GLBT celebrates 10 years

A sign has hung in the back office at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services building since it opened. It reads, quite simply, "Welcome Home."\nDoug Bauder, the coordinator of the GLBT Student Support Services center, which celebrates its 10th anniversary later this year, says the idea of a welcoming space is an excellent summary of who the staff are and what they provide.\n"We're a place to come for students, to be who they are, to ask questions, to get information," Bauder said. \nHelp, education, information and safety -- services available at the center for both the straight and gay communities -- are themes that resonate through whomever you speak with at the support services center. \nBauder, who has a background as a pastor and served in a Protestant church for 15 years prior to taking his current position, has been with the support center for its entirety. He previously worked in Madison, Wis., at one of the first organizations in the country that provided tax-payer funded social services for the GLBT community. \nThe IU support services center is privately funded out of the IU Foundation. State Rep. Woody Burton, R-Greenwood, held up the public funding for the center, and then-IU President Myles Brand switched the funding request from public to private.\nBauder remembered current Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis, then the University's chancellor, called the opening of the GLBT center one of the most divisive in the University's history in his memory, even more so than the Vietnam War debates.\nBauder, though, saw the divisiveness as an opportunity.\n"I knew I had some skills that could speak to the polarization," he said. "Some of my own training as a pastor and part of my persona is a mediating force."\nCarol Fischer, the services center's senior assistant, said its work is important for the campus to help education and protect against harassment.\n"There are still many, many myths about what it means to be GLBT," Fischer said. "Part of our mission is to educate people about the reality of being GLBT. Until there is no harassment, hatred or violence against GLBT folks, an office such as ours is needed."\nThough the concept of a GLBT center was not entirely new (they have existed as far back as the 1970s at universities in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Minnesota), Bauder said the idea was mainly a start-up phenomenon in higher education during the 1990s. Today, GLBT centers exist at several hundred universities.\nBauder praised Dean of Students Richard McKaig, Gros Louis and Brand for their supportive work and said he looks forward to building a relationship with IU President Adam Herbert.\nThe support services center also provides a lending library, unaffiliated with the IU library system, which loans books, videos and DVDs.\n"We have books dealing with a variety of topics, from gay history and arts and media, psychology and spirituality and biographies," Bauder said. "There are probably a thousand books on the shelf and about another thousand in boxes." \nContrary to what most people believe, the University's other visible GLBT organization, the student group OUT, is not directly related to the support center's office. In fact, OUT has existed longer than the administrative office on campus, Bauder said.\nHelen Harrell, the student-chosen faculty adviser for OUT, thinks the organization gives visibility and a voice on campus for the GLBT community.\n"It originally started out as a group for political activists," Harrell said. "Things have improved, and today it's more of an educational and social group. They do a lot of networking and workshops and provide an educational environment as well on issues that might not be addressed by other groups."\nHarrell, who has been the adviser for "give or take eight years," said OUT is an open group for everyone, citing a straight student who served as an officer for a couple years.\n"OUT is mainly a social organization," OUT president Michaela Martin-Almy said. "We try and balance educational activities, such as safe sex workshops and historical speakers, with fun activities, like movie nights."\nThis is Martin-Almy's fourth year as a member of OUT and her first year as the group's president. Last year she served as vice president, and has had past involvement with the bisexual group on campus and the gay-lesbian-bisexual Speakers Bureau, a service run through the IU Health Center.\nMartin-Almy said the organization gives GLBT students an important social space where they can be in a safe, comfortable, fun environment.\n"There aren't many 'GLBT hang-outs' in Bloomington," Martin-Almy said. "If you're over 21, there are a few GLBT-friendly bars, but that's about it."\nBauder, Fischer and Harrell all give the campus and community average-to-above-average marks on being gay-friendly in the middle of a traditionally conservative Midwestern state.\n"I appreciate the fact that the community and campus provide (benefits) for domestic partners. But there are still things we haven't included, such as transgender issues in university policies," Bauder said.\nMartin-Almy, originally from the west coast, said she didn't know how other places in the Midwest compare to Bloomington, but still saw work to be done. Still, she said the city is more liberal and open than she had expected.\n"I think (the city has) become known as a 'gay mecca,' and consequently many GLBT folks have flocked to Bloomington," she said. "Because the GLBT population here is more visible, there is the appearance of being very queer-friendly, but remember: tolerance does not equal acceptance."\nDespite whatever particular rating one would give the city or campus on any given day, Bauder is confident the services center's work has not gone unnoticed.\n"In this little part of Indiana, in this community, I think we've given face to an issue that some people find very confusing," Bauder said. "We've given a place where they can ask their questions, and sometimes we have some good answers."\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu