Ever since hearing about NJIT from my friends, I was apprehensive. As someone who has been happily out as gay since I was 15, it was important to me that I found a place where I could be open and where I could find people with whom I could relate. As an engineering and technology school, I was fearful that there would be a significant lack of other queer people and that I might feel isolated.
However, despite my apprehension, I joined the Highlander nation and eagerly threw myself into my first semester of college. In order to find other LGBT people on campus, I joined the dedicated club: Spectrum. It proved to be an interesting experience, as it was a very small club with virtually no name recognition or events. Our meetings were very laid back, with discussion and general banter being the rule. It was very pleasant, but not the vibrant and thriving LGBT community I had always wanted and dreamed about.
Over the course of that first semester, our membership dwindled steadily until the club seemed almost like a ghost town. However, over the course of that same semester, I learned a lot about being gay at NJIT. There are plenty of LGBT people at NJIT, in all majors and in all years. However, Spectrum was failing to provide a comprehensive LGBT space where they felt comfortable, or even motivated to attend.
I also came to realize that, even more importantly than providing a fun a queer-friendly space, an LGBT organization needs to be a voice of advocacy for the underrepresented members of our community on campus. According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), 20 percent of college students fear for their physical safety due to their gender identity or their perceived sexual orientation, and only 31 percent of college students feel that their college’s administration thoroughly addresses LGBT issues on campus. With numbers like these, several members of Spectrum have decided to revitalize the club.
For the first past of this semester, we have been reorganizing and planning new directions for the organization, and now we are having our first event: A Day of Silence tabling to raise awareness of LGBT bullying and suicides, and to raise money to donate to the Trevor Project: an LGBT youth suicide hotline and counseling center. As someone who was closeted in a very conservative Christian environment for all of my early life, providing a safe and welcoming environment for LGBT people on our campus is something that means a lot to me, and hopefully with this event we can help raise awareness and make a difference in the way that LGBT people experience NJIT.
