I WAS KNOWN AS "THE LESBIAN ON CAMPUS": At Least It Was Exposure To Some People (Celia)

I came out my sophomore year and joined Allies right away. There was one or two other OUT students that I knew of.

In college, I didn't really care about being out. I sort of immediately became the president of Allies and did a lot of stuff around campus. People I dated came to school and I held hands with them while we were walking around. I did get a lot of crap from people, but so many people were really supportive as well. It was sad to be known as “the Lesbian on campus”—before people really knew me, that is—but it was nice to know that it was exposure to some people, I guess.

I’m really curious about how accepting campus is now. I’ve visited and it was so nice to have the ALLiES gathering [the GALA Reception] over Homecoming [2007], where I got to meet many of you. I remember doing that once when I was in Allies and we had a couple come in. Always a small group, but it's so nice just to gather and share stories.

I wasn't as politically minded back then- and I really didn't know much about anything at all. I didn't really have any role models as far as learning about politics relating to GLBT issues. Sadly, I didn't do as much with Allies as I would have liked (in retrospect anyway)—but at least it was going and we did a few things... it wasn't until I moved to DC that I learned things and met up with different types of people and really learned more.

I live in DC now—have been here for 6 years. I’d definitely want to buy a house, get married, have children, etc.