IU Bloomington received a five out of five for being accepting of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual students and staff members, according to their website on LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index.
Of the various campuses, IU Southeast is not listed on the site.
However, since IU Bloomington and IU Southeast are part of the same system, IU Southeast has a lot of resources for LBGT students and mirrors Bloomington.
Dylan Kidwell, secondary education sophomore and Gay Straight Alliance president, said his organization has not had any problems with getting their events approved or co-sponsored.
He also said they have not had any hate against them.
“There’s not really a big anti-rally against us or anything,” Kidwell said. “If you look at our fliers for the drag show last year, we had a lot of people and a lot of groups co-sponsor with us. The majority of them are very nice to us and open armed and very helpful to us, at least.”
Kidwell said he does not know of any organizations, groups or people who are not supportive of the GSA or their events.
“We haven’t been hit with a lot of backlash or anything like that,” Kidwell said. “As far as on the other side of the spectrum, I have no idea. A lot of people say they don’t care, and then you have people like us who really care.”
Jason Bielefeld, informatics senior and GSA vice president, said they will possibly be working together with a lot of different organizations this year.
“The sororities have been really nice to us,” Bielefeld said. “We will probably be co-sponsoring some events with them this year. We also do a lot with the [Multi-Cultural Student Union].”
Chris Cole, general studies senior and MSU president, said he agreed with Kidwell and Bielefeld about the acceptance of gay rights issues at IU Southeast.
“I don’t have any problems doing any of our events,” Cole said. “We hit some snags with funding occasionally, but that’s a different problem.”
For more information on the MSU or GSA, stop by their offices located in University Center North.
By BRYAN JONES
Profiles Editor
jonesbry@umail.iu.edu
