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Ball State University student creates gay superhero to advocate for LGBT rights
By Julia Terruso
Posted: 3/6/08, 12:54 AM EST Section: News
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."
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."
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Jennifer Dietsch
posted 3/11/08 @ 3:46 PM EST
I just wanted to note that the school is Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green Ohio, Ball State University is a school in Indiana and to the best of my knowledge, there are no gay super hero's there. (Continued…)
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