Debate tournament to honor and represent women and gender minorities will be held at the UVM this upcoming weekend

SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT , UNITED STATES, March 30, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- BURLINGTON, VT, 3/31-4/1 2018: Students from all over the country will be traveling to Vermont this weekend for a very special event. The Lawrence Debate Union, UVM’s debate team, is hosting this year’s North American Women’s and Gender Minorities Debate Championship, NAW*DC. The event will be held at Benedict Auditorium in Marsh Life Science both days. Saturday the event runs from 8 am to 6 pm and Sunday 8 am to 3 pm. The final, with the four top teams, will be held Sunday at 3.

Debate gives the opportunity for students from various backgrounds to discuss complicated and relevant topics. Everyone is given the same topic to address while individual teams are randomly assigned either ‘for’ or ‘against’ the topic. The arbitrary assignment of topic and position requires students to be informed on a wide range of subjects as well as understand the complexity of such topics.

NAW*DC is an exciting and unique event in the Debate community because it celebrates women and gender minorities, groups who are minorities in debate, and often are marginalized within the debate community. Only women and gender minorities will be debating at the tournament, and only women and gender minorities will be in positions of leadership. The event itself is a mark of progress as it gives focus to social issues while also asking important questions for this day and age. Has feminism successfully become intersectional? How has feminism changed after a year of Trump? What does a feminist future look like?

In addition, speakers who worked for same-sex marriage in Vermont will speak Sunday at 1 pm during the awards ceremony. NAW*DC is is proud to welcome Nina Beck and Stacy Jolles, who were one of the three plaintiff couples in the Baker v State of Vermont case seeking the right to same-gender marriage. As well as Beth Robinson, best known for her role in the Vermont freedom to marry struggle. She co-founded and led the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force through its fifteen-year effort to secure the freedom to marry for same-sex couples in Vermont. Along with her law partner Susan Murray and Mary Bonauto of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, she represented three same-sex couples who sought marriage licenses from the State of Vermont in the landmark case of Baker v. State.

Julia Nugent
Lawrence Debate Union
(802)355-6965
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