by Allison Roberts
Managing editor
The Gay Straight Alliance was approved by the Student Government Association as an official student organization for the 2012-13 school year on Sept. 30.
Lyndsey Lamar, junior graphic design major and general business minor at Southeastern, was appointed without objection as president of the Southeastern GSA last semester.
The GSA was first officially approved in May for the spring semester.
The organization’s first meeting of the fall was held Thursday, Aug. 30.
Lamar said the next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. in Room 303 of the Glen D. Johnson Student Union.
Lamar said that meeting details will be “posted on brightly colored flyers all over campus and on our Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/sosugsa, which everyone is welcome to join.” She said reminder emails are also sent out to all members of the group.
“The meetings are open to the general public,” Lamar said, “including all Southeastern students, faculty, alumni and members of the community who are not students as well.”
Lamar said there have been on average about 10 attendees at each meeting.
She also specified that information about each member is kept confidential by the GSA executive committee which includes the president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer.
“Sexual orientation is not assumed,” Lamar said, “and no one is obligated to disclose their own sexual orientation.”
Lamar said she hopes that the organization will be a group for LGBTQ community members and their straight allies to support one another and to have voices in promoting equality and acceptance.
She said, “Everyone deserves to be and love who they are, and I hope GSA can help people achieve this right.”
The acronym LGBTQ, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual or transgender and queer, is included in all of the GSA’s materials “to make sure we’re as inclusive to all sexual orientations as possible,” Lamar said.
Events the GSA has planned for the semester include attending the Dallas Pride Parade and the AIDS Walk in Oklahoma City, Lamar said.
She also expressed excitement about getting to know members and “working together as a group to make a difference.”
Lamar said she and GSA Vice President and co-founder Marie Pena were inspired to start the GSA because they “wanted students of Southeastern and members of the LGBTQ community in Durant and the surrounding area to have a safe environment of support and know they’re not alone.
“I also wanted to inspire hope and acceptance on this campus and make a difference by getting involved in our community,” Lamar added.
Lamar and Pena charged themselves with bringing a GSA group to Southeastern. Department of Art, Communication and Theatre Chair Dell McLain also helped as the faculty sponsor of the organization, helping to reserve their meeting room and answering many of their questions, Lamar said.
Another person who played a major role in establishing GSA as an organization is Student Life Coordinator Liz Howard. Lamar said Howard helped them organize and fill out the necessary legal paperwork for officially becoming part of the national GSA Network.
GSA was chosen as the LGBTQ supporting organization for this campus because Lamar said she knew of its positive reputation and wanted to be associated with a well-known organization in order to have the best impact on the community.
Of the impact she hopes GSA will have Lamar said, “I hope the GSA will promote acceptance and open the eyes of people on campus to just how important equality and acceptance are in our world today.
“There are so many people who feel alone and different, and I hope that GSA can be the way for those people to find a home in their own skin and be proud of who they are.”