In a relaxed panel format, a Lunch N’ Learn program scheduled Friday, March 10, at the University of Delware will feature a panel of transgender and non-binary identified students sharing their experiences growing up as LGBTQ+.

The program will take place from noon-1:30 p.m. in the Ewing Room of Perkins Student Center. Those planning to attend should RSVP by March 6 at www.tinyurl.com/udmarchlunch.

Rebekah Harless-Balmer, UD’s LGBT program coordinator, will facilitate the program, and participating students will discuss the ways in which their identities interact with their experience, not only as students but also as members of a dominantly heteronormative and cisgender society. Lunch attendees will be able to participate in discussion with panelists and each other in a casual manner.

“This event provides much needed dialogue between UD’s transgender students and other members of our campus community,” said Elias Antelman, president of Haven at UD and LGBT programming intern. “The campus climate at the University of Delaware is that of tolerance, but not necessarily acceptance. Events like these allow UD students, faculty and staff to understand the experiences of the LGBTQ+ identified persons they may have otherwise never had an interpersonal connection with on campus.”

Attendance is limited, but Harless-Balmer encourages everyone to consider attending. “It is when we step outside our comfort zones and are open to dialogue we can learn and grow,” she said.

Harless-Balmer said she wants people to remember what former President Barack Obama said in his farewell speech: “For too many of us, it's become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or college campuses or places of worship or our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions."

“The Lunch N’ Learn is not a place for political debate but rather a provided space to allow those who wish to challenge their assumptions the opportunity to do so,” Harless-Balmer said.

“It is the hope that with this open-formatted dialogue, all participants of the Lunch N’ Learn will be able to better understand some experiences of LGBTQ+ identified students and themselves,” she said, “encouraging further growth of an all-inclusive and accepting UD climate for students holding identities of any kind.”

For further information, contact Harless-Balmer at lgbt-allies@udel.edu.