Collegiate Times

Students of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Alliance have come together to organize a series of educational events next week. The events will promote gay awareness at Virginia Tech.

Gay Awareness Week was organized by John Williams, the 2007 event chair and senior public and urban affairs major. Elected chair for 2008, math major, Katie Bookbinder, assisted in the planning.

LGBTA President, Curtis Dahn, a Tech grad student majoring in computer science and bioinformatics, provided some insight on how the events are financially provided.

"We're a charter student organization, the bulk of our money comes from the student budget board … some of our money comes from independent fundraising," he said.

Since Dahn has been involved with the LGBTA, they have promoted Gay Awareness Week.

"The LGBTA weren't officially recognized until the 90s, (but) have been an organization for about 30 years," Dahn said.

Williams stated that it has been difficult to organize a series of events for an entire week. "The most complicated thing has been red tape and bureaucracy," he said. "I have had to go through at least nine different offices in order to pull off this event."

Other challenges the pair faced were when student adversity towards the gay community was displayed when attempting to advertise the events.

"An individual had torn into pieces right before our eyes the table card at D2 so other people wouldn't see what we were advertising," Williams said.

Bookbinder faced similar adversity.

"I went by Pamplin today where we had posted fliers and they had already been ripped down … we put the fliers up last night, and they were already gone today by 1 p.m.," she said.

Williams stated he was astonished that in the midst of their efforts to promote equality on campus that such adverse behavior would be displayed.

"It surprises me that at a university that has such high intellectual standards for admissions, that people would be so closed minded," Williams said.

Dahn illuminated that there are other informative events this coming week that are relevant to people of all sexual orientations.

"Our focus isn't just gay related issues," he said. "They are anti-hate, anti-discrimination and anti-harassment."

Dahn said the LGBTA's "Give a Damn" anti-harassment campaign in 2005 led to the University-wide Safe Watch Program.

"Part of our charter with the university focuses more on education and advocacy though programming with LGBTA issues …we also play a social role," Dahn said. "We have a support group that meets every week for those who are having issues with their sexuality."

It is a concern for Dahn that the closest professional psychologist that is specialized with sexual orientation issues is in Charlottesville.

Bookbinder said she feels that with effort, our university will become closer to eliminating discrimination based on sexual orientation.

"If everyone had a gay friend there would be more understanding of the gay community," she said. "It is harder to hate somebody if you can put a face to the name."

Williams knows that the minority of students on campus are a part of the LGBTA community, which is a detriment to equality efforts. His primary goal for the is "to help eliminate the invisibility of queer students on Tech's campus."