With more than 800 people coming out to attend Judy Shepard’s keynote address for Awareness Days 2000, ISU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally Alliance had the most successful turnout in its history.

This is only one of the recent reassuring events, both locally and nationally, for the LGBT community.

The Alliance had well-attended events for one of its busiest weeks all year, officials announced the state of Iowa will start giving out scholarships for LGBT students (one of the first states in the country to announce such a progressive act), and the state of Vermont recently passed legislation to recognize gay and lesbian civil unions.

“Letters to the Editor” pages in newspapers across the country, including the Iowa State Daily, show the fight for equal rights is far from over.

The battle for tolerance is still a heated one, as those who have little understanding of the issue seem to be content to embrace ignorance and hatred instead of diversity.

In the face of this opposition, LGBT students at Iowa State and their supporters have shown a great deal of courage.

The topic of sexuality is confusing enough; coming to grips with it in the middle of a university community that can be insensitive at best and intolerant at worst is emotionally taxing for LGBT students.

ISU LGBT students are active and open about who they are and the causes they care about.

With all the attention placed on LGBT students, sometimes it is overlooked about how many faculty members at Iowa State are LGBT.

After a hiatus, the chapter of IMRU, a support group intended for ISU faculty, graduate students, nontraditional students and the Ames community, has restarted.

In today’s article about the group, ISU faculty members had positive things to say about the climate for them at the university.

Others, such as Roy Higginson, a former ISU professor of English, had a different story: He successfully sued the Department of English after being denied tenure, charging homophobia.

As the atmosphere for LGBT students at Iowa State grows more tolerant, let’s not forget about faculty and staff members who have their own struggles to face, including whether they’re accepted by their colleagues and if their partners will ever be able to receive health benefits from the university, too.

But for now, let’s congratulate the Alliance and LGBT Student Services and all those people who participated in Awareness Days 2000. As always, the first step in the battle against discrimination is education.

Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas, Carrie Tett and David Roepke.