HoliGay Dinner to provide safe space for Ohio State LGBTQ community to celebrate holidays

Claire Lefton
Fri, 01 Dec 2017 03:11:46 +0000
Campus, campus, holidays, LGBTQ, ohio state, ohio state holidays, ohio state lgbtq, ohio state multicultural center

Ohio State will hold its annual HoliGay dinner Sunday HoliGay Dinner for those who do not feel like they can spend the holiday season with their biological families. Credit: Stewart Blake | Lantern Reporter

Every year, the Ohio State Student Life Multicultural Center hosts the Queer Family HoliGay Dinner for those who do not feel like they can spend the holiday season with their biological families.

“The event is really about recognizing that heading home for the holidays can be complicated for LGBTQ-identified people in some specific ways,” said Appy Frykenberg, intercultural specialist of LGBTQ student initiatives at the Multicultural Center.

The event taking place Sunday will mark the seventh time it has been held at the university. The Multicultural Center has a history of holding substitute celebrations like its annual Alternative Thanksgiving, a celebration designed to recognize the hardships of the Native American community during the holiday season.

The HoliGay Dinner seeks to provide a safe space for queer individuals to enjoy themselves free of judgement.

“Some LGBTQ folks might not feel safe sharing this aspect of their identity with their family, which during the holidays can cause feelings of sadness or alienation,” Frykenberg said. “Holidays can also be reminders of family dynamics that have not always gone the way we imagined.”

The event is also a chance for those who identify as LGBTQ and allies to come together as a community and form a family of their own.

This idea of a chosen family — or, as the dinner calls it, a “queer family” — is one of the cornerstones of life in the LGBTQ community, as a way to find belonging where otherwise it would not be provided.

“In my experience and the experience of many people I’ve known, what we often call ‘chosen family’ is crucial for survival and joy,” said Cynthia Burack, a professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. “We often create another family that can sometimes be more supportive than those we’re related to by kinship.”

In addition to providing a community, the HoliGay Dinner is a place to discuss what that community means to them.

“Some of us are just not sure of how to talk about our identity and life with our families,” Frykenberg said. “The HoliGay Dinner is an opportunity for folks to come together and discuss some of these shared experiences, and talk about what we are thankful for.”

Despite this being Frykenberg’s first time overseeing the event, he is hopeful that it will be a success.

“Having participated in similar celebrations, I know they have always heartened me,” he said. “Also, I know that attendance has grown over the years. It is an event that folks look forward to, a newer campus tradition.”