![\"True](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011-fall-winter-out-and-about0.jpg\")
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It\u2019s not easy adjusting to college. But for Vu Tran \u201910 (BUS), \u201910 MS the usual challenges of navigating freshman year were complicated by the fact that he was in the process of coming out to his friends and family as a gay man.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some awkward moments,\u201d he recalls. \u201cMy roommates would be talking about the girls they liked; I\u2019d be talking about guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
But an introduction to the Rainbow Center<\/a> \u2013 UConn\u2019s educational resource for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) campus community \u2013 helped him find his way. \u201cThe Rainbow Center gave me a niche and helped me get my legs under me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n After a rocky start, Tran excelled, not only academically, but socially. He reached out to the Women\u2019s Center as a facilitator for its Violence Against Women Prevention Program. He became a \u201cSexpert\u201d with the Health Education Office, a position for which he received a Peer Educator of the Year award. He mentored new students through the University\u2019s First Year Experience Program and told his coming-out story to classes and groups as part of the Rainbow Center\u2019s Speakers Bureau.<\/p>\n In 2008, Tran made UConn history when he became the first openly gay Homecoming King. \u201cIt was a really nice feeling,\u201d he says. \u201cEspecially after not wanting to go to my high school prom or Homecoming dance because I was worried about what people would think about my date.\u201d<\/p>\n Tran, who received his master\u2019s degree in accounting at UConn last December and now works at Ernst & Young LLP, feels his story is not unusual. In the past decade, there has been a deliberate effort by the administration to address homophobia and make the campus a more welcoming environment for all students.<\/p>\n In 1999, The New York Times<\/em> ran an article on the growing trend of gay-bias incidents on UConn\u2019s campus. From chalking \u201cIf you\u2019re gay, go away\u201d on sidewalks to vandalizing doors of openly gay students, 21 incidents were reported to campus police that fall. That same year, the Princeton Review<\/em> ranked the University No. 12 among the 20 most homophobic college campuses in the country.<\/p>\n In response, students organized a rally in support of the LGBT community and presented a list of demands to then-president Philip Austin. The response by the administration was immediate. Austin released a statement deploring the incidents and proposed four steps to counter gay-bias acts: advocating immediate police investigation, making diversity part of the learning experience, fostering a community atmosphere, and proclaiming an act against one group as an act against the entire campus.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Times<\/em> article provided traction for a movement to make UConn more LGBT-friendly,\u201d says Fleurette King, Rainbow Center director.<\/p>\n Adds Bill Hickman \u201905 (BGS), the Rainbow Center\u2019s administrative assistant, \u201cThe University said \u2018enough is enough.\u2019 That\u2019s when things started to change.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, UConn is listed in The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students;<\/em> and the LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index, an online resource, gives the University a 4.5 out of 5 rating.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t just happen,\u201d says John Saddlemire, vice president for student affairs. \u201cIt was a quiet, concerted effort by a lot of people who went back and re-examined the way we were doing things in an effort to make the campus more user-friendly and accepting.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rainbow Center, which opened one year before the 1999 rash of bias incidents, exemplifies the change seen on campus in the past decade.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started with one room,\u201d says Margaret Breen, professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and associate department head, who named the Center. \u201cThe \u2018closet\u2019 metaphor would not have been a stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n Now occupying a suite of offices in the Student Union, the Center is a haven for LGBT students and their allies.<\/p>\n \u201cI can always count on my friends at the Rainbow Center,\u201d says Alycia Washington \u201912 (CLAS), a psychology major who works at the Center. \u201cFleurette is just the best boss-mom-sister ever. She and Bill are the perfect tag team. Even if you don\u2019t realize it, they\u2019re helping you. They\u2019re always out and about on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n The Center\u2019s weekly \u201cOut to Lunch\u201d lecture series \u2013 which students can take as a three-credit class \u2013 hosts speakers on topics related to queer studies, from the high incidence of suicide in gay youth to the origins of homoerotic literature. And they offer training to campus constituents who wish to become allies to the LGBT community.<\/p>\n Through the Rainbow Center, students have access to an extensive library of LGBT-related literature and can join a number of support and social groups, including My Soul, for LGBT campus members of color, and Queers United Against Discrimination (QUAD).<\/p>\n But the Rainbow Center isn\u2019t the only avenue of support for the LGBT campus community.<\/p>\n Some students may not be ready to identify with a particular group. Kristin Van Ness \u201909 (CLAS) found her safe haven at the Women\u2019s Center. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t an assumption about why I was walking in there,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Van Ness, a psychology and human development and family studies double major, attended the Between Women support group \u201cfor women who love women or think that they might.\u201d It was there that she realized she wasn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was this amazing realization that I\u2019m not the only person who feels this way,\u201d she says. Listening to group members tell their coming-out stories helped Van Ness normalize her experience: \u201cFor the first time, I felt like a completely normal human being.\u201d<\/p>\n The Women\u2019s Center, which opened its doors in 1972, promotes educational advocacy around gender equity, and that includes LGBT issues, says Kathleen Holgerson, the Center\u2019s director. \u201cYou can\u2019t serve one part of the spectrum without concern for all of the spectrum,\u201d she says. The Between Women support group has been part of the Center since 1994, the year Holgerson came to UConn.<\/p>\n When Cassy Setzler \u201912 (CLAS) came to UConn, she was not sure how to get involved. On a whim, she applied for a position as a Sexpert with the Health Education Office. \u201cIt was something new, something I hadn\u2019t done before. At that point, I hadn\u2019t even come out to myself,\u201d says Setzler, a double major in psychology and human development and family studies.<\/p>\n Trained by Joleen Nevers, UConn\u2019s health education coordinator, Sexperts are peer educators who present programs in residence halls and to various campus groups to help promote positive and responsible sexuality and create awareness of sexuality issues. The program has received regional and national awards, says Nevers.<\/p>\n Unsure of her sexual orientation, Setzler found the support she needed in Nevers and the Sexperts program. \u201cThey really didn\u2019t care how I identified,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe teach sex education while keeping in mind all the different expressions of sexuality,\u201d says Nevers. \u201cWe are very careful about our language at the Health Education Office. We don\u2019t want to exclude anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n In her sophomore year, Setzler became involved through the Rainbow Center with Shades of Grey, a support group for people who love more than one gender, which she still helps run. Setzler also is a part of the Rainbow Center\u2019s Speakers Bureau, through which she had the opportunity to speak about her coming-out experiences in one of her own classes. \u201cPeople had no idea. They were so surprised when they saw me get up and walk to the front of the class.\u201d Being a peer educator is therapeutic for Setzler. \u201cEvery time I tell my coming-out story, it gets more normal. It helps me feel like I\u2019m doing OK.\u201d<\/p>\n Campus centers and offices \u2013 like the Rainbow Center, Women\u2019s Center, and Health Education Office \u2013 have done much to support and advocate for the LGBT community. But there is also an intellectual piece, says Breen, a specialist in LGBT literature and gender theory who teaches Introduction to LGBT Literature, which she pioneered in 1995, and Genders and Sexualities, a course that consistently fills to capacity.<\/p>\n![\"Fleurette](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011-fall-winter-out-and-about3-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>\u2018Enough is enough\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Fleurette](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011-fall-winter-out-and-about2-199x300.jpg\")
<\/a>No Longer Feeling Alone<\/h2>\n
![\"True](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011-fall-winter-out-and-about1-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>Challenging Presumptions<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/2011-fall-winter-out-and-about4-300x200.jpg\")
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