CORRECTION: In the story below, Warren Blumenfeld, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, relates an incident involving a woman being denied access to her partner at Mary Greeley Medical Center. The incident in question did not occur at Mary Greeley, but rather at a different hospital. The Daily regrets the error.

More than 20 people gathered at the base of the steps of Curtiss Hall on Wednesday night to pay tribute to a boy none of them had ever met.

ISU students and faculty members and Ames residents met in a candlelight vigil for Lawrence King, a 15-year-old boy from Oxnard, Calif., who was shot to death in his school earlier this month.

King, who was openly gay, was shot twice in the head by a fellow student. King’s memory was honored along with those of other young people in the U.S. who have died as the results of hate crimes, such as Matthew Shepard and Gwen Araujo.

The group then took part in a silent march across campus to a conference room in Martin Hall to discuss more issues and personal experiences.

Tom Vance, senior in journalism and mass communication, organized the event with the assistance of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Ally Alliance at Iowa State and the Got Ignorance? campaign. Vance said the idea for the vigil came out of concern for his 14-year-old brother and the climate he is growing up in.

“I’m worried about him because people are going to know he has a gay brother,” Vance said.

Warren Blumenfeld, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, spoke in Martin Hall in more detail about several hate-crime victims.

“Unfortunately, those names that were read were only in the most recent past – only within the last 10 or 15 years,” Blumenfeld said. “If we go even further back, we would be here all night reading those names.”

Blumenfeld said discrimination is still happening close to home. He shared the case of an Ames woman who was admitted to Mary Greeley Medical Center. The woman’s partner went to the hospital, but was not allowed to see her partner because she was not her spouse or an immediate family member.

Those who attended the vigil had mixed feelings about the size the attending crowd.

“We need to be a lot more vocal about this,” said Rachel Johnson, freshman in design-undeclared.”I’m very surprised there aren’t more people out here tonight.”

Others didn’t know what to expect from the evening and were pleasantly surprised by the results.

“Think about the ideas our group is going to spread,” said Cory Hagen, Ames resident. “No vigil is too small, no group is too small, no person is too small – as long as one person is out there making a difference.”

Vance said he hoped people learned from the King incident and the vigil.

“I just want people to get educated,” he said. “Take time to get to know your gay cousin or your lesbian sister, you know.”