The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Ally Alliance chose a different approach to educate the ISU community on the issue of same-sex marriage Thursday night: an open forum and debate.

In response to the recent landmark court decision that briefly granted same-sex couples in Iowa the right to marry, the Same-Sex Marriage Forum and Debate allowed the ISU community to come to a more complete understanding of both the support and opposition for same-sex marriage.

The event took place in front of an audience of about 20 people. Although a number of student groups on campus were invited via e-mail, including Campus Crusade for Christ, Salt Company and Students for Hillary, members of the audience only consisted of those involved with the LGBTA community.

As a means of getting the discussion started, the moderator of the evening, Kris Olds, graduate student in educational and leadership policy and adviser to the LGBTAA, had the audience first watch a video clip from YouTube that provided the viewpoints of some New Jersey politicians on the issue of same-sex marriage. This was followed by a series of video clips collected last week that expressed some of the differing views on the topic from members of the ISU community.

In the video clips, some students presented their viewpoint that the idea of same-sex marriage is morally wrong, based on their respective religious affiliations. Others agreed with the idea of same-sex marriage, one person going as far as comparing the consistent debate as being “simply a rerun of the time when blacks and whites were not allowed to marry.”

At the conclusion of the video clips, Olds asked questions to the audience based on the varying viewpoints that were presented in the clips.

Warren Blumenfeld, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, said even though some students are not in support of the idea of same-sex marriage, they are concerned with issues of fairness.

“They might not particularly agree with same-sex marriage on the one hand, but they see it as unfair on the other hand that we are being defined as second-class citizens. For those who might not be agreeing with us, they might be supporting us on the issue of fairness,” Blumenfeld said at the debate.

Zachary Ford, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies, said another barrier against the idea of same-sex marriage is that the term “marriage” gives both a governmental definition and a religious definition.

“Language is our worst enemy. Because the word is ‘marriage’, people use their religious morals to dictate that,” Ford said.

Matthew Fender, senior in Spanish and public relations chairman for LGBTAA, said the low attendance at this forum was because it was held on a Thursday night and that it was poorly publicized.