Student Development hosts sexual identity book club

BY SHAKIA COLLINS | STAFF WRITER

The Sexual Identity Book and Discussion Group started on November 4th led by Director of Community Life Jake Gilbertson.
The group meets every Wednesday in Cunningham A to discuss the book “The End of Sexual Identity” by Jenell Williams Paris, which discusses heterosexuality, homosexuality, sexual
desires and celibacy. Each student that attends receives Paris’ book.
“Part of what we were hoping to do, was to say this is the beginning of an ongoing conversation,” said Gilbertson. “For people who want to dive into those conversations, there are now outlets to do that in a much deeper, more substantial way.”
The topic of sexual identity has been a topic that has been touched on before, but not in this way as an open conversation said Gilbertson.
“What we have realized is that there needs to be a continuous conversation, more so than just occasionally touching on it,” he said.
The club was introduced in chapel on October 26th, but Gilbertson said that this was only a starting point and it is hard to discuss those topics in the mere 20 minutes that were available. The panel consisted of soccer coach Tim Hall, Associate Vice President of Student Development Jeffrey Carr, Director of Community Life Jake Gilbertson, and students sophomore Richeda Sinclair and senior Adam Donason. This panel comes just over a month after Vice President of Student Development Caye Smith was appointed as the Title XI Coordinator.
“On our campus we have a range of beliefs about human sexuality and sexual identity, but what we don’t have or haven’t had until now is a safe place to come together and out of respect and love, have a conversation with each other,” said Gilbertson.
Along with discussing the book, the group discusses sexual identity in regards to the Christian community, PLNU, and the worldview. The group is focused on having an open conversation and in turn educating each other about different views. Last week the group discussed the PLNU’s gen- der identity policy and chapter two of Paris’ book that covered heterosexuality. The discussion group will meet again after Thanksgiving.