Events raise awareness

The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community wrapped up a week of celebration and education Saturday as the annual Gay Pride Week drew to a close. The week mainly focused on Wednesday's National Coming Out Day, but all the activities were aimed to bring a greater awareness of GLBT issues to the IU community.\nWednesday was National Coming Out of the Closet Day, which occurs in commemoration of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Participants and friends of the GLBT community were encouraged to wear red in support of the GLBT community.\nWhile Pride Week always falls during the time of National Coming Out Day, OUT Treasurer Amanda Thompson, a junior, said increasing awareness of the GLBT community is just as important.\n"We really center our programs around other groups on campus to increase awareness (of) GLBT issues," she said. "That's the reason we did 'OUT on Fraternity Row,' to open homosexuality to the greek community. It's a celebration along with creating awareness."\nThompson, a member of Alpha Delta Pi, said she especially appreciated a workshop Wednesday night about homosexuality in the greek community.\n"As a member of greek community, I enjoyed that one especially. Homosexuality isn't addressed in greek community nearly enough," she said.\nSenior Jason Jones, OUT president, said the week's activities did a good job of increasing awareness of GLBT issues on campus.\n"A lot of people were wearing red or at least knew it was red day (on Wednesday). That's what we're trying to do -- just get the word around," he said.\nJones said the OUT executive board has been planning for Pride Week since last spring, when they started working on Lesbopalooza, a concert held Saturday in celebration of women. But some of the activities were planned on shorter notice, like the Safe Zone party Friday night, and many activities happened spontaneously throughout the week.\nOne activity that didn't come to fruition was a forum on homosexuality and religion. Thompson said they tried to get local churches and religious organizations involved, but the short notice proved hard to overcome. She said the forum would be a priority either next semester or for next year's Pride Week.\nDoug Bauder, the coordinator of the GLBT Student Support Services, said Pride Week can impact people's lives in many different ways.\n"There are different messages for different people," he said. "For folks who are closeted, National Coming Out Day has been good to say this is a time in your life to examine yourself more deeply, use the resources on campus and make the next step. \n"Another message is to help people recognize there (are) very personal, political and cultural aspects to being gay. That causes the larger community to look at what the ramifications are of coming out. It doesn't just impact one community," he said.