GLBT anti-harassment push continues

Anti-homosexual harassment continues to be a major topic of interest among the IU community following recent teen suicides.

Rick Stark, president of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Equality, said he notices the IU community is more understanding than others, but verbal abuse is still the most prevalent form of bullying.

“Name calling can be taken very hard,” Stark said. “Especially when you don’t have a good strong support.”

Stark said IU has a great nondiscrimination policy and takes issues based on sexual orientation very seriously. However, during the 2008-09 academic year, there were 46 reported case of harassment on campus, according to a report from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Anti-Harassment Team.

“IU students are definitely above average,” Stark said. “But there are a lot of people who don’t even mean well. I’ll be coming back from parties, and I’ll be called fag. I usually laugh it off, but that doesn’t mean everyone does.”

He said for him, being gay is part of his identity, and it can hurt when people lash out against it. The more support people have, the less bullying will affect them, Stark said.
Sophomore Chris Iacullo said he doesn’t feel he has ever personally been bullied on campus.

“I know it’s out there, and it is an issue that needs to be addressed,” Iacullo said. “But as far as personal experience, I’ve been pretty lucky to not experience it first-hand here.”

Iacullo said above all, it comes down to ignorance, but IU is open to diversity.

“There is a fairly large gay population in Bloomington, and I think IU does a pretty good job at diversifying the campus,” Iacullo said.

GLBT Student Support Services Office Director Doug Bauder said he recently noticed a huge response to a YouTube video, “It Gets Better,” posted by Dan Savage.

The video shows older gay men speaking to a younger crowd and telling them to have hope. Bauder said he sees IU students responding to this and wanting to make a difference.

“There are ways you can take individual action to help people,“ Bauder said. “Think about standing up for your friends when you hear faggot jokes.”

He said IU is a pretty accepting campus; however, he said he still recognizes harassment.

“I think your generation has gone a long way to make this just a non-issue,” Bauder said. “Having said that, just last year some guy had his door pissed on time and time again in the residence halls, and it was basically harassment because he was gay.”

Bauder said he sees harassment from students in several ways.

“It’s verbal, it’s everything from writing on dry erase boards to cyber bullying,” he said.
Students who are gay face some form of discrimination, Stark said, but having that support makes a difference.

“By and large, the students are just really open to other world views,” Stark said. “I get the feeling that people are really open to approach people as people and not just a stack of labels.”