LGVMA's GOOD NEWS!
originally printed in April 1999 issue

Building Bridges in Pullman

Months of planning and advertising for the SCAVMA Symposium, held in Pullman, Washington, on March 18-20, resulted in an unqualified success. For the first time since becoming student representative to the LGVMA, I feel a sense of unity and interest among student LGVMA across the country. The official gathering was a cocktail party on the first evening at a gay-friendly student's house. Twenty-one people attended the event, including two young children belonging to the host. Eight were current LGVMA student members; five were family/partners, and eight were new students to the LGVMA. Eight different veterinary colleges were represented, including: Washington, Oregon, California, Virginia/Maryland, Wisconsin, Cornell, Michigan, and Ohio.

Conversation focused around comparing social and academic situations at the various veterinary colleges represented. Some of the students attending had no previous knowledge of the LGVMA's existence, while for others it was their main reason for coming. This was evident in two additional gatherings organized as a result of the interest and excitement of having so many LGB and friends in one place. Louisiana and North Carolina missed the first evening's gathering but caught up with us later that first night for dinner and dancing, making a total of ten schools represented at Symposium.

As hoped, an exciting new web of communication has arisen as a result of LGVMA's outreach at the Symposium. We should consider this a confirmation of our success in publicizing the event, and reason to organize similar events at future Symposiums. Symposium spawned new goals including: establishing permanent student links through the LGVMA's web page to prevent breaks in communication when students graduate and starting LGVMA student chapters at schools which currently do not have one. We also established permanent contacts for each school in attendance to be in charge of keeping the rest of LGVMA informed about their school's activities by submitting blurbs in Good News! and the LGVMA web page. Anyone interested in becoming their school's designated representative please contact me anytime at Student@lgvma.org.

One thing that stood out to me about this meeting was the diversity among those involved. Not all were current members of LGVMA, gay or bisexual, or even veterinary students. This was the second meeting I attended that discussed the possibility of including LGB members in the larger Multicultural/Minority groups. Personally, I had not previously made that connection, but it seems to be a strong means of combating discrimination of all types within our profession.

Michelle Jack,
Student Representative, LGVMA