aware as someone in the United States that having a life here, meeting a partner here, settling down with them always had a kind of end date which was after you finish your studies, if you don't find a job that's going to sponsor your visa then you're going to become separated from your partner. That was a hard realization. I came here when I was 27. So that was hard. And so on the one hand I was quite ambivalent about marriage as an institution that I don't necessarily need to be a part of, but I think it's important that those kind of benefits are spread out to everyone, to any kind of individual group or special group. So it has changed the possibilities for me. So it's exciting in that sense. Acrylicos, did you and any of your friends from Howard head down to the Supreme Court? This was in June of last year. At that time it was summer so I was in Atlanta for summer. But I had really wanted to be here so bad. I remember waking up the morning before the decision was even made and I was on Twitter and they were all tweeting photos of the rainbows that were over the Supreme Court and I was like, this is a sign. It's going to turn out well. Then it did turn out well. When the night came I changed my picture on Twitter to the White House in rainbows and I remember my aunt she was out shopping and when she came back and she came home she just hugged me and she cried. It was just a beautiful moment because the fact is when I arrived here in August 2014 less than 50% of the states had marriage equality and in less than a year of being here it became the law of the land. So it was quite a special day for me. That's great. Well these are all spectacular questions that we're getting from our online viewers. Please keep asking them and you can do that in the chat space or on Twitter using the hashtag study in the USA. Let's go back now to our viewing group in Lesotho for a few more questions. Lesotho, do you have another question for our wonderful panel? Yes, we do. Now that we are aware of the... So I believe your question was there is a difference among the states in the United States around LGBTI protections. Was that the question? Yes. Okay, so our friends over in Lesotho are wondering because we have so many different universities and colleges spread out throughout the 50 United States if you choose to go to let's say a rural college or university in the Midwest or some of the location that might not have the same strong protections as we have here in Washington, D.C. Would that be consideration for you? Would you recommend that people research the states where their college and universities are located that they're considering to attend? What do you think? Was coming to Washington, D.C. a specific location because of our protections especially around trans women and people? Actually, I think it's... because I have friends here so I should come to stay with my friend so that my first... actually my first factor that I consider to come here but I do highly recommend that to... for those who want to come to study here in the U.S. to study of the policy and the policy that you want to look at is the state policy because that's going to affect the policy at the university in different states here in the U.S. And that's because the U.S. have very... very unique in the way that different states have different policies and different legislations so you may have to look into that and consider the best place for you to come and consider the best place for you that you feel safe to come here. Sure. And we definitely want to have folks know that there are many rural located universities and colleges that have very progressive approaches to LGBTI inclusion and so it's not necessarily an urban choice or a rural choice. And we have a spectacular resource called campuspride.org and you can go online and you can check out the ratings of each college and university according to very rigorous standards around LGBTI diversity and inclusion. Maseru, do you have another question for our panel? And please, if you could speak loudly, that would be super helpful. And what are the interventions that you guys are doing for health care in the country? What are the... Interventions that you guys are doing for health care in the country? Okay, so my understanding is that your question is what are the interventions, what are the ways that colleges and universities celebrate and support LGBTI students? Okay, great. And I love the idea of talking about celebration of your wonderful contributions and your unique gifts and perspectives as LGBTI students and the unique supports that you may need because of our minority identities. Siobhan, how about if we start with you? So I think in one way, visibility is important and that being something that the faculty and staff can take lead on. So at American University, they quite proudly announced the percentage of faculty and staff who identify as LGBTI. And I think it also trickles down to training at maybe sometimes unexpected levels. So when you go to the health center on campus or you go to the International Students Office or you go to the counseling center, have the staff there been trained to be sensitive to the particular needs of LGBT people and of course those are different between the acronym. And so that kind of training is really important. I think I'm someone who teaches as well on a college campus and is involved in a department and I think faculties and departments taking it upon themselves to educate their students, introducing critical conversations about sexuality, gender, the social construction of those identities is really important at the classroom level and it's something that can take place in explicit ways but it's also something that takes place in subtle ways as well. But I think intervention is a really important thing to change people's mindsets. Acrylios, have you felt celebrated at Howard University around your unique gay identity and the perspectives that you bring to Howard because of it? Yeah, definitely. Last semester, Howard had its first university-sponsored homecoming LGBTQIA banquet. QIA Queer Intersex Asexual. There