It wasn't
easy for Chris Jones to come out in high school as an openly gay student. But he learned to deal with the name calling and stares.
He didn’t
expect things to get worse after graduation. But at Delaware Valley College, a
small school in Pennsylvania, where
Jones majored in equine science, he was
subjected to harassment and physical threats, he says.
At the end
of his sophomore year, he decided to transfer to Rutgers. Jones arrived this month at the New Brunswick Campus and feels sure that he’s found the right place.
"Every time I
visited Rutgers to see friends, I felt so at ease. There were so many smiling
faces. As big as it is, you can tell you're always going to find a home for
yourself,’’ he says. “I’m so happy to be here.’’
Many LGBT students look forward to college as a time of self-discovery, when they can
finally let the world know who they are. They’re searching for a school that
will nurture that process.
“There’s a lot of anticipation and build up,
if they get here and they don’t feel a connection right away, even if they’ve
been planning for years, it can be tough,’’ says Jenny Kurtz, director of the Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities.
Since she joined the center in 2008, Kurtz has been working to let LGBT students
know that they can find what they need on campus. This year, she won a Public
Service Award from the American College Personnel Association for her efforts to
increase LGBT awareness.
“After Tyler
Clementi’s death, everyone was asking, ‘what’s life like for LGBT students at
Rutgers?’’ says Kurtz. “The conversations have always been happening here, but
more people have been joining in. Last year, people were reaching out to say,
‘I’m here. I’m an ally.’ It really inspired folks to be visible and reconfirmed
our dedication. The truth is, we have a
really extensive network of resources for students, including faculty and
staff.”
The 2011 Campus
Pride Climate Index, which measures services and activities for LGBT students,
gave both the Rutgers-New Brunswick and Rutgers-Newark campuses an overall rating
of four out of five stars. The index, created by a leading nonprofit LGBT
student rights group, gave Rutgers five stars for “institutional support and
commitment’’ and “student counseling and health services.’’
Rutgers also
has an active social life for LGBT students, with eight different
organizations, from gay students of
color to the gay men’s fraternity Delta Lambda Phi. TheRutgers Queer Student
Alliance , formerly RU BIGLATA (Rutgers
University Bisexual, Gay Lesbian Transgender Association), is the second
oldest LGBT campus group in the country and includes an alumni organization.
For some
students, the array of sub-groups can be confusing, so Kurtz tries to help
them determine what they want. “I ask a lot of questions. What are they seeing
in an LGBT community? Some just want a social environment and they want to be
safe. Others want to be politically active.’’
For students who are in the midst of
exploring their sexual and gender identity, Kurtz reminds them they may not
find answers right away. “There’s a lot of pressure to declare what
they ‘really’ are,’’ she says. “I just say, ‘why don’t you just let yourself be
who you are right now?’’’
For many students in the process of
coming out, Rutgers offers a sense of
community and an atmosphere where self-discovery can flourish, according to
Kurtz.
Rutgers-New
Brunswick student Kyle Hartmann says he's never emphasized his sexual orientation. "It’s just one part of who I am," he says. "But being here has changed my
experience. It helped me feel more comfortable with myself.’’
At
Rutgers, Hartmann is a member of Delta
Lambda Phi and has participated in gay marriage phone drives, an AIDS walk. and
other fundraisers.
Jones is
part of a new program called "Rainbow Perspectives,'' where about 40
students who are interested in issues of sexual and gender identity dorm
together on one floor. The participants, who are both LGBT and straight,
live alongside others who aren’t part of the program.
"What
I'm anticipating is that some folks in that house who aren't part of rainbow
perspective will start to have ongoing conversations about the issues,'' says
Kurtz.
Fall
semester marked the start of “gender
neutral housing,’’ where Rutgers-New
Brunswick students can choose to live with the opposite sex, as long as the other person has agreed.
Other
campuses have also expanded efforts to serve the LGBT population, which Kurtz
estimates is about 10 percent of the student body.
At
Rutgers-Newark, Maren Greathouse, formerly
director of LGBT student development at Towson University, arrived this month to
bolster services and support for LGBT students at the campus, which has a
14-year history of gay student groups and services.
“We were
already on the right track, but Maren will solidify and cement our overall
mission,’’ says Gerald Massenberg, associate chancellor of student life at
Rutgers-Newark.” We’re amping up our counseling center and enhancing delivery
services for LGBT students.’’
In November, Rutgers and the city of
Newark will co-sponsor “Queer Newark: Our Voices, Our Histories’’ at the
campus, the first major conference on gay issues the city has held.
At
Rutgers-Camden, the Division of Student Affairs is starting a “safe zone’’
program, where volunteer faculty and staff will identify themselves as being an
ally that LGBT students feel comfortable approaching for support, said Mike Sepanic,
associate chancellor for external relations at the campus.
Jones wants other LGBT students to
know they can turn to him, too.“I want my name out there and my face out there.
I’m going to be dedicated to helping the gay community,’’ he says. “For people
who have ever gone through what I went through, my advice is stay true to
yourself you’re fine the way you are.’’
