MC Rainbow Alliance


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Students seek acceptance, tolerance

MC group is raising awareness

BY KATE YORK
The Marietta Times
kyork@mariettatimes.com

Marietta College student Kayla Reiland, 20, says she feels comfortable walking down the mall of the college holding hands with her girlfriend, but not everyone is as comfortable with her sexual orientation.

"Here at the college, people are great," said Reiland. "I've felt confident since the day I walked on campus. But I still run into people who think you can touch a person and get it. They're so ignorant."

Reiland and other members of Marietta College's Rainbow Alliance came together Thursday to fight that ignorance and bring to light issues that gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people experience every day. AIDS is just one of those issues.

About 35 students wore T-shirts throughout the day that said "I Am..." on the front and different messages on the back, ranging from a man who died alone in a hospital room because his partner of 27 years was not allowed in to the father who never hugged his son because he grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

"We wanted to raise awareness and show people that they have support," said Marietta College sophomore Will Kauff, 20, of Middleport, Ohio. "There are a lot of issues on campus and off. Sometimes people of certain religions have problems with us and even some groups of athletes are hard to break into. We want them to realize this is hard enough."

About 15 students wearing the "I Am" shirts gathered outside the Gilman Student Center around noon, as students streamed in to eat lunch.

"We wanted to stand here as people entered to have a presence," Kauff said. "It's the most visible spot."

The group's "Silent No More" event was planned as a variation of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Day of Silence, held April 26 in 4,500 high schools across the country.

At Marietta College, reaction to the messages on the shirts were mixed, said sophomore Nick Aylward, 20.

"Some people said they didn't understand why I would wear it," said Aylward, whose shirt said he was a man whose church had closed its doors on his kind. "Others said they thought that happening to someone was really sad and they couldn't believe it."

Aylward was one of several students who are not members of the Rainbow Alliance but wore the T-shirts Thursday.

"My community back home is very diverse and has a high gay population and I support their rights completely," said Aylward, of Lakewood, Ohio. "This was a simple way to get out and be supportive. There is a lot of close-mindedness so it's important to take small steps like this."

A national GLSEN survey of 496 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people 19 and younger found that 46 percent of the youth said they had been verbally harassed, 12.1 percent had been physically harassed and 6.1 percent had been physically assaulted.

Nearly 87 percent of the gay, bisexual and transgender youth who said they felt safe in school reported sometimes or frequently hearing homophobic remarks.

It's an attitude that she's all too familiar with, said Reiland, most recently when the Rainbow Alliance set up an informational table on campus.

"They were people that were saying they didn't even want to come near our table," she said. "They said 'Don't go over there or everyone will think you're a faggot.'"

A lack of parental support is also an issue many people her age are dealing with, said Reiland, whose T-shirt Thursday told the story of a girl kicked out of her home after confiding to her mother that she was a lesbian.

"I'm very fortunate but I have a lot of friends who have had to leave home after coming out," she said. "There's a girl here whose family completely dropped her. She has no help paying for college and is totally on her own."

Some of the T-shirts addressed issues of violence, but Reiland said there was an effort made to not make the slogans too gruesome.

"There is one talking about being beaten to a bloody pulp," she said."But most of them aren't about that. We wanted people to realize we're all equals and we shouldn't be denied rights as people or Americans. We really were trying to go for the ones that would make people stop and think. "

And, apparently, Reiland's shirt did.

"A (student) saw my shirt and when he sat down for lunch and he asked if that had ever really happened to anyone," she said. "He said that if it had, that was really cruel. That makes me so happy. It means people are thinking about this."

Some slogans:

I am ...
...the domestic violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

...the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn't have to always deal with society hating me.

...the guy who came out to his entire school in his senior speech and got a standing ovation for his courage.

...the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of bring taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.