by Shwetha Sundarrajan Spectrum, one of Ball State’s LGBTQ+ student groups, hosted their first-ever Queer Monologue event where participants would present monologues regarding personal struggles with being queer and addressing problems within the LGBTQ community. “Queer Monologue is a collection of experiences, essentially that either come from our own members or authors who gave us permission online to tell their stories,” said Brooklyn Arizmendi, the president of Spectrum. “So it’s a collection of intersexual, queer experiences from all backgrounds, races, gender, class, and any sort of intersectionality.” The event kicked off with several members presenting a monologue regarding being queer in a theatrical manner. As the evening progressed, the stories became increasingly personal as they touched base on coming out, issues with the queer community and queer people of color, and more. “I think it’s especially important because people often mistake the queer community’s fight to be over ever since gay marriage was legalized. But we’re still being systemically attacked on all levels,” Arizmendi said. They continued, “And there's so much to learn, and gender and sexuality are so fluid and there are so many people who still don’t understand. So when we have events like these, I hope that people come and take away something, a sense of our community and what that looks like.” At the end of the event, many people in attendance could be seen crying after the final monologue came to a close.
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