Welcome...

...to another fabulous installment of Campus Pride's and OUTmedia's new Queer It Up! Take Action Fridays. In this week's edition...

• HOT LIST! Kimberly Dark, spoken word performer
• Camp Pride
• OUT TO PLAY! Make your nomination today!
• Querying Gender & Sexuality
• Victory at Belmont University
• Let us feature your campus!

Check out this week's great features after the jump...

HOT LIST! Kimberly Dark, spoken word performer

Kimberly Dark is a writer, mother, performer and professor. She is the author of five award-winning solo performance scripts and her poetry and prose appear in a number of publications. For more than ten years, Kimberly has inspired audiences in fancy theatres, esteemed universities and fabulous festivals She tours widely in North America and Europe anywhere an audience loves a well-told story. The Evening Echo in Cork Ireland says “the balance between objectivity and intimate analysis certainly gives Dark an edge and has made her a force to be reckoned with on every level.”

Learn more about Kimberly...

Camp Pride registration opens

Don't forget: Registration for Campus Pride's fifth annual Summer Leadership Camp is open online.

Camp Pride returns to Nashville, Tenn., on this anniversary year with brand new and exciting programming and features. As usual, the camp will be a place where LGBTQ and ally students learn to "Lead with Pride," but we're most excited about this year's first-ever Advisor Bootcamp.

The Advisor Bootcamp is a special, professional track during the camp, with new skill-building experiences for LGBTQ and ally organization/club advisors.

The five-day event will be held at Vanderbilt University, July 19-24, 2011.

Our Happy Camper Discount ends on April 16, so start registering today!

OUT TO PLAY! Make your nomination today!

This week, Campus Pride and Compete Magazine announced a new initiative to rank and reward the most LGBT-friendly collegiate athletic programs in the United States.

Nominations for our OUT TO PLAY rankings are open. Click here to skip right to the nomination form, or learn more about the new initiative.

Querying gender

In January, Campus Pride released a statement condemning The Common Application's decision not to add questions regarding sexual orientation and gender-identity to their college application used by hundreds of institutions of higher education across the country.

Giving students optional opportunities to self-identify is not only an important part of college admissions, but also of continuing student involvement, engagement and campus activities.

Whether asking for sexual orientation or gender identity, though, how does one go about asking questions in respectful and appropriate ways? What types of questions allow students to answer in completely open and honest ways?

Such decisions are important for admissions professionals as well as student organization leaders and faculty advisors and others across a college or university campus.

Below are examples for both sexual orientation and gender identity. Notice the two examples given. The second one will likely produce a wider variety of responses, which has its advantages and disadvantages depending on the task at hand.

How to ask about sexual orientation on college applications or in other scenarios:

OPTION ONE
1) Sexual Orientation (mark all that apply)
__ heterosexual/straight
__ gay
__ lesbian
__ bisexual
__ queer
__ pansexual
__ another identity (specify: _______)

OPTION TWO
1) Sexual Orientation: ______________

How to ask about Gender Identity on college applications or in other scenarios:

OPTION ONE
1) Gender (mark all that apply)
__female
__male
__transgender
__another identity (specify_______).

OPTION TWO
1) Gender: ________________

Victory at Belmont University

After months and months of back-and-forth with college administrators, Belmont University (Nashville, Tenn.) student Robbie Maris has finally won official recognition of his LGBT and straight ally diversity group, Bridge Builders.

From The Tennessean:

The university confirmed the decision with a joint statement from Belmont Provost Thomas Burns and Bridge Builders president Robbie Maris:

“This outcome represents many months of conversation, collaboration and cooperation between Belmont students, faculty and staff,” the statement read.

“We are pleased that our ongoing campus dialog about Christian faith and human sexuality has helped us to establish Bridge Builders as an official student organization at Belmont University.”

The statement continued: “What we have accomplished working together represents our community well and is better than what we ever could have accomplished working separately. Our commitment to work together in developing this meaningful and important group on our campus reflects our community’s spirit of collaboration and dialog as we strengthen our diverse Christian community of learning and service through disciplined intelligence and compassion.”

Read more at The Tennessean and at Belmont Vision.

Read more about Maris' past troubles with the administration:
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Want more? Check out our past Queer It Up! coverage.