If you’re ever in need of expert advice on a research paper then Kellian Clink is the woman for the job. Except Kellian is more than a reference librarian; she’s a feminist, activist, and sincerely cares about the students on the MNSU campus and the Mankato community as a whole.
Her Campus: When did you start getting involved in activism?
Kellian Clink: It’s funny, I’ve always been an activist in different ways, like when I was in college I was one of the leaders of the Bread and Cheese society so we raised money and with that money there was a water well built, a school built, and wheelbarrows provided to developing nations. I was on the school paper when I was in school and I was on student government, so there was always that. When I was at the U of M I spoke, I was part of Amnesty International and I spoke at one of the events. It was about Chile and I didn’t give it a lot of thought but I started, “Imagine you’re going to sleep at night and you’re not sure if the secret police are going to come in and drag somebody that you love out of your household. Let’s start there.” I really only had 10 or 15 minutes but I really started it like, stop. think. What if this was you? And then I went on to talk about the situation in Chile.
HC: Were you involved in any LGBTQ activism here in Mankato?
KC: I used to do panels. It was really fun. To a class I’d say, ‘tell me your support system,’ and I’d put it up on the blackboard. So they’d put parents and family and church, you know, and I’d say think bigger. Like what structural society things are there for you if you need them? Police, court system, etc. I would exhaust those and then say, okay, now you’re gay. How many of these do I have to erase? People would call out, well, you need to erase this and you need to erase this. I probably did like 20 of those panels a quarter. Through doing the panels I got to experience Minnesota’s ambient homophobia.
HC: Have you seen or experienced homophobia on campus?
KC: There were death threats. I had a death threat. In the elevator, right next to my office. Scrawled in the elevator, ‘Kellian Clink is a dyke and should die’. I was actually pretty stressed even though I tried to make a joke out of it, like, ‘Kellian Clink is a dyke and should diet’. But, a death threat actually kind of shakes you up quite a bit.
Interestingly, I was really like the support system for the GAs that ran that [LGBT] office. All the records said, “If you need anything at all, just go find Kellian Clink in the library, she will help you with anything that you need.”
HC: What made you decide to become an activist in the Mankato area?
KC: Coming here, I was out almost as soon as I was here (in ‘87) That year they were doing a gay rights amendment for Mankato and two of my colleagues testified about why that was like, not a good idea. So thank you very much. Then one of my colleagues said, ‘So when you’re in a couple are you the girl or the boy?’ I was out despite the fact that people weren’t very educated and people said a lot of amazingly stupid things to me. I think that’s what launched me into doing the panels. I think the first time I did it I broke down crying, because we were talking about families and when I came out my parents told me I could never come home again. They said, in fact, ‘you will not darken these doors again’. My mother! (She was 19 or 20) So the first time I did a panel, you know, just blubber blubber blubber, but then it got easier to talk about. I think it was therapeutic to talk about it.
HC: How are you still involved in activism today?
KC: Activism has always been a part of my life one way or another. I think here, now, it’s basically about students. So I think most of my activism now is mostly stuff with students and it doesn’t even look like activism. You know, it’s going to meetings and making unpopular comments and speaking the truth. I’m pretty tight with a lot of my advisees. I have some that are in touch 5 years later, 10 years, 20 years later. I feel good about that. That’s a reward. I went to Concordia which truly was a community and so I try to sort of make that happen, it’s part of the reason, like whatever you experience in your life you try to like pass that down the line. I am very concerned about students being discriminated against. It’s unfortunate that the university does not make more of an intentional game plan to both make people aware and address those issues.
Kellian Clink is involved on campus in various ways. She has several degrees and has had many papers published over the years. To learn more about her professional and educational experience check out Kellian’s profile on the MNSU website!