Campus club lambda Alliance offers support to homosexual students while promoting equality for both gay and straight individuals.
Lambda Alliance is an on-campus club with a mission to promote equal rights for both gay and straight students. It is often referred to as the Gay-Straight Alliance.
“We believe that rights are even rights, no matter who you are,” said lambda Alliance club treasurer Julie Hudson, a public administration graduate student. “You don’t have to be gay to believe in gay rights. There are all kinds of issues that affect every facet of the community, but disproportionately affect gay people.”
Robert White, the club secretary and a freshman early childhood major, is homosexual, and said he told his family about his sexual orientation when he was in middle school.
“It felt like a big burden on my shoulders- a secret that I had to tell someone,” White said. “So I eventually got up the nerve to write my mother a letter… and I taped it to my bedroom door… And eventually, I came out to everyone, and it felt so great not to have that burden on me.”
White said that although he and his partner of seven years have encountered some stares over the course of their relationship, his experience at Augusta State University has been largely accepting.
“I think ASU is pretty accepting of homosexuals,” White said. “I took a speech class and all of my topics were about homosexuality. I am very open about my homosexuality… Many people need to know that homosexuality is not a choice, contrary to popular belief.”
Hudson, who is heterosexual, said she initially joined lambda Alliance to show support for her nephew who was having trouble coming out of with his homosexuality. In the process, she said the club was able to help him feel more comfortable and unashamed of his sexuality.
“To see his face and how happy it made him to see that there are other people (like he is) was amazing,” Hudson said. Hudson said the environment of the club on campus is what really stood out to her and kept her an active member. According to Hudson, people on campus are mature and welcoming about the club and its values. “We found that everyone who joins lambda Alliance is already out,” Hudson said. “But they all have their stories; they all have their struggles.”
Lambda Alliance also participated in community events like the Augusta’s first official Pride Parade in 2010. White and Hudson expressed that they hope to be able to reach more people on campus and in the community.
“I would really like to do outreach into the school system,” Hudson said. “I think that’s really important because of things like the recent events of kids killing themselves from bullying. Of course kids before that and after that are still being picked on. Whether they are gay or straight, they are because they don’t prescribe gender roles. They should have every right to be who they want to be without going home everyday and feeling bad about who they are.”
Following the club’s first meeting of the semester on Jan. 26 in the JSAC, White and other members encouraged students to attend the Parents, Families and Friends of lesbians and Gays (PFlAG) meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta on Jan. 29. According to White, the new Augusta chapter of PFlAG is an “advocacy, education and support organization” that shares “similar core values and goals” with lambda Alliance.
Hudson and White both said they hope to see membership rise even higher this semester and they are always sure to remind people that lambda Alliance is a club for the gay, straight, tall, short, black, white and all between.
“I really want people to remember that no matter who you are, be who you are,” Hudson said.
For more questions about lambda Alliance and its events, contact Julie Hudson at jhudson7@aug.edu and Robert White at rwhite17@aug.edu.
