The all-inclusive Alphabet Soup – Lakeland’s newest student organization, which is a relaunching of past LGBT campus groups – had its first meeting on Tuesday to not only make itself known as a campus organization, but to explain who and what they are about.

The new organization is an LGBTQ- and ally-friendly group that is open to all, regardless of orientation, and has been revamped for the most part by Alister Kohls, interim president.

Advisor of the group, Rev. Lex Cade-White, university chaplain, emphasized that it’s an organization “for everybody.”

When explaining the new name of the group, Cade-White said, “We came up with Alphabet Soup because we didn’t want to condense it,” meaning the initialism of LGBTQ, and having the whole alphabet reinforces the all-inclusivity of the group.

During the meeting, Kohls and Cade-White talked about what needs to be done to get the organization up and running, like making a constitution and figuring out the structure, which would be discussed at later meetings.

Kohls said of his vision for the group, “I would like to meet weekly, just to keep things going, especially in October.”

They also spoke about how October is LGBT history month and a goal of the new organization is to have many little events to highlight this fact.

The first event the group is putting on for the Lakeland community is the “C is for National Coming Out Day” event on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. in the 1862 Lounge. It is a coming out for the group and will feature information about National Coming Out Day, will allow people a chance to meet the new organization and will also be a party with cake, which is open to all.

Though Kohls graduates in December, he would like to get the foundation of the group built before then, so that he can pass it on to keep it going for years to come.

The next meeting of Alphabet Soup will be held on Monday, Oct. 10 at 2 p.m. in Old Main 23. The group plans to meet every following Monday for the month, as follows:

Oct. 17 – 2 p.m. – Old Main 26
Oct. 24 – 2 p.m. – Old Main 23
Oct. 31 – 2 p.m. – Old Main 26

For more information about Alphabet Soup, contact Kohls at [email protected], Cade-White at [email protected], or follow them on Facebook by liking their page Lakeland University Lgbtq+ Forum here.