The event was part of Celebration Week 2002, an annual function to address issues facing LGBT students. The week is sponsored by Queer Network for Change.
QNC President Jamie Sohn said Thursday's event represented the week's goal of celebrating the strengths within the LGBT community in addition to networking outside of it. "It's something to connect allies to the LGBT community on campus," Sohn said.
Former Student Body Vice President Rudy Kleysteuber served as master of ceremonies for the event, which drew more than 100 people. Many who attended said they enjoyed a diverse, accepting community while they ate rainbow-colored cake. Participants also held hands and read the Safe Zone pledge together.
Safe Zone is a program in which students, faculty and staff train to serve as allies who make themselves available to assist members of the LGBT community. "We're here today because we all know UNC is not the most opening and welcoming place in the world or that it even has the potential to be," Kleysteuber said.
Political science Professor Pam Conover, who serves on the provost's LGBT advisory committee, said Safe Zone and other programs serving the LGBT community can effect change. "This is about making the University a campus where diversity and equality really mean something," she said.
Conover said the most effective way to reduce homophobia is by knowing a homosexual person on a personal level and that Safe Zone facilitates these relationships. "There is a chance that that homophobia, that intolerance will diminish."
Senior Marcus Harvey, president and founder of Diversions, a support group for LGBT students of color, said using labels to identify members of minority groups fails to describe them as individuals. "I feel I am far more than a simple label can explain," he said.
Journalism Professor Chuck Stone, the event's final speaker, pointed out that the speakout was being held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. He said the goals of Safe Zone and other LGBT advocacy groups align with King's vision of equality.
One of the allies in attendance was Darryl Waisner, who works in the Lineberger Cancer Research Center and was trained as a Safe Zone ally last fall. He said, "We need allies all over campus because you never know when you'll need someone."
