December 12, 2014
In January 2014, LSA Junior Michael Schramm took the plunge and published his first column for the Michigan Daily. In this first column, Schramm discussed his personal experiences with being a gay male. Little did he know that the column would find its way to social media, consequently outing him to social groups to whom he hadn’t discussed his sexual identity. This unplanned push out of the closet led to subsequent works discussing queer stereotypes and perceptions on campus, particularly how social stereotypes, the media, popularized language and assumptive micro-aggressions have overarching implications for the queer community on campus.
Schramm started at the Daily at the beginning of his sophomore year as a member of the Opinion Section’s Edit Board and subsequently worked his way to his current capacity at the publication as Assistant Editor and Columnist. In his current role as Columnist, Schramm chooses to focus on topics dealing with sexuality; he feels an emotional catharsis when writing his columns, not only from expressing his frustrations with systemic social problems surrounding the queer community, but also from the connections he’s able to forge with other members of the community through his writing.
Schramm wants others in the queer community to take part in the satisfaction he’s experienced through sharing his personal stories and opinions. As such, he’s set out to develop and implement a collaborative project within the Daily: an online space for queer students to have their voices be heard.
The proposed space would be, in Schramm’s words, by LGBTQ students for LGBTQ students, and would be a safe space where queer students could feel comfortable in sharing the true rawness of their experiences without feeling as if they’re being trivialized. He hopes contributors will experience a similar catharsis as he does by writing, and that they will be able to fully realize the satisfaction that accompanies a heightened sense of community involvement.
Schramm views the creation of this space as vital for diversification on campus; minority voices across all spectrums and intersectionalities are worth sharing, he says. He feels that educating the masses is a crucial step towards raising awareness of the marginalization of queer students on campus. Although in the short-term the project will serve exclusively as an online, blog-like space to which contributors can post, Schramm has big ideas for the project’s long-term goals. He hopes that, similar to the “Michigan In Color” series currently in publication at the Daily, pieces from this new project will eventually make their way to print, allowing queer voices to become even more salient on campus.
If you are a student identifying as LGBTQ and would be interested in contributing a piece, or if you have any questions about the publication, Schramm encourages you to contact him via email at [email protected].