This August, Dean Eleanor Green provided funds to allow two
veterinary students and one staff member to attend the Lesbian and
Gay Veterinary Medical Association (LGVMA) Annual Meeting at the
American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Convention in San
Diego. As president of my school's chapter of the LGVMA, I
was lucky enough to be one of those students, joined by Elise
Jemmott, secretary of our chapter, and John Scroggs, Chief of Staff
of the vet school, advisor to our chapter and a new board member of
the LGVMA.
After settling into our hotel rooms, we headed to our first
event, the LGVMA Annual Meeting. Here we not only
covered the usual business of budgets and board members, but we
also discussed current LGBT issues in our profession, new ideas to
get members more involved and how to keep a group like this
connected. Dean Green, John, Elise and I all helped to
describe to the veterinarians, students and technicians in the room
what we were doing at Texas A&M to promote LGBT issues and
diversity. (Yes, you read that correctly. The dean of
Texas A&M's vet school attended the LGVMA Annual
Meeting.) I left the meeting feeling energized and excited
for the rest of the convention.
Saturday and Sunday were spent in continuing education seminars,
browsing the exhibit hall and representing the LGVMA at our
booth. During this time we met and got to know veterinarians
and vet students from across the nation. As Sunday night was
to be my last in San Diego, the LGVMA General Meeting that evening
wrapped up my experience at the AVMA Convention. Brad Sears
of the Williams Institute spoke on current studies in LGBT
demographics, legal issues and the community's economic
value. I think many in attendance were surprised with some of
the numbers and figures he produced. The highlight of the
night for me, though, was when Dean Eleanor Green received the
LGVMA's Achievement Award for her support of the LGBT community
here at Texas A&M.
As the weekend progressed, I soon became accustomed to a certain
look of astonishment fellow convention-goers gave whenever any of
us from Texas A&M explained our situation. Not only had
our administration offered financial support to get our LGVMA
chapter started and for officers to attend the LGVMA Annual
Meeting, but the Dean herself attended both LGVMA events while at
the AVMA convention. And the words these incredulous
listeners always sputtered? "And you're from Texas?!"
Those words always filled me with pride and joy. Yes, we're
from Texas.