Super Queer
Jennifer Dietsch sat in the student union at Bowling Green State University studying for an upcoming test when a faculty member approached and thanked her for her visibility.
Dietsch was wearing a black triangular facemask and rainbow cape draped over her tie-dye T-shirt. She was dressed as Superqueer, a gender-neutral superhero she created to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender awareness on her campus.
Her rainbow colors and superhero getup contrasted the traditionally clothed peers around her – but that was the point.
‘I wanted to do something that could be really outrageous and get people’s attention and that was queer and gay and as rainbow-fantastic as you could get,’ Dietsch said.
Dietsch is working to change the challenges that surround LGBT awareness and acceptance.
She made her debut as Superqueer on Oct. 13 during ‘Coming Out Week.’ Dietsch’s LGBT group, ‘Vision,’ spent the week bringing recognition to the importance and the complexity of the coming out process – a goal Dietsch has since continued.
Since Superqueer’s first reveal, Dietsch has advocated for a number of causes. On World AIDS Day, Dietsch suited up and walked around the student union clutching a shield bearing the phrase: ‘Don’t light rubbers, that’s a crime. Use a condom every time. Get tested today.’ Dietsch also advocated for same-sex unions on Right to Marry Day and protested the exclusion of gay men from Red Cross blood drives.
The reaction at Bowling Green has been mostly positive, Dietsch said, but she recalled one incident in which a religious group on her campus brought in an ‘ex-gay,’ a person who renounced their homosexuality in favor of religion.
Dietsch said she hopes to curb the pressures and negative influences that threaten young LGBT people.
‘One of my flat-out goals of my activism is that no little high school kid has to be afraid of coming out and has to be afraid that they might be beaten up,’ she said. ‘It’s my life’s goal to make it easier so people don’t have to go through the same pain.’
Annie Russell is a graduate assistant for LGBT programs and services at Bowling Green and the advisor for Dietsch’s LGBT group, ‘Vision.’ She said she admires Dietsch’s boldness and is especially impressed with the dialogue Superqueer has sparked on campus.
‘When she’s running through the student union as Superqueer, she starts conversation and they’re not negative, Russell said. ‘They’re really based upon ‘who is this woman?’ What is she doing and what does that mean? I’m impressed that she has the strength to put herself out there in that way.’
Bowling Green is a ‘pretty accepting environment,’ Russell said. But while the two LGBT groups on campus work hard to support students, Russell said that doesn’t remove ‘the reality of heterosexism that students deal with every day.’
Joseph Aufenthie is a student at Bowling Green and the president of Transcendence, the other LGBT group on campus. He said Superqueer’s presence is one students can’t ignore.
‘Superqueer is good for the school because I think it puts a focus on queer issues,’ Aufenthie said. ‘People don’t think about terms like ‘that’s so gay’ or what it’s like to be queer. Jen reminds them that we do exist, and we are visible.’
Amit Taneja is the associate director of the LGBT Resource Center at Syracuse University. He is also a graduate of Bowling Green University, where he found few resources and little support for the LGBT community.
‘Queer voices were often isolated, ignored, marginalized in different ways so it doesn’t surprise me that students have taken a visible stance in a way that doesn’t let people ignore their existence and their importance,’ he said.
Taneja said the fact that Dietsch decided to create Superqueer tells a lot about how hard it is for queer voices to come to the forefront.
‘By putting it out in such a visible manner, she’s not allowing people to be silent,’ he said.
Published on March 5, 2008 at 12:00 pm
