The Orbis

Issue date: 2/17/10 Section: News/Features

Lambda officers Clive Liu, Erica Santiago, and Reanna Zheng discuss campus events.

The Vanderbilt Lambda Association is hard at work preparing for next month's Rainbow ReVU, its flagship program for raising campus awareness about sexual orientation, gender identity and policy issues. This year's highlights include a keynote speech by political activist Staceyann Chin and the annual Pride Banquet.

Vanderbilt's long-standing LGBT group hosts the ReVU each year, showcasing different educational and social topics to attract a wide audience of community members sympathetic to the LGBT cause. The weeklong event will take place March 22-26.

Although the awareness week is over a month away, Lambda president and senior Reanne Zheng explained that a lot of planning is required to host a series of events that will interest different target audiences.

"The purpose [of ReVU] is general education that covers a variety of topics to reach out to different groups. For example, our talk last year on the biological basis of homosexuality appealed to people like the Med. School GSA."

Staceyann Chin, an openly lesbian poet and LGBT advocate, will present ReVU's keynote speech on Tuesday, March 23 at 8 p.m. Lambda's Programming Vice President Erica Santiago believes that Chin represents a diverse cross-section of Vanderbilt that will appeal to many groups on campus.

"She herself identifies as Caribbean and Black, Asian and lesbian, woman and a New Yorker, not to mention her involvement with the spoken word movement. I think a lot of people will be interested in what she has to say."

Another highlight of the week is a documentary screening of "Fish Out of Water" on Monday, March 22 at 7 p.m. The film, which was produced by Vanderbilt alumna Ky Dickens, focuses on the interplay of religion and sexual orientation.

Membership Vice President Clive Liu is looking forward to the screening. "It's really well done. I know the topic of homosexuality in the Bible has been talked about before, but usually people bring up the Old Testament passages. [Dickens] actually brings up verses from the New Testament," he said.

Other plans include an educational lecture on the status of LGBT rights in countries like Uganda, where a controversial bill threatens to punish same sex relationships with imprisonment or even death.

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