Greetings, Tumblr!
This is the first post for the newly launched official Tumblr for the Study Abroad Office at the University of South Carolina.
Lots of pictures, videos, advice, and information coming your way shorty, including our first Helmet-Cam Friday video!
So until then, sit back, check out the links to our Facebook, Twitter, and even our new Pinterest!
All the best,
O.K. Keyes, media intern
Oh! Hey! Look! I can Tumblr at work now. OFFICIALLY!
We now have a tumblr page— so bring on the reblogs!
[We might soon be looking for interns to help us keep up with all the sites, i.e., sourcemap, facebook, twitter, our own webpage, our defunct blog, etc. and WHEW!]
Everyone should follow this amazing documentary project! My professor tracked the production of cotton from rural South Carolina to China. It’s going to be awesome. Support and donate and get yourself an eco-friendly t-shirt!
RT @lynz_michael: Check out this awesome film project based at University of South Carolina. buff.ly/RLM70P … #lgbt @afterellen @lezz…
— BCPC (@LGBTbrooklyn) September 6, 2012
Thursday we visited Kyoritsu Women’s University, a small private school of about 2000 students. Japan has many universities specifically for women, both 2-and 4-year institutions. Today many women in Japan work outside the home, but until recently most women stayed home and took care of raising…
So my awesome study abroad advisor Sarah is in Japan now and writing a wonderful blog. Everyone should go and check it out!
And to Sarah: This is so awesome! Doshisha is an all girls school until university, which I thought was really interesting. The whole college-track system is so different from America.
P.S. Little you is too cute! :D Thanks so much for sharing.
2 WARNING: Brief non-sexual nudity.
For the afternoon crowd on Tumblr:
My most recent collaboration with the wildly talented cast of Trell Brennan and Matt Laborde.
Description: A conversation between Mother Earth and Mankind.
1 Warning: Brief non-sexual nudity.
“4 Shots” just went live a few minutes ago. I just wanted to say it was my honor and pleasure to work on this piece with LaTrell Brennan and Matt Laborde. Weeks of sleepless nights were totally worth it. Also, my roommate and Sound God, Nick Ducko did an amazing job with the sound design.
Made for my final semester individual piece for my cinematography class, here, at the University of South Carolina.
8 Alright, so I got a few requests from some of you guys to go into the backstory of getting this video done.
Back in October, Drew Newton, USC’s amazing Graduate Assistant for LGBT Programs and Services (yes, this is a real office at the University of South Carolina), approached me with a proposal to do an offical “It Gets Better” video for the university.
Now, for those of you who might not know, I actually have a few qualms with IGB and its use of victimization and hetero-normalization, but I told Drew if we could find a creative way to not rely on those standards and tropes, then I would love to make this video a reality. I’ve grown up in South Carolina my entire life, and it hasn’t always been the most welcoming place for us LBGTQers. (I mean, really, my hometown still had an active KKK store until recently.)
Anyway, a few months went by, and to be honest, I had completely forgotten about it. And then one day in March, I get a message from Drew saying that he had finally gotten through all the paper work to release an official video and we’d be rolling in a few weeks.
Not gonna lie, the first time I saw the number of people we were interviewing, it was a little overwhelming. But over the next three weeks, our four man crew (myself included) went armed with two cameras, two tripods, a boom mic and my own pair of headphones to capture all 14 of these wonderful stories from allies and members of the LBGTQ community.
I think the funniest time had to be when I literally ran from giving a presentation in Japanese literature to the Horseshoe to interview President Pastides. I was 3 minutes late and we only had 12 left with him. But he just chuckled at my red face and exasperated introductions, and he somehow managed to understand the directions I gave him with my flailing hands, still not having fully caught my breath. Afterwards he told me he loved my garnet and black striped tie. It was the best 10 minute interview ever.
I really wanted to make this video different from other IGB videos. I wanted to show how my university, despite being heavily entrenched in the Deep South, was extending its wonderful Southern hospitality to everyone - including the LGBTQ community.
