Class participates in book-making

Class participates in book-making

Morgan Reddekopp, Editor-in-Chief

This April, Mary Jo Klinker’s class, “Queer Theories and Politics,” will be travelling to Madison, WI as part of their annual involvement in the LGBT Books to Prisoners Project.

According to the Williams Institute based at the UCLA School of Law, LGBT individuals are three times more likely to be incarcerated than the rest of the United States population.

According to LGBT Books to Prisoners, there are not a lot of LGBT reading material in prisons.

“Incarcerated persons have little access to reading material and LGBT people behind bars have a particularly hard time finding resources that meet their needs and wants,” LGBT Books to Prisoners said on their website.

Izabel Balk is a sophomore at Winona State University majoring in English and minoring in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS). She is currently taking Klinker’s WGSS 374 class and will be attending the annual trip to Madison this April.

Balk is excited to go on the trip and get involved in helping people.

“I think it’s a really easy way to get involved and help people out that need it the most,” Balk said.

The class will later be sending books back to the prison in Madison. They are primarily looking for books with LGBT content, but other books may work as well.