Human rights week events educate and entertain

By Gina Belmonte

As a part of Human Rights Awareness Week, the Santa Clara Community Action Program coordinated events last week to bring positive attention to groups within the university community that have received controversial attention in the past.

The drag show and immigration rally are annual events that are put on to celebrate the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) and immigrant communities, respectively.

These events also allow people to appreciate what these groups bring to the campus community.

The drag show was initiated eight years ago in response to an attack on a man in Mission Gardens because of his sexual orientation.

This year's drag show featured an international theme, and it informed spectators of gender identity issues worldwide by means of powerful slide shows in between performances.

"We wanted to make it so that people understand that this is an international issue and that the LGBT community is, in a way, marginalized throughout the world," said Annie Thomas, student coordinator of the event.

Audience members noticed the drag show's increased focus on education. Senior Brian Reff said he thought the show was "a little weaker, and less flamboyant" than previous years.

He added that he missed some of the entertaining drag queen elements that have been present throughout the show in the past.

"We want people to have fun, but at the same time be aware of the fact that the drag show has a purpose of creating dialogue in an entertaining way about LBGT issues," said Thomas.

She added, "It's not just pure entertainment, its educated advocacy."

Either way, it was hard to ignore all of the show's shimmer and glam. Like most drag shows, performers clad in sequins, bright spandex, feathered boas, glitter, hot pink stilettos and fishnet stockings took over the stage.

Additionally, audience members competed in a drag catwalk for a $100 gift certificate to Asia SF, a bar in San Francisco with transgender waiters and waitresses.

It was emphasized that the drag show was not meant to be representative of the entire LGBT community, but rather a safe space where conversations about issues of homosexuality and transgenderism can be encouraged.

SCCAP Director Katy Erker said student coordinators receive hate mail every year for supporting such an event. While the e-mails this year numbered no more than ten, the fact that they received any shows that the diversity promoted by the drag show has yet to be fully embraced, Erker said.

During the show's introduction, staff member Kim Tavares said, "I cry proud tears to see how far we've made it, but I still cry tears because of how far we have to go."

The immigration rally, which also took place in conjunction with Human Rights Awareness Week, allowed for immigrants and supporters of immigrant rights to gather and speak freely about their experiences.

Nearly 50 students gathered between the campus bookstore and the Shapell Lounge for the rally on Thursday afternoon. At the rally, participants listened to poems, testimonies and songs about the experiences of immigrants.

Walsh Hall resident minister Ed Ibarra, who was born and raised in the Philippines, sang about the restricted freedoms of living in America as an immigrant on his acoustic guitar.

Undergraduate Admissions Assistant Director Lorenzo Gamboa spoke about his family's experiences as immigrants from Juarez, Mexico. "I'm a proud product of this country's immigration," said Gamboa. "It was not an easy road and never will be."

Junior Ricky Alexander also discussed the abject poverty of families in Oaxaca, Mexico, which he witnessed while he participated in a cultural exchange program there.

Senior James Hanold added, "We're here to celebrate us as human beings, as one human race, as one species, one people."

A nationwide series of immigration marches were initiated on May 1, 2006 in protest to a proposed bill which would crack down on immigrant rights. Although this bill did not pass in Congress, the Secure Fence Act allowed construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to begin in 2006.

Erker said May 1 is now "the unofficial day of the immigrant."

Contact Gina Belmonte at (408) 554-4546 or gbelmonte@scu.edu