Kenyon Farrow at Colgate

On Wednesday October 8th , Advocates hosted organizer,communications strategist and writer on issues at the intersection of HIV/AIDS, prisons, and homophobia,  Kenyon Farrow as one of the speakers for the Coming Out Month in Women Studies. Farrow’s talk titled, “His talk is entitled "A Future Beyond Equality: Envisioning an LGBT Movement After Marriage,” challenged my understanding of the same sex marriage movement. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsHmxxhFA5s&feature=youtu.be

In his speech, Kenyon Farrow asked his audience who was composed of students, professors and faculty to be critical of the same sex marriage movement by deconstructing the politics surrounding it. He called us  to question who was benefitting from the movement (white gay men)  while calling attention to the untold story the lack of protection from job and housing discrimination against the LGBTQ community.  He challenged us to think about problems prevalent in the LGBTQ community and what bodies are often forgotten (people of color) in the same sex marriage movement.

Listening to Kenyon Farrow reminded me of the importance of questioning the motives of any movement, to question what is being replaced and at the expense of what and for whom. Secondly,  listening to Farrow made me realize that nothing will change until we begin to  educate ourselves on the stories that are being left out of the media. As a result, only by educating ourselves  can we begin to understand and see the bodies and voices that are not part of the conversation and this is only how true change will happen. Therefore, on campus, in our spaces we as students, faculty, professors can start educating ourselves and having dialogues about the missing bodies that our own campus, classrooms, and clubs render invisible only then can be began to comprehend and see one another.

-Noufo Nabine