we go. So we had the first banquet for homecoming, the first ever university-sponsored one. It was a great success. Our host was Omarosa Manego. She was the one that was there. It was really, really good. We had so many alumni that came and so it was a huge thing. The president was there. I did a couple interviews with him as well and he was giving me his views on Howard moving forward, celebrating those that are of LGBTI identification at Howard as well as I remember Westboro Baptist Church came there, came to Howard to protest. Which is an anti-LGBTI group. Yeah, they came there last year in my freshman year to protest and it was beautiful to see the Howard University community coming out with cascade, not just cascade members, but the Howard University group coming out to support us and we all stood up against Westboro Baptist Church. You know, we had our own pickets. People came out saying black love matters, all love matters, like everything and it was really beautiful and they planned to stay for like three hours. They left in like half an hour. You don't mess with Howard University students. How about you? Do you feel from your college experience that you're celebrated as a trans woman? Do you feel that people and the institution overall offer you the support as well for your unique identity? When I was at Montgomery College, I was a part of a very small group of students. You say like five people, six people, LGBT students that become together because at that time at Montgomery it's a small college. It's a community college. We don't have like LGBT student centers, something like that, like a big university. So we come together as a group of students and a few faculty members and we talk about how we can support LGBT students and I got a chance to propose to organize a trans-specific event and I just realized that that was the first trans-specific event that I held Montgomery College to organize. Congratulations. Yeah, you know, it's not just like, you know, you have to keep space, you know what, all these universities have to keep space for trans or LGBT identify students to organize their own event or to advocate for themselves. But it's also your responsibility to go up front and ask for what you want from the university. I think that's go-board way. You make two very excellent points. I want to remind folks about, at different colleges and universities, some places offer and have a specific LGBTI center and some don't. And you can research that to find out if there's a specific set of resources for you. And I love the fact that you're saying, you know, students can advocate for yourselves and you can work together across identities with other students and you can let your college and campus administrators know what ways you feel like you could be celebrated. You can contribute more because of your LGBTI identities and what ways you need maybe a little bit of unique support. Siobhan, please. I'm just going to add to that that I think as well as looking at the official university websites because there are groups on campus that sometimes are not officially affiliated with the university, it can be a good idea to go online on Google or on Facebook and search for queer groups or LGBT groups in the local area within the local student community because you might see something pop up that isn't on the university administration's radar. Sure. But is a group of five or six people that will become something because of your involvement, even grander. So especially in the age of social media there's all sorts of ways to connect with queer folks who are at your college or near your college. We have a wonderful question coming in from our viewing group at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston. Does Howard University have a diversity inclusion policy? If so, did it assist Crilios in any way? If not, is there need for one? Crilios. Yes, that's my question. Yes, we do have... There is a diversity inclusion policy at Howard. Let's remember it's a historically black university, so majority of the students there are of African American descent or if they're international they're maybe from Africa or the Caribbean or places like that. We also do have quite a bit of persons from East Asia, Southern Asia, Europe and also people from America who are not African American. So there is a lot of diversity there and when it does come to LGBT students we have quite a number of LGBT students there and so there is a diversity inclusion policy there. I won't say mostly because it's located in D.C. but possibly if the university were somewhere else it wouldn't have been there yet. Let me say that. But if you come to Howard you will feel very, very welcome and a person in Kingston, I just want to say good luck on your applications to universities here in the U.S. I'm really curious just as a quick follow-up do you think it's important for Howard to have a specific in writing policy around diversity and inclusion? Do that make you feel more welcomed, more secure and safe? I definitely think so, I definitely think so. Mind you, I think there is a written one because I remember the first time I attended the first big meeting we had they spoke out about that so that was something that they made very clear when we got there. So I think there is one in writing but yeah it does because when I arrived and they had said that it made me feel so much more welcome the moment they had said that and I was sitting the auditor and I'm like you know this is the place for me I'll feel welcome here. Excellent. We have an EducationUSA viewer in Loam Togo who has a question for our panel are there any LGBTI groups that can support international students transiting into US educational system? Have you been able to find faculty or staff members who serve as mentors at the university? So the idea of mentors in terms of the leadership at your universities is key. Do you feel that you have found mentors that you see mentors that you know of mentors who are either LGBTI identified or allies? Siobhan how about starting with you? Yeah certainly within my own department my supervisors Adrian Pine