NIU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Awareness resource center will welcome author Alice Y. Hom to help kick off LGBT Awareness Month today.

April is celebrated as LGBT Awareness Month each year in honor of the anniversary of NIU’s student LGBT and ally organization, PRISM, which was founded on April 12, 1970.

The goal of this month-long awareness of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is to promote visibility of the organization, as well as to create an awareness among the NIU community of the experiences and concerns of LGBT people.

Hom will speak on issues relevant to racism, sexism, homophobia, Asian-American feminism and Asian-American lesbian and gay cultural activism. There is no cost to get in and everyone is welcome to attend.

Hom, director of the Intercultural Community Center at Occidental College in California, is the co-author of the 1998 book “Q & A: Queer in Asian America.” Her work also is published in several anthologies, such as “The Very Inside: An Anthology of Writing by Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian and Bisexual Women.”

In 2000, she won the LACE Award for grass roots activism by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

In addition to her lecture, individuals can meet Hom informally from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Holmes Student Center, Room 706.