A group dialogue and panel on LGBTQ+ topics, including the gender spectrum, trans-acceptance, sexual orientation and bi-acceptance, brought students, faculty and community members together.

The dialogue and panel took place on Tuesday, May 23, from 1-2:30 p.m. in the Alondra Room.

The dialogue series has been met with success and support.

“We usually have a full room,” Andrew Leon, 22, environmental science major and Student Equity Advisory Council co-chair, said. “We used to have them in a smaller room and then it got way too crowded as more people started to come. We usually have around 60 people.”

As for the purpose of the dialogue, panelists just hoped that students learned something.

Dottie Wine, one of the founders of the LGBT Center off-campus, described the purpose as, “Education, information, getting to know people, seeing real people, getting real answers.”

The panel event was different from regular means of dispensing information because it was interactive.

“Books and tapes and stuff are all wonderful, but there’s nothing like (information) coming out of the mouth of a live person,” Wine said.

An attendee agreed that in-person dialogues were an effective way of learning about the LGBTQ+ community.

“The more that people talk with LGBT people about LGBT topics, the more they will know and the more they will be educated,” Christian Rummler, 20, civil justice major and member of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance on campus, said. “And the less discrimination and the less ignorance there will be.”

One panelist urged attendees who didn’t feel like they got sufficient answers to come to the LGBT Center on 166th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard for more information.

“We need to have a full support system about the gender spectrum,” Tanner Ostensen, 21, communications and theatre major, who is a member of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance on campus, said. “If (people) have a problem, we have a group here that will help them.”

The event was sponsored by the Student Development Office, the Student Equity Program, the Student Equity Advisory Council, and the Office of Staff and Student Diversity.

This was one of many events that have been held on campus in the Student Empowerment Dialogue Series.

Previous dialogues have included People of Color in America, Muslim in America, and Black in America, Leon said.