Allies Club switching things up for homecoming royalty nominations

Amanda Gibbs, 23, senior of Gering, is Chadron State College’s first tri-gender student to run for homecoming king.

Gibbs was nominated by Allies Club at their meeting Thursday night. The club went through administration to make sure that the nomination was accepted.

Although Gibbs was born a female, she identifies as tri-gender, which she explains as gender swapping from female, to male, to a mix between the two, as well as identifying her sexuality as bisexual.

Of course, sexuality and gender are two separate things, Gibbs says. “You have sexuality, which is what you feel whether you’re bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual. Then gender is more mental, how you see yourself. I know people get the two confused a lot, they’re two different things.”

Cynthia Schmidt, president of Allies said that she was worried that the request to nominate a tri-gender for king would be met with opposition from the administration. However, everyone was very open to it. “We were met with a lot less opposition than we originally anticipated. They did have to have a little meeting, but we really didn’t have any problems.”

However, Schmidt did express concerns about how the campus would react. “I think people are going to take it as a joke, or not seriously.”

Gibbs also said that she is preparing herself for difficulties from the campus community.

“I am personally preparing for some backlash, coming out as being tri-gender was pretty emotional. I’ve gotten a lot of backlash within my family. So I’m just naturally expecting some people to be pretty upset about it.”

Schmidt, however, mentioned that she hopes Chadron students are accepting, despite some differing views.

“I would hope that people would be accepting of the diversity on campus,” Schmidt says.

Allies Club hopes to raise awareness of diversity on campus, starting with Gibbs’ nomination. Schmidt says that members of the club want to be more vocal about their presence. They are planning a No Hate Day, along with the yearly Purple Day, which raises awareness about LGBTQ members being bullied.

Schmidt says that Allies is both a support group and also a group to raise awareness about the LGBTQ community in Chadron.

Gibbs will be presenting a Powerpoint on gender at Allies’ meeting, 11 a.m. today in room 230, Old Admin. Their meeting will be open to the public in order to explain gender to students on campus.