Group hopes to bring changes
to Purdue policies
By Heather Holman
Summer
Reporter
The newly found student organization, Purdue Equality
Alliance (PEA) — Advocates for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender
Equality, will be making its way into the Purdue community in the fall
semester.
Breck Jones, PEA president and junior in the School
Liberal Arts, along with Bryan Szyper, PEA treasurer and senior in the
School of Science, founded PEA at the end of spring semester.
The mission of the group is to advocate the rights
of, raise awareness of and help to create an accepting and diverse community
for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders (GLBT).
"We had seen other GLBT groups and they were very
social," Jones said. "We wanted to create a group that would give the
GLBT a political outlet."
Jones said the goal was to set up the group in the
spring so that they could work over the summer to be able to make a strong
appearance on campus in the fall.
The group kicked things off with a cookout on July
8 at Happy Hollow Park. "We had 40 or 50 people come," Jones said.
The group hosted the cookout for many reasons. One
was in celebration of the creation of the civil unions in Vermont. The
cookout also served two other purposes, to fundraise and to bring people
together, Jones said.
"It was a big mix (of people)," Jones said. Community
members, Citizens for Civil Rights members, Purdue students, graduated
high school seniors, people from other Purdue campuses, people outside
of the Purdue community and Purdue supporters attended the event.
Jones said community members got to meet GLBT students,
which is sometimes hard to do.
Besides food, people were able to participate in
softball, volleyball and a silent auction in which 25 local business participated.
The group was able to raise a lot of money and both
Jones and Szyper said they were very proud.
"The amount of support from our community was
overwhelming," Szyper said.
The organization has many goals that it wishes to
pursue in the coming year in regards to different issues of discrimination.
"Our biggest goal right now is to change the nondiscrimination
policy," Jones said. They would like the policy to include sexual orientation
and gender identity.
Szyper said Purdue is the last Big Ten School that
has not amended its nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation.
"I want it (nondiscrimination policy) changed
for the simple reason that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders
deserve equal protection," Szyper said.
PEA is also looking to work toward other issues.
One being the issue of unmarried heterosexual or same-sex couples not
being allowed to live in the Purdue Village.
Szyper said same-sex couples do not receive any marital
benefits, which would include not being able to live in the Purdue Village.
Although heterosexual couples are not allowed to live here either, Szyper
said that it is their choice not to get married.
PEA is also looking at transgender housing issues
and blood drives.
Jones said when a man gives blood, a question they
must answer is if they have had sex with a man since 1977. If he has,
he won't be allowed to donated blood, Jones said. Heterosexual women,
who are the highest risk group for AIDS, are not asked any questions such
as this, Jones said.
PEA is also working with the Citizens for Civil Rights
group in Lafayette to help bridge the gap between the campus and community,
Szyper said.
The group is also planning for upcoming speakers,
one being Holly and Lois, a couple who sued for civil unions in Vermont.
"I sincerely want PEA to bring acceptance to
this campus because tolerance is not enough," Szyper said.
The group is meeting every at 7 p.m. every Tuesday
at Vienna Coffee Shop, and anyone interested is invited to attend. The
group will be having a callout in the fall semester on Aug. 29.
For more information about the PEA visit their Web
page at http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~pea
or e-mail them at pea@expert.cc.purdue.edu.
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