The Residence Hall Association (RHA) put on three programs from Feb. 8 to 10 celebrating LGBT week.

Lydia Sadow, the multicultural and diversity chair of RHA, organized the three events. The last event was put on in partnership with Oakland University Student Congress (OUSC).

“Sean Foe was the RHA representative on OUSC last year,” Anders Engnell, the head of the diversity and inclusion chair for OUSC, said. “He wanted us to work with RHA on programs, and this year he put us in touch with their multicultural chair.”

The LGBT week kicked off with a presentation of the film “Do I Sound Gay?” on Monday which Sadow said had around seven or so people in attendance. She said the “Educate Yourself” discussion held on Tuesday drew in about 12 people.

“Movies can inspire people and put faces to the things they learn about,” Sadow said. “We had a really good debriefing after the movie, too.”

The final program was advertised around campus with colorful posters and even a banner in the Oakland Center. The “Discover Yourself” event aimed to teach students about gender identity.

The program began with the crowd of around 30 students standing in the center of the room. They were then told to go to different tables depending on their favorite movies, shows or games.

Once a student arrived at the table, they had to pick up a bracelet and wear it. Each bracelet said, “All I want to be is me.”

Eventually the group reconvened in the center, with Engnell telling people to choose between two different options of artists instead of the previous eight.

After people made their choice, they were in for a bit of a surprise. Engnell told students they couldn’t change to the other side of the room, even if they liked the option the other side had more.

For example, one side was told their favorite musician was Kanye West, the other told Justin Bieber. Though this may not have been everyone’s favorite musician, the side of the room they were on dictated what they had to choose.

Engnell brought the group back together, comparing this to the gender binary, and how despite how you may want to choose different things, society “puts people into boxes when it comes to gender.”

After this, him and two student volunteers read stories about gender expression and identity to the crowd.

“Next year, I hope we can use actual student stories, rather than ones we used from online,” Engnell said.

Last year, RHA wasn’t able to work with OUSC or with the GSC on LGBT week.

“We had a lot of backlash last year,” Sadow said.

However, this year OUSC worked hand-in-hand with volunteers in the GSC and with Grace Wojcik, the director of the GSC, to put on the “Discover Yourself” program.

“Gender identity is sort of glossed over in these kinds of programs and the point of this program was to help members of the LGBT community who live on campus feel like Oakland is their home,” Engnell said.