Meet MSU’s new LBGT Resource Center director

Days after commencement, Michigan State University hired Jesse Beal to take on the position of director for the LBGT Resource Center.

Beal previously worked as the director of The Women’s and Gender Center of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and acting director for the Office of Diversity Services at Suffolk University in Boston.

“There is an opening for action here that feels very hopeful to me,” Beal said. “For me, next year is going to be a lot of listening to students. It would be a little bit presumptuous to come in and say I know exactly where I need to be.”

They, Beal’s preferred pronoun, planned on becoming a professor of LGBTQ and gender studies but fell in love with student affairs instead. They worked in LGBTQ activism for the past 15 years.

“Some of us do the work for the people they wish they had. I was inspired to do the work because of the amazing queer and trans professionals in my life as I was coming of age,” Beal said.

As an undergrad, Beal interned at the University of Texas Austin at the Gender and Sexuality Center. It would propel Beal to get into community organizing work in the early 2000s, fighting a Texas adoption bill to ban gay and lesbian parents from fostering children.

“I’ve been a person who has to do work that matters to me, and I have really been driven by doing good in the world and wanting to make the world better for other people,” they added. 

Since coming out as bisexual at 19 years old, Beal said they understand how identity changes over the course of adulthood.

“Eventually I turned the corner to genderqueer, nonbinary and pansexual. I’ve always been in the process of exploration with my identity.”

For their work in 2015, Beal was awarded a National Voice and Action Advisor of the Year Award from Campus Pride, a national nonprofit working to create a safer college environments for LGBTQ students.

Beal said they are in discussion with MSU staff about several programs to build the school up to current standards for the LGBTQ community. Starting with training faculty on “how to create trans inclusive classrooms.”

Another training session Beal is looking to implement is with the point of sale and front lines of campus staff. To avoid misidentifying students in a lunch line, for example, the new director said there are “very simple language shifts” that anyone can learn to address this. However, Beal’s primary focus will always be on the students.

“Students are looking for policy change. They are looking for things like gender inclusive restrooms and all gender housing,” Beal said. “They are looking for us to have a campus in line with serving all of who they are.” 

For incoming fall freshman, Beal plans to have six to eight welcoming events for LGBTQ students to be made aware of the resource center.

“My practice as a student affair professional is very student-centered. I don’t want to be making these decisions about the trajectory of this space without their buy-in, support and guidance.” 

The student resource center space serves as a meeting ground and relaxing space for LGBTQ  students and anyone interested in learning more about LGBTQ issues.

“They know better than anyone what they need. They are adults, so let us treat them that way,” Beal said. 

Beal added that the center is open to more than the LGBTQ population and offers “plenty of opportunities” for cisgender and straight students to access “in a different way.” For example, relatives of LGBTQ members may need to be in the community “as a supportive force in action.”

“I am learning everything from learning how to answer my voicemail to what our gender-inclusive policy is,” Beal said. “I am excited to hear from students and to meet them. It is a good reminder when you are buried in a 100-page policy document why you do the work.”