Castleton Spartan

Issue date: 1/31/07 Section: News

As a freshman living on an all-girl's floor in Ellis Hall last year, Laura Olson experienced her first outward display of homophobia -- the word 'queer' scrawled on her dorm-room door.

"No one really knew that I was gay," Olson, a sophomore communications major said.

Once word got out that she was, a rumor started that she had a crush on a straight girl on the floor, which evidently led to her door being defaced.

Yet, despite feeling like her security was shattered at a time when she was trying to adapt herself to the college environment, Olson feels that overall, Castleton State College is an accepting campus.

"The response to what happened was very proactive, and I feel like people cared about making things better," Olson said.

Support and acceptance

Olson says her fear is that in a liberal state at a liberal school like CSC, that people are under the impression that there is no need for Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender (GLBT) rights advocacy.

"They think that supporting clubs like One in Ten isn't important because our campus is already liberal, but there are bigots everywhere," she said. "Even if every person on campus was an ally, the GLBT community still does not have equal rights, and every person that fights for securing these rights is so important."

Raymond Boule, a junior, thinks that CSC is very passive in its attempts to make the GLBT community feel comfortable.

"I think that CSC community means well in thinking that if we don't make a big deal of it then it is still acceptable and there is no inequality," Boule said.

Meredith Fletcher, who works as the staff assistant to the academic dean's office, echoes Olson's sentiments, saying that even though her and her partner live 100 percent like any other married couple, "there are still over 1,000 rights we are not afforded, mostly on the federal level."

And even though they have a civil union, Fletcher said she feels as if she and her partner are still looked upon as second-class citizens.

"It would nice to be seen as equal by the straight people of the world," Fletcher said.

The last decade

Fletcher believes that being gay or bisexual is more accepted now than it was when she was a student at CSC

"Ten years ago it was definitely a different atmosphere," Fletcher said, recalling how she knew some people, all men, who were harassed for being gay, like getting pornographic tapes sent to them with "nasty notes and so forth."

Continued...

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