Students, faculty, administrators and staff on Northern Kentucky University’s campus have the opportunity to become allies for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) community on campus through The Allied Zone campaign.

The goal of The Allied Zone is to get as many candidates on campus as possible so that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning students who need someone to talk to, according to assistant professor at NKU Brandelyn Tosolt.

To become “allies,” students can attend an Allied Zone campaign training.

At the trainings, topics such as appropriate terminology, local and statewide resources, and appropriate responses to negativity are covered. During these trainings, attendees also have the opportunity to participate in supportive conversation modeling.

After completing training, participants receive a sticker to place on a university door that identifies them as trained allies.

The sticker represents that person’s desires to be seen as an ally, who has taken the additional step to go through training and that he or she has up-to-date resources available to anyone who needs them.

This will make them easily identifiable for people who need a resource or supportive person, according Tosolt.

There are two upcoming trainings: Nov.1 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in SU 107A, and Dec. 1 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. in SU 108.
Dinner will be provided at the November training, and lunch will be provided at the December training.

In hopes of having administrators, staff, faculty and students present at each training, the December training is now closed to nonstudents.
However, the November training is currently open to anyone who wishes to attend.

Those who want to be a part of either training should contact Brandelyn Tosolt at tosoltb1@nku.edu.