In response to the Orlando mass shooting, the Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) is offering a toolkit for supporting our LGBTQA+ community.

For students:

• The GSC is providing counseling office hours for students with Joey Hannah, LGBTQ diversity coordinator at the Counseling and Mental Health Center, for LGBTQ students from 1 to 3 p.m. every Tuesday this summer.
• Students can always come to the GSC during the summer hours (9 a.m. to 5 pm.) and chat. If they want to make an appointment to talk to a staff member, they can arrange an appointment via email:  gsc@austin.utexas.edu.

For staff:

The GSC invites LGBTQ faculty and staff to join the Pride & Equity Faculty Staff Network in the Multicultural Engagement Center on Thursday, June 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to process this event together. It’s a brown bag lunch, but there will be Tiff’s Treats. Also, don’t forget about the Employee Assistance Program.

For everyone:

• Several student groups, including the Syrian People Solidarity Group, Queer Students Alliance, and Queer People of Color, and are hosting a vigil June 14 at 7 p.m. at the tower. You are all invited.
• Here is a graphic that you can print and display to show your support for our full community.
• “How to Help Orlando Shooting Victims” includes national LGBTQ mental health resources and links to action.
• “Coping in the aftermath of a shooting” offers strategies for supporting ourselves and each other.

Things you can do today:

• Check in on your LGBTQ students and colleagues
• Print out and display this graphic
• Center the voices of LGBTQ people, and particularly LGBTQ people of color, in discussions of this violence
• Use affirming language to support LGBTQ people, Latinx people, Muslim people, and people who share all or some of these identities
• Interrupt Islamophobia – negative comments or stereotypes about Islam
• Remind people that there are LGBTQ Muslims and LGBTQ Latinx people in our communities, in our families, and on our campus report bias incidents to CCRT
• Reach out if you need help! The GSC will have open Ally Toolkit Workshops in the fall, and you can request trainings for ten or more any time on this website.

Thanks so much for your support, especially to CMHC for sending counselors to talk with students, and for all the work you do to support LGBTQ+ students in your offices.