Valley State University’s LGBT Resource
Center is bringing something even more exciting to the table: sex.
Sex Week, which runs today through Friday, will feature a number of discussions about sex and sexuality,
as well as a film showing.
The LGBT Resource Center will present the film “Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She” at 1 p.m. Thursday in Room 2201 in the Kirkhof Center. Milt Ford, founding director of the LGBT Resource Center, will facilitate a discussion afterward.

“Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She” is a documentary that focuses on the blurring of gender and the social and family problems faced by those who lie somewhere between the two definitions of male and female. The film also examines how different cultures out of the U.S., such as those in Europe, Asia and South America, handle the issues of gender blurring, sexual identity and sexual orientation. “Middle sex” includes those who identify as transgender, intersexual, and bisexual.

Although transgender and bisexual individuals now have a good visibility socially, Ford said they did not when he first started the LGBT center in 2008. Today, intersex individuals are still invisible because it is a biological problem, and those individuals almost always identify as either male or female. Because of this, Ford said he sees intersexuality as the biggest issue discussed in the film.

Intersex is a condition where the baby is born with either malformed genitalia or has male and/or female secondary sex characteristics. Intersex affects one in 100 babies born in the United States with one in 1,000 babies requiring surgery. Because it may be difficult to detect whether the child is genetically male or female, the doctor must choose one or the other. Some adults that were born with the condition often say they do not identify with the gender the doctor had decided, something Ford sees as a significant problem.

“It’s an important issue at GVSU because it affects many more people than one would think,” Ford said. “It’s more to do with how people feel in an environment than how many people it affects.”

At GVSU, the LGBT Resource Center works to encourage students and give them guidance. Outside of the center itself, a number of student groups also provide outlets for students seeking support or more information about the LGBT community. “I have gotten support for being transgender from Transpectrum, a group that endorses transgender education and supports gender variant students on GVSU campus and in the surrounding community,” said Kyden Robinson, a GVSU sophomore.

Robinson said the showing of “Middle Sexes” is a good start for the LGBT Resource Center to address the issue.
Although people often shy away from events such as these, Ford wants them to keep in mind that the center is for everybody, not only those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Although the LGBT Resource Center holds events throughout the year outside of their office, which is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday, they are holding many additional events this week. “The first two days are devoted to pulling apart the often-unexamined threads of gender, sex and sexuality,” said Colette Seguin Beighley, director of the LGBT center and organizer of the “Middle Sexes” showing. For more information on GVSU’s LGBT Resource Center, visit the website at www.gvsu.edu/lgbtrc.

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