Ellington

Following the approval of last October’s legislation to extend the rights of homosexual couples, UW students are working to stress the importance of equality and LGBT rights.

As school commenced in the fall, members of several local equality-advocacy groups came together to form the UW student group SOLE, an acronym for Students Organizing for LGBT Equality.

“There was a lack of a political LGBTQ group; we stepped up to the cause,” Emily Juhre, UW sophomore and SOLE member, said. “When we first formed, we had two different goals. One was organizing for the equality march, and the other was organizing for Referendum 71.”

In October, Washington state voters became the first in history to pass a statewide ballot measure, known as Referendum 71 which extends the rights of residents in domestic partnerships.

In the wake of the new legislation and November’s National Equality March, members of SOLE are building upon last quarter’s momentum.

“We gathered together because of Referendum 71, but we’re here for the long run,” sophomore Mario Lemafa said. “We have a vision of what we want to do, and we’re still building it.”

Part of that vision is to merge efforts with other equality-advocacy groups on campus.

“The main thing we want to do is try to connect the UW campus organizations and have a stronger unifying body in terms of activist work,” Lemafa said.

Much of their efforts will culminate this spring as the group prepares to set up a panel to address current equality issues. The panel will be open to the public and will bring together members of campus minority organizations and SOLE in a discussion about issues like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

“It’s going to be related to civil rights more broadly,” said senior and SOLE member Ethan Boyles. “There might be talks about the civil rights movement in the 1960s. A lot of people have called the student-burgeoning LGBT movement the civil rights movement of our generation. So I think, given that, we have a heck of a lot of lessons to learn from the [former] civil rights movement.”

Lemafa also sees a connection between the two movements, noting that in the 1960s, “People of color like myself … wouldn’t have been able to pursue an education here at the UW.”

“When you start opening up those blinders,” Lemafa said, “you see that around you, there are people who are being discriminated against and aren’t receiving their rights as citizens of this country.”

Reach reporter William Denman at news@dailyuw.com.