UT students can be thankful for a home away from home.
The OUTreach Center is holding its second annual “Together We Are Family” Thanksgiving dinner Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. Open to the public, the event will provide UT’s LGBTQA community the chance to share food in a welcoming environment. University Dining will be providing three cooked turkeys for the event, but students are encouraged to bring their own dishes and share them with attendees.
Donna Braquet, director of the OUTreach Center, created the event to give students who couldn’t go home for the holiday a chance to experience the festive atmosphere.
“Some (students) are not out to their parents, and if they are, there’s tension,” Braquet said. “It also allows students who aren’t able to go back home and celebrate Thanksgiving with their own families to celebrate here with their friends and their chosen family.”
Braquet said she believes that families that are not accepting of the sexual orientation of their children are the “number one cause” of the disproportionate number of homeless LGBT youths. Up to 40 percent of homeless youths identify as LGBT individuals, a statistic largely attributed to family rejection, according to nationalhomeless.org.
Braquet said she ultimately hopes that the Thanksgiving dinner as well as the support given from the people of the OUTreach Center will help to create a sense of family to those who may not have it.
“The LGBT family is itself a family to each other to some extent, just because not everyone has a family that’s welcoming,” Braquet explained.
Robin Lovett, a senior in Spanish and one of the student workers at the OUTreach Center, has personally experienced the misfortune many LGBT students feel around the holidays.
“Going home for Thanksgiving can be pretty stressful for a lot of different reasons, and sometimes that includes sexuality,” Lovett said. “Having this means I can go to a Thanksgiving dinner in which I know that I can be my full self.”
For Lovett, the warm memories associated with Thanksgiving are not reserved simply for blood relatives, but for all members of LGBT community at UT.
“With family, I think everyone kind of gets the sense that you love them no matter what,” Lovett said. “I think there’s kind of that sense in the LGBT community on campus, that no matter how you feel about a person in particular … you have a responsibility to them and to make them feel welcome on campus.”
Kaedee White, sophomore in architecture and ambassador for the OUTreach Center, said she remembers her surprise at the success of the first OUTreach Thanksgiving last year.
“I had never seen the center this packed; it was insane the amount of people we had in here,” White said, noting that vegetarian and vegan options will likely be provided by students mindful of dietary restrictions.
While White said her family has never ostracized her because of her sexuality, she understands the importance of the Thanksgiving event for those who may not be as lucky.
“It’s pretty common for many people to be kicked out, to be cast away by their blood family,” White said. “This becomes a second family and a second home.”
