To kick off National LGBT History Month, KSU’s LGBTIQ Student Retention Services hosted its “Opening Doors, Outing LGBTQ History” exhibit Thursday, Oct. 3, in the Student Center.
The exhibit contained 12 freestanding closet doors, each painted a different color, containing photos and information about the history of LGBT rights in America.
Each door represents a different LGBT organization, theme or event dating as far back as the 1950s.
The exhibit, displaying
60 years of LGBTQ history
in America, contained information about the Stonewall Inn Riots of 1969, the ACT UP movement of ’87, and organizations like the Gay Liberation Front and the
Daughters of Bilitis.
The doors can be seen
around campus. Four of them are currently located under the rotunda on the second floor of the Student Center.
Jessica Bull, the program coordinator for KSU’s LGBTIQ Student Retention Services, said she wants to have an exhibit every October and hopes that each year students can help increase the number of doors displayed.
As a KSU student, Bull served as president of the Kennesaw Pride Alliance. She said she wanted to see the university become more involved in doing things for its LGBT community.
Bull, who worked on
the exhibit for about two months, said she got the idea from students who said they wanted to attend
the Atlanta Pride Parade.
She said she asked herself if
people really understood what there was to be proud of, and since people do not usually learn LGBT history at school or at home, she wanted to offer them a different perspective.
The LGBTIQ Student Retention Services office located on the first floor of
the Student Center opened in January 2013. According to the office’s website, its mission is
to “provide a safe, supportive and inclusive space where students of all gender identities, gender expressions and sexual orientations can come to receive support.”
Bull said the office got off to a slow start when they opened in the Spring Semester because many students had not heard of the organization. She said
that since the beginning of
Fall Semester, she has received an increase in the number of students coming into the office.
“Students are more engaged in the fall because the school is new and they are back in and off their breaks,” Bull said.
In the Spring and Summer semesters, they had more than 60 students, but in the first three weeks of the Fall semester, the number of students visiting the office increased by 40 percent.
“It’s picking up pretty quick, and I expect that once this event comes out in the history exhibit and LGBT History Month kind of gets circulated around, that we will probably pick up a lot more,” Bull said.
“The biggest thing is actually the front door, having the letters on the door with the
rainbow behind it,” Bull said about the office. “It really pulls many people in.” Bull said
the program is all about the students and that the office is willing to adapt to the needs of KSU’s LGBT community.
“We are going to change the program to fit the students’ needs and wants,” she said. “We want students to feel comfortable and safe.”
October marks the first time KSU has ever participated in LGBT History Month.
“I hope they continue to do it every year and make people aware and more informed about the LGBT community,” said KSU sophomore Rachel Butler. “Hopefully by doing that, people will have a more tolerant and open-minded view on gay rights.”
