April 29, 2008
WHO WE ARE
GLBTA director enjoys ‘open and affirming’ campus
Sara Bendoraitis used to see herself as an ocean explorer. As a child growing up an hour from the Atlantic, she loved to go to Cape Cod National Seashore and quiz the rangers about all the shells and dunes and marine creatures. Athletic and adventurous, she learned to scuba dive, and once she got to college, she signed up for courses in oceanography.
“But I learned quickly that I really wanted to swim with the dolphins, and didn’t care about the chemistry of the ocean,” she says.
That was the end of her budding career as an ocean scientist. But she found something else she wanted to dive into. And that, too, required a willingness to take risks.
“I happened onto a women’s studies intro class, and realized that all the things they talked about in class were the things I believed in and fought for in high school,” says Bendoraitis. Thinking about women’s issues led her in time to focus on sexual orientation and identity issues, while a friend who is transgendered helped her gain insight into what it means to be part of that growing community.
Bendoraitis came to AU last year as the director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally (GLBTA) Resource Center. It’s a sea change from Texas, where she was program coordinator for a similar center at Texas A&M University.
“Here, it’s a very different philosophy about GLBTA education,” she says. In Texas, coming out as gay was very difficult, she says, and very few people were openly gay. She would coordinate “very basic programming” about what it means to be gay, working to burst the stereotype that, say, all gay men love musicals and have a flair for interior design.
At AU, she says, there is already a high level of awareness and support. “I think AU is known as a very open and affirming campus around GLBTA issues,” she says. One of the center’s projects is the Rainbow Speakers Bureau, which arranges for GLBTA members of the campus community to come to class for talks.
When she’s not in her office at the Mary Graydon Center, she’s been enjoying the rolling hills and greenery of Washington, and makes time to pick strawberries, go hiking, and play softball. A special perk of life in Washington: She plays on a congressional softball league, down by the monuments. “It’s amazing to be so close you worry about hitting a softball into the monuments. It was very surreal,” she says.
And, of course, she tries to make time to visit the beach. —SA