and Dr. William Leep have been wonderful mentors in a personal capacity but also in an academic capacity but also one thing that I did appreciate a lot at American University was during the teacher training course that I did over three years there wasn't in the final year they talked about applying to jobs applying to academic institutions and we were made very clearly aware of how that is a different experience for people who identify as queer or lesbian or trans or gay and it was I think very important to have that kind of specialized information and guidance and feeling that you can go and talk to your career counselors and say look I'm worried about encountering discrimination in job interviews and being told you know just so you know if you're being interviewed for an academic position they shouldn't be asking you anything about your personal life if anyone asks you that question you can say I'd rather not answer that I don't think it's really relevant to my ability to do this position and having that kind of tip was really I think important and a great example of mentorship And it seems like many universities offer similar kinds of trainings for LGBTI students where they prepare you around your resume writing they prepare you around interviewing for jobs about how to include as you choose your LGBTI identities Hua did you, I'm curious did you find many mentors and allies that you could look to in terms of faculty and staff? At the university I am now you know it's Catholic university it's females universities and we have like you know we still have a very small group of international students so I would say they are they are getting their way there but not yet there you know and I feel like I think mentor is very important for LGBTI student and I if I get a chance to you know to tell my universities I would say you know if you don't know how to do it just ask for my opinion because I am there for you and I want to see that happen in the university I study act So it sounds like you're bringing added value to your university because of not in spite of but because of your trans identity with the spectacular These are all great questions please keep asking them in the chat space or on Twitter using the hashtag study in the USA and let's just go quickly to another question that's coming up from Twitter do students have freedom of association do they have the ability to build LGBTI student groups on their campuses in the United States So Krillios what was your experience do you feel like you have freedom of association as a gay identified man at Howard can you start a new group if you wanted to around for example LGBTI students of color at Howard Yeah definitely definitely at Howard there we don't only have one group as a matter of fact we have quite a few in the different graduate schools as well so for the law school they have outlaw I love that name by the way the first time I saw that I was like you know that's a pretty clever name they have outlaw there the school of Divinity has a GSA there so in the school where people are studying religious studies maybe to be pastors they have an LGBTI definitely yeah that's spectacular yes definitely so every single not just the undergraduate school has cascade but all the different graduate schools at Howard also have that so creating a new group for anything quite easy you will be able to do that at Howard I think last year someone was trying to start like another group but never really got off the ground but yes at Howard you definitely can great we have another question coming in from the US embassy in Kingston how are our panelists who are open with their sexual and gender identity balancing their life and relationships with friends and family back home very very good question so who are you still in contact with and do you still have family and friends back home and are they aware of you as a trans woman advocate and leader here in the United States yes in fact I speak with my mom yesterday about this event is she watching right now? I don't know because my mom haven't limited access to the internet and you know so but but I asked her if she could have someone access her so she can see me online and that would be fantastic hi mom if you're watching but I have to say that I'm very fortunate that I have my parents that support this decision to get higher education and they also help me with the tuition fees and everything here in the US and however I realize one thing that you know the tuition fee for international student here in the US is very expensive therefore if you are a trans person and your parents doesn't support the way you are you're going to have a hard time getting a higher education and that's this one thing that I would encourage if you want to support a transgender community and transgender people to get higher education maybe one thing to consider these are scholarships that would be very helpful for those who want to come here to study to get higher education and I believe that Education USA has many resources around helping international students finance their college and university experience here Krillios I just want to ask you really quickly for students who are not openly open about their LGBTI identity maybe in Kingston and they are choosing to come here to study and maybe be more open about their sexual or gender identity here how do you see the ability to balance being open enough but safe enough regarding folks back home okay when I was trying to come here I was still pretty much in the closet only out of a couple people when and I chose to come here because I wanted to be out of the closet so when I arrived here I've been out of the closet at school as well as with all my friends and couple family members I have quite a bit of family members in the US so I'm out of a couple of them and it does take some getting used it does take some time to get used to the fact that you're not hiding yourself anymore it does get some getting used to especially when you think about those that you have left back home so I'm out I've been out on social media though since I was in high school in Jamaica