Exploration 1

Sofia Soto

English 102.44

Melissa Keith

March 5, 2010

Observation 1 Notes

My first observation was attending the BGLAD organization meeting on campus. I thought that this would be a good place to start even though I didn’t know for sure if there would be any gay Hispanics. So I took my chances and went.

The meeting was on Tuesday and I felt kind of weird about going. I didn’t want to make anybody feel uncomfortable about me being there, observing and taking notes about them as if they were some bizarre type of creatures. After all, they’re not any different than you and I. They’re just people.

I sat outside the Alexander room (located in the student union building) and read while I waited for people to show up. Bob (not his real name) from one of my classes showed up for the meeting. I felt relived because at least I would know one person in the meeting. The president of the organization showed up and I introduced myself. I had emailed him about coming, so he already knew who I was. We waited for every one to show up. It was cold in the room and I was nervous to meet everyone.

After everyone was there we began to introduce ourselves. There were a total of nine of us in the room. Two of the males were Hispanic so I was pretty happy, but to be honest I was surprised. While I had been hoping for there to be a few Hispanics in attendance, I hadn’t really expected to find any. Everyone there was very nice and insanely funny. It made me want to attend these meetings regularly.

The president of the BGLAD organization began by talking about some show or event that they were trying to put together. I wasn’t sure what they were talking about exactly, but I eventually caught on. The name of the event is Sheaster (not sure about the spelling), kind of like Easter and it will be held in the Hatch room in the student union building in April. They talked about having Minerva Jayne, drag queen and entertainer extraordinaire, as the host and emcee. I’m familiar with Minerva and she’s amazing so I plan to attend this event. There was also a lot of talk about posters for promoting the event, bunny ears, decoration of bunnies, diversity week, make-up assistants, budget for the event and the gay agenda (not sure what the gay agenda is). I just sat there, listened and laughed about the funny things they said.

It was time to go. On my way out I made small talk with one of the two Hispanic guys. We exchanged a few words but nothing too in depth. I’m glad I went to this meeting even though I didn’t really get the chance to speak with the Hispanic guys for a long period. I met some pretty nice people during this observation.