Doug Bauder is retiring as director of the LGBTQ+ Culture Center at the end of the semester.
The Office of the Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs is planning a retirement brunch in honor of Bauder from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at the Indiana Memorial Union Solarium.
“Doug Bauder’s work at the LGBTQ+ Cultural Center has been invaluable to not only the center itself, but to the university as a whole,” said Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs James Wimbush in an email to the IDS. “He has worked tirelessly in creating an environment for LGBTQ+ students on campus where they can feel safe and supported unconditionally.”
His impact has been felt among students.
“He has dedicated, devoted so much beyond just working at Indiana University,” said featured speaker Shane Windmeyer, who created Campus Pride. “He’s really changed the lives of so many people, including myself.”
All are welcome to attend the retirement brunch, and no registration is required. Brunch will be served with vegan and vegetarian options available, and dress code ranges from IU spirit wear to business casual.
This event is part of an all-weekend celebration of the LGBTQ+ Culture Center’s 25th anniversary. Registration is already filled for the cocktail reception and dinner.
A free dance for students will take place 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Nov. 16 in the IMU Solarium. The party will feature local DJ Hank Green.
Bauder was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, into a religious family. He said he had a positive experience with the church when he was young, so he decided to go to Princeton Seminary to become a pastor. Bauder was a pastor for 17 years and was married for five.
“I was still in my 30s when I finally came to terms with the fact that I was gay,” Bauder said. “I had been kind of fooling myself for a long time.”
He divorced his wife and left the ministry.
Bauder moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to begin working as a volunteer and employee in an office providing social services specifically for gay people. He also worked with the University of Wisconsin Madison regarding what Bauder said the university called “gay issues” on campus.
When IU created the Office of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Student Support Services in 1994, Bauder filled the position as the first director. Bauder said when the office first opened, there were only 15 to 20 other campus offices like it in the country.
“We were kind of pioneers at that point,” Bauder said.
In his time at IU, Bauder met his partner at the university and between the both of them, they have four children and 10 grandchildren.
Bauder said five years ago the Office of GLB Student Services was reclassified from being a part of the dean’s office to under DEMA. This spurred the office’s name change to the LGBTQ+ Culture Center.
Previously, the culture center was classified as part of the dean's office which includes disability services, military and veterans services, and the student advocates office. Bauder said he loved the decision to reclassify to DEMA because it displayed that IU recognized that a person can have more than one identity including the LGBTQ+ community.
“Students like that who fall at the intersection — identifying as Latino but also identifying as LGBTQ — cause often times folks in intersection identities like those feel like they have to choose one,” said LGBTQ+ Culture Center graduate assistant Danielle Hernandez.
Intersectionality is defined as how people have multiple identities, such as race, gender and sexual orientation, that overlap and intertwine. The culture center is home to student groups that discuss such topics including Black & Bold and Latinx Initiative.
“He has been extremely interested in the intersectionality that this office has been including more and more in the past years,” Hernandez said. “He is the foundation of everything. He is pretty much supportive of anything that is going on.”
Bauder said he worked extensively with the leaders of the other culture centers at IU. One of which is Helene G. Simon Hillel Center Director Rabbi Sue Laikin Silberberg who said that Bauder is one of her closest friends in Bloomington.
“He is just amazing to work with," Silberberg said. "He is somebody who collaborates extremely well. He cares about the students that he works with and the issues surrounding diversity.”
Campus Pride cofounder and executive director Shane Windmeyer said his relationship with Bauder reaches back to when he was a graduate student and Bauder provided him a place to do laundry and allowed him to leave moving boxes at his house. Windmeyer said Bauder was his mentor and was the minister of his wedding.
Windmeyer will speak at the Nov. 16 cocktail reception.
In his retirement, Bauder said he plans to write a book titled “The privilege of being queer.” He said he is going to look at privilege from a different perspective and tell many stories and events that happened in his life.
He also said after a year he may look into the possibility of becoming a volunteer with other retired faculty in the student advocate office to help students facing troubles at IU.
