In regards to the LGBT community on campus, ETSU is slowly but surely making changes for the better. It is encouraging to see East Tennessee embrace our community with events like Tri-Pride and groups like the Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) and Aligning, Support, Education, and Community for Trans Students (ASPECTS).
While Johnson City has become a place marginally more safe for queer people than other surrounding areas, just outside the gates of Pride is a much more uncomfortable truth of our region: Protestors gathered in the name of white supremacy, religious bigotry and homophobia and transphobia. Tri-Pride, in the two years since its inception, has been very heavily patrolled by police in SWAT gear and helicopters.
The LGBT community at ETSU needs a place on campus free from this kind of endless surveillance, threats of violence and the general discomfort of existing as a queer person in the heart of the Bible Belt.
These realities require action that amounts to more than an appearance of university officials at our Pride celebrations. We need to make meaningful, material change in the lives of LGBT people on campus by following the lead of universities across the nation and providing an LGBT center that connects students with vital community resources, information and a respite from the judgmental world.
In the past five years, we have come far in terms of progress for LGBT support, when even superficial support for LGBT people in the South seemed like a distant dream. However, we still have a very long way to go.
Currently, the Supreme Court is debating whether sexual orientation and gender identity are protected against housing and employment discrimination. Despite recent legislative wins, reported hate crimes against LGBT people have risen since 2016, according to a recent FBI hate crime report (this does not account for hate crimes that go unreported or are not recognized as hate crimes by the FBI).
If administration truly cares about the university’s LGBT students, they would be willing to face the state legislature to fight for the funding required to open an LGBT center. It is easy to celebrate with the LGBT community during our moments of victory; we know how to have a good time. It is another thing entirely to stand with us during our darkest moments: when the state litigates our right to existence, when we are taunted and threatened with violence and when we are bogged down by mental health problems.
The LGBT students at ETSU deserve a place to exist without fear, where our needs can be addressed with specificity and care.
