By Naomi Hofferber
When it comes to LGBTQ inclusivity, the University of Iowa is right on the frontier.
October is LGBTQ history month nationwide, and events are being held on campus all month long, with a particular week, Oct. 17-21, hosted by Delta Lambda Phi Fraternity, Gamma Rho Lambda Sorority, oSTEM, Spectrum UI and UI Trans Alliance.
A lecture about the history of the LGBTQ community in Iowa City will take place in Becker on Oct. 19.
“We realized as a collective community that we don’t really know a lot about the LGBT community of Iowa City and the University of Iowa,” said Hunter Gillaspie, vice president of the UI chapter of Delta Lambda Phi. “There are some really cool things that have happened here that a lot of people don’t know about. The University of Iowa is kind of a pioneer in ‘firsts,’ if you will, for human rights. The LGBT realm is no exception to that.”
The UI was home to the first nationally recognized college LGBTQ organization in 1970, the group now known as Spectrum UI. The university has had a past of progressiveness.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the LGBTQ resource center on campus, which provides members of the LGBTQ community a safe place to go and has a staff member available whenever the center is open.
Gillaspie said the center is important not only for hosting activities, but for what it represents in the community.
“I think it promotes visibility,” he said. “There are students that utilize this place that do exist, even if they are not the most visible on all areas of the campus.”
The center will hold a rededication and ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 28, at 3 p.m.
In the last 10 years since the building of the center, the UI has made numerous efforts toward being LGBTQ-inclusive.
Since 1996, the UI has done several things to improve the lives of the LGBTQ community, including adding gender identity to the non-discrimination policy, being the first university to offer sexual orientation and gender identity questions on applications, and becoming one of the first universities in the nation to allow students to pick their preferred name and pronouns.
“The University of Iowa values diversity and is committed to creating a welcoming environment for students from every background,” Anne Basset, the UI media relations director said in an email to The Daily Iowan. “The UI has a long-standing history of supporting LGBTQ students, staff and faculty, which started in 1970.”
Gillaspie said it is important to remember LGBTQ history, in order to understand how far the community has come.
“Living in the bubble of Iowa City that we do — not that Iowa City is perfect — but it’s a lot better than a lot of places in the United States and across the world in terms of LGBT rights and privileges, and the things we can enjoy in our daily lives that not everyone in our community can across the world,” he said.
This year, LGBTQ week also features a fashion show called STRUT, which gives students the opportunity to do a runway walk and fashion shoot, and even compete in multiple categories of a fashion show.
Sean Finn, the president of the UI Trans Alliance, said that it’s important to celebrate LGBTQ history month, for multiple reasons.
“LGBTQ history is largely overlooked,” Finn said. “When we talk about history generally in the United States, a lot of people don’t know even what Stonewall was, and that was a huge watershed moment for rights within the queer communities.”
The Stonewall Riots, which took place in 1969, is regarded as the start of the LGBTQ rights movement. At a time in which New York had laws banning homosexuality in public, the police shut down various gay clubs and bars throughout the city. When they moved to raid the Stonewall Inn, a violent protest broke out, which sparked additional demonstrations and movements nationwide for LGBTQ rights.
“It’s also important, especially among the gay community. Throughout the AIDS crisis in the ’80s and ’90s, we as an overall community lost a lot of people,” Finn said. “We don’t get taught it during school, we don’t get taught it from our elders so much because a lot of them aren’t around because of the AIDS crisis.”
An estimated 698,219 people have died since the beginning of the epidemic, with AIDS disproportionally affecting minorities and gay and bisexual men.
“I think it’s important to remember where we’ve come from, where we still need to go,” Gillaspie said, “Because there are still things that need to be fixed and need to be done.”