Our recent discussion about the Rutgers University student who committed suicide after sexual relations with another man were broadcast online made me consider the GLBT community more locally.
A recent story found discrimination in an Indianapolis bakery after the owner cited moral objections to homosexuality as the reason he would not make rainbow-colored cookies for National Coming Out Day. Although this story is not nearly as serious as the student at Rutgers, this is a recent example of how our local community is not always accepting of different communities.
The incident at Rutgers raises many questions of the community's willingness to accept the GLBT population and the effectiveness of current policies in place. Any kind of discrimination should not be tolerated, and the school should have acted sooner on the first incident of its kind to handle the situation as quickly as possible. I think it's easy for most people to consider themselves not racist, but I believe one of the biggest prejudices people still have would be for the GLBT population.
I'm from a small country town in Indiana, and I know firsthand homosexual people are not very welcomed. Coming to IU, however, showed me the large support the community has. A recent opinion piece in the IDS discusses the role of the GLBT office here on campus. Although I am not part of the community myself, I do feel as if people are much more welcomed here. It's a topic from which many people try to stay away, but I believe it's the main prejudice of our century, and it's something that needs to be handled sensitively and correctly.
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