LGBTQ people and their rights have been a hot topic in recent years. The group has overcome quite a few obstacles in the last few years with same-sex marriage laws being put into effect in 2015 and many other changes within the LGBTQ society. But what is often overlooked is the lack of representation that a community of about 9 million Americans faces.
Douglas Capitan, advisor for the ASU LGBTQ centered club Friendship Made, said the reason there is a lack of visibility and recognition is because in the past LGBTQ people and ideologies have been silenced.
“I think it’s just the way we have been initially conditioned in terms of society and the LGBTQ community,” Capitan said. “There have been stigmas and other viewpoints that have historically kept people, the community, ideas, thoughts, perspectives, and stories from reaching mainstream.”
Even though the past has made visibility difficult, society has become more open-minded, which has caused a shift in LGBTQ representation.
“Luckily that’s changing,” he said. “We’ve begun shifting to a more open society.”
The open society may start regress with the state of government affairs. Many laws are trying to be passed to revoke the rights of transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender identity. There is even talk of trying to repeal same-sex marriage laws.
Although LGBTQ+ people are facing a potential repeal of their rights under Donald Trump’s federal administration, visibility might not be affected. In fact, it may even become more prevalent.
“I can see it as a hindrance,” said Capitan. “But I can see it as an opportunity as well. I feel like within the last few months, I’ve seen a lot more people inspired to make change. And whether or not a person agrees with the current administration, I feel like change is going to happen. Some of it will be good, some of it will be bad…But for myself, I feel more able to be an advocate for our students and our community.”
Sam Hernandez, one of the leaders of ASU’s Rainbow Coalition, agreed. She said that this administration will not hinder the visibility; she felt that LGBTQ rights will come into question.
“I actually think that we have the visibility,” Hernandez said. “It’s more about fighting for our right to live our lives and express how we want.”
A student at ASU recognized that there is not just a problem with visibility in society as a whole, but there is one between ASU’s campuses.
La’Tithea Gay noticed that ASU’s Downtown Campus did not have any LGBTQ clubs or organizations, so she started CONFETTI.
“Being a part of the Downtown Phoenix campus, we don’t have an LGBTQ+ club or student organization down here,” Gay said. “I didn’t think that made sense because the Pride Festival is down the street, One N Ten is down the street and Rainbow Fest is down the street. And all the LGBTQ clubs are at other campuses. I didn’t think it was fair that people who are a part of the community that live down here didn’t have that.”
Gay’s effort to make LGBTQ visibility more prominent at ASU will hopefully impact the rest of society as well. Gay said that by having greater visibility, people will be more conscious of others and stigmas about the LGBTQ community will be reduced.
“I think it’s important to have (visibility) because it will help with the stigma of people thinking that the group of LGBTQ are ‘others’,” she said. “We are not ‘others’. We work with you. We go to school with you. I think it’s important for people to be more comfortable with their peers.”
The State Press
EDM artist Gryffin kickstarts upcoming Whole Heart Tour in Tempe
By Kiya Gaskin | 10/18/16 7:54pm An up-and-coming EDM artist brings his soothing sounds to the Phoenix area. Music producer and DJ Gryffin kicks off his Whole Heart Tour in Tempe on Thursday.
Dan Griffith or Gryffin pairs calming melodies with danceable backing tracks to create hit songs, but his life has not always involved creating EDM. Gryffin said that he has always loved music, but electronic music was not his first love. It was not until later in life that he became engrossed in EDM.
“I was actually still more into rock music/classic rock and stuff like that growing up,” he said. “High school and college — that was when I started falling in love with dance music. I was listening to a lot of Steve Angello and Laidback Luke — people that were up and coming in the dance scene right as it was about to explode.
"That was when I really started falling in love with the genre and getting into it ... I was always ‘the music kid’, but it wasn’t until then when I decided that maybe I should try and make electronic music myself.”
Pursuing a career in music was not Gryffin’s original decision. He said that he went to college and planned on having an engineering career, but he changed his mind.
“(Music) was always something I wanted to do, but I wasn’t actually planning on doing it for a long time,” Gryffin said. “I went to school to study electrical engineering actually and totally thought that I was going to do that life ... It wasn’t until I started releasing this music and this project that it became a reality for me.”
Gryffin said that it did not take that long for him to be discovered, and an Ellie Goulding song is partially to thank for that.
“It happened really quickly I guess,” he said. “I put out a remix — I think it was my second remix bootleg I did of Ellie Goulding’s 'Burn.' That was two years ago that I got some blogs to write about it and it kind of snowballed from there. I started getting other remix opportunities from other artists and I started releasing the remixes.”
Although his career took off quickly, Gryffin shared that he was not always confident in his music.
"It took me a while before I felt like my music was good enough to even be heard publicly,” he said. “I had been producing for a little while. I think any producer will admit that the first works that they make are pretty bad. It just takes a while and it has a learning curve.”