but my parents aren't on my social media so that wasn't really a problem and I'm out on every social media here now and I'm very much out I think I've seen you on social media I'm also out with friends back home like my closest friends I'm not out to most of my family back home though and I mean I guess if they see this they'll know but I mean it's no problem to me because I've been living my life you know open and out so I think one just has to have the courage to realize that you are living your life like you're not living your life for anyone else but yourself but always remember that your safety is important so if you feel that there is a threat to your safety then you know you might want to kind of tour the line a bit but since I've been here I think through my influence there are a few Caribbean people that I have met since this year that have come out to me you know and have they haven't come out to everyone else yet but I know and you know it takes baby steps fortunately I went to a school where I had friends that were open that were progressive and so I already kind of had that experience of being open with people so when I got here it was kind of a smooth transition but many of them are coming from schools you know that would be in Kingston or wherever that they didn't really have the space to be at least kind of open. And it speaks also to who is a very important point that if you're financially dependent upon your family and they might not be happy that you're open or celebratory of your LGBT identity you have to take that into consideration as well. We have our question from Lesotho. Had your time in the United States at universities and colleges influenced how you view your sexuality and or gender? I think picking up on some of the points that were just mentioned one thing that has happened since I've come to the US is I've realized how kind of monolithic in some ways these ideas are about identity, the acronym LGBTI in some ways it does promote stereotypical ideas ideas about how to be out or if to be out and I think one thing I've learned since coming to the United States as a result of that which might sound paradoxical is that there are a million ways to not fit into the normative expectations of what it means to be heterosexual or cisgendered and that diversity is really important is an important thing that we don't get lost in. I identify as a queer women, I have friends who are pansexual agender, gender fluid so many different acronyms and I think that finding space to do that is important it's important for me and I think it's important that we realize that there's all these possibilities and we shouldn't feel constrained. Great, really quickly are there any universities or colleges here that you have experienced maybe your own that are very LGBTI affirming? I think that was the question from Lesotho. Do you feel like your colleges the truth that you've attended have been LGBTI affirming? Have you heard of any other standout university or college that you know has really strong policies? University of Maryland they have a good University of Maryland they have an LGBT student life center for students and that's pretty big one and also they have this training for staff at University of Maryland I think that's a good model if the other university want to apply those models with their policy and you know at University of Maryland I got a chance to go to this training and they trained the staff member and also faculty member to learn about LGBTI gender and sexuality. I can't believe it but our time was almost up this has been such rich discussion I'd like to thank everyone for their participation in today's web chat thank you to all of our online viewers including all of those watching with viewing groups I see lots of folks waving from Lesotho it was so great to have you here and of course a big big thank you and applause to our three panelists who did an amazing job along with Issa who is in our web chat space one last thing Siobhan, Krilios and Hua would you have one final recommendation one final point that you would like to share with our viewing audience? Yeah absolutely good luck with your pursuit of education whether it's in the United States or anywhere else if you are looking for information there's lots of resources out there some of which have already been mentioned don't feel that you have to be pushed into any particular category be yourself explore that and good luck with your continuing education Krilios, I would say research, research, research just to make sure that the university that you want to go to or the program that you want to pursue research where it is research the location, research their policies as it has to do with how they treat LGBT identified students as well as research the type of financial aid how much, how little the ways how to get them research that as well because these are all important things that you must you know consider when you're coming here just to make sure that you are comfortable when you get here or if you choose to come here and that you are like you are affirmed when you get here definitely who a final word? The society now is changing and we learn more about you know transgender people and just believe one thing that you believe in those changes that is getting better and you will take all that advantage that is going to happen in the future and the last thing is that believe in yourself and you can do it. Wow, on that very positive note we would like to wrap up this spectacular panel if you still have questions please go to the nearest EducationUSA advising center in your country a searchable list is available at education USA.state.gov backslash centers that's educationUSA.state.gov backslash centers thank you all so much a recording of this program will be available on this web page so please feel welcome to share it with your friends and colleagues we hope all of our online viewers come back for the next web chat about the experiences of Muslim international students studying in the United States stay tuned to this web page for more information thank you all so much and have a great day