So when it finally came down to edit, I was heartbroken at all the clips I couldn’t fit in. But I reconciled myself. And since I wanted it to be more than just generalized fluff, my co-editor Ashely and I scoured for stories. Whenever someone gave an anecdote I tried to use it. I played with the pacing and coloring since I wanted to showcase the Southernness of our university instead of shying away from it. You don’t have to go up North to find nice, LBGTQ-friendly people. We’re down here, too. And after four sleepless nights, I got the piece down into the 5-7 minute parameters I had to work with and burned to a DVD.
You know, I’ve made a lot of films. A lot of them about minority groups and a few have even been about the LBGTQ community. But those were always my stories. This was the first time that I got to weave together a collective story with all these awesome people, who all go or work at what has turned out to be one of the most inviting and accepting universities I could have imagined.
I’ve come a long way from being a scared, in-the-closet 8th grader to the happy, out and very-soon-to-be rising senior that I am today. And USC has been a big part of that. Its given me amazing friends, the courage and comfort to come out to my mum, and even resources to reconcile my faith with my sexuality. In fact, USC just gave me a big grant to make my own anti-bullying social media campaign with local kids in the Columbia community.
But most of all it’s given me the ability to be myself and, you know, to hold my girlfriend’s hand down the sidewalk (if she let’s me :P).
So believe me when I say it, here at the University of South Carolina, it is better - NOW!
5 
Check it out! Our USC “It Gets Better” video is on the front page of the university’s website! GO COCKS!
1I was really excited today. I got the chance to collaborate on a project for my university that I am really proud of. We made an “It Gets Better” video for the University of South Carolina. And the response from students, faculty and alumni has been so touching.
But one person, who I hardly ever talked to while at my old high school before GSSM, commented with the simple word “Fags” on the post. I immediately reported it, unfriended him and ultimately removed the post. I didn’t bother taking a screen shot or sending him a message or anything.
It has been a long time since I was bullied. Besides being called “lesbos” across a campus sidewalk when I held my girlfriend’s hand a year and half or so ago, I’ve never really had any confrontations.
High school and middle school were a different story, but that’s in the past, and honestly, they’re not really relevant to what I’m trying to get at right now.
I hate bullying. I HATE it. For those of you who don’t know me, I don’t really hate anything. It’s really hard to get me angry, and even when I am, it takes a lot to get a reaction. But I honestly hate bullying, there’s no place for it here today. It doesn’t make kids tough. It doesn’t teach real world lessons. It’s cruel and inhuman, and I think it is heartbreaking that some adults make excuses for it and even encourage it. Bullying is a whole new world that our parents never understood. One, in which your privacy can be violated in front of the entire internet audience with one viral video.
I doubt I will be able to stop bullying by myself as it’s a force way bigger than me. But I can guarentee you that I will not STOP until I have given everything I can to make sure every kid in every small Southern town in the US can feel safe in their own home, school and/or religious institution.
This is ridiculous. Where do people get this “great” idea that others are worth less than them? At the end of the day, we are all human. Not that I’m saying we should ignore people’s differences, I just think there’s a big difference between embracing someone for being different and tolerating someone for being different and especially different from discriminating someone for being different.
I am not and will not ever be a single label.
I am not and will not ever stop being a human being.
I am not and will not ever stop caring about others.
But,
I am and will always stand up for what I believe is true.
And for now that’s all I can offer, but I promise it’ll get better, not because that’s what magically happens when you leave your small hometown, but because I am MAKING it better. One step at a time.
6 At the University of South Carolina, it gets better - NOW!
I feel really blessed to have been able to work on this project with so many wonderful people. I heard so many different testimonies and stories of LBGTQ members and allies alike, that I wish I could have included them all.
To everyone who’s ever felt excluded or bullied because of who you are, I’m here to tell you that the Gamecock community supports you, and together we are making the world better, even here in the deep South. GO COCKS!!!
7 
