OUT supports GLBT community with Halloween events

The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender student group OUT will bring Halloween to campus a week early this year.

Teaming up with IU Student Association, the group will sponsor events and activities during “A Week of Ghosts, Goblins and Gays.”  

“The recent slew of saddening suicides that have occurred over the last month make clear how important it is that we make sure our peers know that there are people and places on campus that are willing and ready to embrace them for who they are,” OUT President Robert Clayton said.

The events include a resource fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today in the Indiana Memorial Union’s Frangipani Room, pumpkin carving on Thursday and a Halloween dance Friday at Collins Living-Learning Center.

“The whole idea is to create a week long bonanza of GLBT and other diversity-related events,” Clayton said. “We invite other community and campus groups to host their own events during the week, and both OUT and the IUSA will promote them under the same banner.”

Clayton said while he hopes the week will be fun, the main goal is to raise awareness that there is still room for growth in the community when it comes to accepting GLBT students, faculty and staff.

Clayton also said he hopes the week becomes an annual festival and that it helps OUT become a more active part of the IU community once again.

“This is only the beginning of OUT’s agenda to make IU the most ‘gay friendly’ college in the nation, and we look forward to working with the IUSA and other organizations to promote that agenda,” he said. “I must admit, OUT has been in a slumber the last few years, but under it’s new leadership. It’s waking up and is ready to tackle GLBT issues head on.”

The week is the first major event OUT has organized since last year’s Miss Gay IU left the group $3,000 in debt to the IU Auditorium. Little of the debt has been paid off, and Clayton said dealing with it has been a struggle.

“It’s been a heavy burden to carry, and it has without a doubt placed severe constraints on our ability to move as quickly as we would like,” Clayton said. “However, we’re on a mission, and no sum of money is going to stop us from achieving it.”