By Abby Mayle

On April 11, an LGBTQ+ panel was held on campus. The panel featured Dr. Chis Mayo and Dr. Ellen Rodriguez, two speakers from WVU who are incredibly involved in the LGBT community, working for better understanding and acceptance.

The importance of communication and how it can positively affect and apply to everyone was discussed in detail during the panel. The speakers addressed facts like at least 60 countries that still consider being in the LGBT community a crime and the number of countries that still punish the LGBT community with the death penalty at 10.

Dr. Mayo said that too many people believe that now that they have been granted their rights to marriage they have all rights, which is not the case. In many states, including West Virginia, the LGBT+ people can still be fired and or lose their housing arrangements for being part of the community. They expressed to me that their goal was to help educate people about the LGBTQ+ community and the struggles many people in the community face. They also work on educating people about how to create safe spaces for everyone.

On Friday, April 12, there will be a day of silence for the LGBTQ+ community as way to remember the silencing or erasure of LGBT culture in schools and other places. The national event has been held every year in April since 1996. It is  a great way to draw attention to the LGBT community and the struggles they went through and are still going through to this day. Everyone deserves to be heard, but on that day maybe some silence will be in order.