“They want to villainize the people who threaten their position of privilege.”

Dally Du Mez (they/them), Mary Lutton (she/they) and Anna Welter (she/they/he) are all students at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They chose UWM due to its inclusive nature for the LGBT+ community.

Natalie Ng: What big issues do you care about most? What are you most passionate about, or most worried about? Or most motivated by?

Dally Du Mez: There’s a laundry list. But so many of them boil down to people who are in positions of social power, wanting to stay that way. Because it’s scary to imagine a different way of going about their lives.

Mary Lutton: It’s specifically with white society, because with people of different cultures, it’s Asian American, African American. But white people are just seen as white. We’re identified as Americans without having to attach an extra thing to it. The idea that it could change is hugely frightening. They want to villianize the people who threaten their position of privilege, and that’s something that people have to be aware of. That we do not let our own fear of giving up our privilege keep us from allowing people to be treated like human beings.

Q: Are there instances where you’ve experienced privilege? If you have experienced privilege, how has it felt for you? Do you notice it?

A (Du Mez): I think you have to become aware of it. Like in certain aspects of my identity, I would say I’m very aware of privilege, because I don’t have it. I feel like the privilege of having social power is that you get to learn about it after the fact. You’re not experiencing it in the moment. You’re not experiencing the discrimination.

Anna Welter: I’m a white American, so I got the privilege of being white, but also the disadvantage of being queer, which is something that I can hide and cover up if I choose. There are definitely instances where I take advantage of the fact that I have white privilege to cover up the fact that the queerness gives me a disadvantage if I need to be safe in a situation.

Q: How does that feel for you? To have to hide who you are?

A (Welter): I definitely don’t like it. Last year, I got hate-crimed in an airport in Texas. And because I was presenting masculine, and, in that moment I realized this would be so much worse if I was not white. And I hated that. I hated the fact that some aspect of me makes me safer.

A (Du Mez): It’s so frustrating if you’re a person with deep empathy, because it feels like the discrimination is just completely pointless. And it’s hurtful to know that you get to be safe in some ways, and other people don’t have that.

Q: Within the UW community, how does that feel? Does it feel any different? How is your level of safety in the campus?

A (Du Mez): I guess specifically through my own queer lens, UWM was high on my list, because of its reputation as a very queer friendly school. I also transferred from Madison, and diversity isn’t really a thing you see. Part of why I came to UWM was because I was looking for a very diverse experience. And I thought that of the schools in Wisconsin, this would give me the most amount of exposure and insight into that.

A (Lutton): UWM can create a sense of space for you to explore yourself. A lot of our classes ask you what your name and pronouns are as your introduction. So, if you’re testing something out, you can do that in a space where you know everyone isn’t going to immediately judge you.

Q: Has there ever been like a scenario where you felt pushback on your identity? Where you felt that you weren’t safe to express how you were or be yourself within the UWM campus?

A (Welter): There’s always going to be people who refuse to be anything but narrow minded. I haven’t had it from professors. But I definitely have had it from other random people. They’ll be like, well, that doesn’t make any sense. My pronouns are they/she/he, they change all the time, I’m genderfluid. So I’ve gotten comments saying “you look like a girl.” And that’s that. If you get someone who is not educated on these terms, people are gonna question it. I’m used to having to answer questions after I say what I am. Sometimes it’s like, okay, I can educate this personal thing. And other times, I’m just like, can you please not?

A (Du Mez):  I got pushback from one of my professors. And it was not malicious in any way. So I did not feel like I was specifically targeted or unsafe, but it opened my eyes to the fact that like, people might care about you as a person, but not everyone will take the time to understand. Some of the smaller ways that people don’t put in effort can affect you over time. And you can’t make them give that effort. But it can be frustrating.