“It’s kind of nerve-wracking. It’s scary, actually, because I’m inadvertently coming out to people, basically. It’s not like they don’t know, but it’s not like I announce it. Simply by participating, people associate you with it, so it’s kind of a passive-aggressive way of coming out,” said Callen Ubeda, junior in political science.

Ubeda and a number of other students will be participating in LGBTA Awareness Week, which starts Monday.

Christine Peterson, president of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Ally Alliance and sophomore in child, adult and family services, said each day of this week will represent a different aspect of the organization and the community it represents.

“Monday is going to be Lesbian and Gay Day, Tuesday is Bisexual Day, Wednesday is Transgender Day, Thursday is Ally Day and then Friday is Day of Silence, which is a national day of remembrance, and then that evening we’ll have a Night of Noise,” Peterson said.

Night of Noise is a fundraiser that will benefit both LGBTAA and the Ginger Cade Foundation, said Nate Bell, sophomore in communication studies and women’s studies.

Ginger Cade is a former employee of Iowa State’s Dean of Students Office, he said who came down with an illness and could no longer work. The money will help her with medical bills.

Callen Ubeda, Allison Cole, Kate Mitchell, Tracy Bear and Michael Aguilar were all out chalking on and around the steps of Curtiss Hall on Sunday evening to advertise for the upcoming week.

Aguilar, freshman in elementary education and vice president of LGBTAA, said he is ready to learn about other aspects of sexuality and identification that he didn’t know much about.

“I am really excited about Transgender Day. I know an embarrassingly little amount about those kinds of issues, so I’m really interested to hear the speakers,” Aguilar said.

He said he came from a place in Illinois that didn’t have a gay community.

“I’m from central Illinois, and it’s the same way there as it is here,” Aguilar said. “I mean, I come from a town of nearly 300,000 people, and I’ve never heard of a gay community where I live. Especially after coming out there last summer, trying to find people to identify with. It wasn’t just ‘Oh, I’m gay now, I’m going to go hang out with gay people. [It was] just trying to find someone who can understand what I’m going through.”

He said he feels a lot of the things LGBTAA does on campus are kept quiet.

“It seems like we’re almost being told to keep quiet,” Aguilar said.

Mitchell, sophomore in elementary education, smiled at Aguilar and agreed with him.

She said she felt a lot of the problems LGBTAA has had on campus are due to the types of places most of the students grew up in.

“It seems like, at Iowa State, a lot of kids are from small farm towns and they literally just don’t know, and it’s not that it upsets them or they’re passionate about it – they just really don’t know,” Mitchell said. “I think what we’re doing is important, and it’s like what Mike said: There’s almost a vibe of people trying to keep it quiet, but we’re just getting the word out and letting people know that it exists.”

Bear, freshman in art and design, said she was excited for the Day of Silence, but she wasn’t really familiar with the rest of the activities.

“It’s my first awareness week, since I’m a freshman – so it’s pretty exciting. I’ve never experienced any of this before, so the whole thing is just going to be new for me,” she said.