Dear students of campus,

We are here, we are queer, deal with it.

Yeah, we get it. Around every turn cisgender and heterosexual people try and make our arguments invalid. “Straight pride” and “heterophobia” are words thrown around to make our words seem less effective.

It seems that if some students would put a little more energy toward making campus a better place, then our campus would be safe. However, don’t take my word for it. Let’s get some stories from real LGBTQIA+ people on campus and consider some of the experiences they deal with every day.

My experience hasn’t been great. When I went to the doctor here on campus, I found myself in an uncomfortable situation. I went in for a routine STD test because I like to be safe while sexually active and as a gay male I understand the risks.

When I went in, I had a doctor who seemed nice until we got to the tests and he left out certain tests I knew I needed. When I tried to explain that because of my sexual preferences I would need these tests, he refused and said I would not need them.

Seven months went by and I had a new partner so I decided to get another test to be safe. This time I saw a different doctor and got the tests I needed, only to find that I had an STD for seven months because of malpractice.

While the supervisor on campus assured the situation would be taken care of, I just wanted to show some of the problems gay men face even going for a simple doctor’s visit.

Dear students on campus,

Being open and proud of my identities on campus is something I take very seriously. It has taken many painful years to realize who I am and to love myself. I am proud to be pansexual and demiromantic. I also am very happy in my current relationship with my girlfriend. I wouldn’t change who I am for all the riches in the world, but the campus climate makes me hesitate in certain situations.

There are times when I think twice about sharing stories about my girlfriend and I or my experiences with my LBGTQIA+ friends. I must decide if I need to sensor conversations for LGBTQIA+ topics because of backlash that might happen.

I enjoy being here at Iowa State and want to share all that I can with this place to build a better experience for all. This negative haze hanging over this campus from ignorant individuals has noticeably been increasing because people fail to educate themselves. They either don’t care or don’t wish to put in the effort.

The only way to move forward is to build each other up rather than climb over people to reach the top. This campus preaches unity, yet there is a divide between different identities. The only way we are going to reach this unification of all students is if everyone does their part in educating themselves and others to understand and love those who differ from themselves.

Dear students on campus,

I would like to live in a place where I don’t get harassed on the elevator.

I happen to live in a community on campus. There have been not one, not two, but a total of seven harassment violations to people who live on the floor with me. Is it so much to ask for people to not say derogatory or degrading things to me or my fellow floor mates?

You would not say racial slurs to a person of color on the elevator, so what makes you think it is perfectly acceptable to call me a homo on the elevator? That is degrading and hurtful.

The age-old argument is that it’s “just a word.” The problem with that is that the word has history behind it. In case you didn’t know, here are some words and their history.

Homosexual was used as a clinical term for a diseased individual and had common practices against them such as electroshock therapy. This word wasn’t eradicated as a disease term until the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association determined it was not a mental illness in the 1970s.

The word “tranny” is a derogatory term used to dehumanize transgender individuals to make them seem “unhuman.” Why would people do that, you ask? Well you see, it’s easier to discriminate and attack someone when nobody else thinks they are real. Think about it. If someone attacked the dragons and told you they didn’t exist you would probably agree. That’s why they dehumanize trans people. It makes it easier for people to accept it if they don’t see them as actual people.

Dear students on campus,

I hope this brought some insight into the events that are happening on campus.

This is not a new occurrence for the people of the LGBTQIA+ community. We face this everyday of our lives. We face it from our peers, our families and even from random strangers. This cannot continue if we are ever going to live in peace. We fought for our rights at Stonewall and we will continue to fight for the right to exist. If that means we fight for one year or a thousand years then we will.

We are proud, strong queer individuals and we will not be degraded or invalidated by people who choose not to accept that.

Sincerely,

The proud queer individuals of Iowa State