When asked if he expected his career to take off like it did, Gryffin responded with a definitive ‘no.'
“Definitely not," he said. "I think any person that puts out music, their goal is to have people like it. I didn’t want to put out my music and have people hate it, but I definitely didn’t think it was going to be as reactive as it was.”
As he prepared for his upcoming tour, Gryffin said that audiences can expect to hear old and new songs at the shows.
“They can expect to hear a lot of the music that I have put out but a good amount of new material as well,” he said. “I’m going to bringing my guitars, drum pads, synthesizers and piano out on stage with me and playing those live to my music. And I’m going to have a full scale lighting production rig to accompany me on this fall tour.”
Community health junior Alyah Johnson is a fan of Gryffin and said she stumbled upon his music and has loved it ever since then.
“I found (Gryffin) on a hippie-indie playlist on Spotify, and that’s the kind of music I listen to,” she said. “I instantly loved it. I feel like other students should listen to his music because we’re all stressed and his music is very calming and gets you in a good mood.”
Health sciences freshman Nallely Mada and first-time Gryffin listener said she liked his music because it had a nice beat and made her feel emotional.
“I like the rhythm and the emotion that it can evoke,” she said. "The message of his songs are really important."
To listen to more of Gryffin’s music, follow him on Spotify and SoundCloud. Gryffin will be performing at Shady Park on Mill Ave. near the Tempe campus on Oct. 20, 2016. For tickets and more information visit Gryffin’s website.
See more of my articles from The State Press here.
Downtown Devil
Phoenix Coding Academy focuses on new cybersecurity opportunities
While many students spent their fall break relaxing, nine Phoenix Coding Academy students hunkered down for a week-long course at Advanced Business Learning to learn ethical hacking skills and the importance of cybersecurity.
With the help of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and Advanced Business Learning (ABL) in Tempe, a small group of high school freshmen and sophomores from Phoenix Coding Academy participated in a hands-on experience to learn the ins and outs of stopping cyber attacks.
Since 1999, ABL has offered business training to Fortune 1000 companies and provides programs for the federal government. ABL is also home to the ABL Cyber Academy, which is a vocational school that focuses on cybersecurity training. Susan Morris, the president of ABL, said due to an extremely high number of cyber attacks every day, the cybersecurity sector of the workforce is growing rapidly.
“Because there are about 22 million global hacks a day, there’s a need for organizations to increase their ability to protect themselves against those attacks,” Morris said. “The cybersecurity workforce is growing by leaps and bounds.”
Jennifer Mellor, the vice President of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, said nine out of 10 companies have been breached in just the last year. To combat this issue she said there are a large number of cybersecurity job openings in Arizona and nationwide.
“There are around 6,000 or 7,000 cyber security jobs open in Arizona alone,” Mellor said. “When you look at that across the U.S., that number is around 300,000. They are expecting and predicting that there will be almost two million open positions in the next two years nationwide.”
Propositioned by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, ABL designed Cyber-Dive Week. During Cyber-Dive week, high school students learned about cybersecurity from industry professionals. They also had the chance to use cutting-edge technology to apply the skills they learned.
The week began with a lesson from the FBI. This seminar briefed the students about the federal laws that are in place to prevent illegal hacking. Students signed a pledge stating they would not use their newly acquired skills for unethical purposes. Then students had the opportunity to use tools, such as Aircrack-ng, to participate in activities like password cracking.
Craig Cocciola, the cyber lab manager at ABL, said the great thing about this program was that students were not just given lectures about cybersecurity; they were actually performing the skills they learned about.
“Seventy percent of the activities of this five-day class was highly interactive,” said Cocciola. “About 30 percent was (based) around theory and introduction to cybersecurity framework.”
Phoenix Coding Academy is in its second year as a school, so this was the first time the school’s students had the opportunity to be involved in a program like this. Although it was a new experience, the students said they were glad they volunteered to participate in this course.
Angel Roman Gutierrez, a student participant is Cyber-Dive Week, said his favorite part about the course was the lab portion. “The lab was the coolest thing,” Gutierrez said. “We all sat next to each other, we all talked to each other, and we helped each other out.”
Another student participant, Adrian Dragos, said this course caused him to consider a career in cybersecurity. “After taking this course, I have a much better plan of what I need to do to prepare for (a cybersecurity job),” Dragos said. “I would definitely say I am much more interested now.”
Stephen Andrews, the networking and security instructor at Phoenix Coding Academy, said he and the students really enjoyed the program. He also said the school plans to give students the opportunity to engage in more activities similar to Cyber-Dive Week in the future.
“We are in the planning stages of building a security lab here at the school,” Andrews said.
The school is also partnering with the ABL and other businesses to bring more opportunities like this to students.