LGBT Community at Ole Miss

Matthew Bishop

JOUR 102 Sec 4

8 May 2011

LGBT Community at Ole Miss

There has been a spike in suicides the last year by many gay teenagers and young adults mainly caused by repetitive bullying and public humiliation.

The most widely publicized of this occurrence is the suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clemente who reportedly jumped off a bridge after his roommate posted a video of him having a sexual encounter with another man.

But how are the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) students being treated here at Ole Miss? You might just be surprised.

The LGBT community at Ole Miss is much larger than one would imagine at an estimated 10% of the student population. That is according to Vicki Mahan who is the employee assistance program coordinator at the Student Counseling Center on campus.

Mahan said that there are two contributing factors as to why many students and faculty don’t recognize that there is a significant LGBT community here at the university.

First is that many of the students and faculty are in denial that there is even an LGBT community and secondly is that there is vast numbers of LGBT students who are still “in the closet”.

The majority of issues that LGBT students come to Mahan to talk about is being accepted into their family or religion.

“Many of their religions say they are doomed, which is pretty hard when your trying to accept yourself.” Mahan said.

However there have been some instances of friction between a straight students and a LGBT student such as when a student came to Mahan to complain about some people in his dorm who graffitied derogatory remarks on his door.

Emily Perkins who is a lesbian student at Ole Miss says that she has not been harassed or humiliated at Ole Miss and said that most people here are very accepting. She does say however that there is a difference between the treatment of gay men versus gay women.

“I think the gay guys have it much worse because straight men don’t seem to be as open minded.” Perkins said.

Perkins did mention however that some of her other lesbian friends who are in sororities sometimes have a hard time fitting in with the other sorority girls especially at events where they have a mixer with a male fraternity.

Mahan is however trying to better integrate LGBT students into the community as well as educate straight faculty and students through her Allies program. The program informs faculty and students about issues involving LGBT students. It is also their so that a faculty member who is an ally can hang up a symbol on their door which signifies that an LGBT student can speak openly with them about any issues that they may be having.

If you are an LGBT student and are currently having any social issues you can stop by the counseling center located across the street from Bishop hall or you can visit websites such as www.thetrevorproject.org and www.itgetsbetter.org.