TLU has always had LGBTQIA+ students. They’ve been here in the past, and they’re here now. This month, we’re going to take a look at TLU’s LGBTQIA+ organizations and see how they’ve evolved through the years. We’ll hear about some experiences from past and present students in the LGBTQIA+ community. We’ll examine TLU’s overarching LGBTQIA+ history. And we’ll see that while TLU can be a haven for members of the community, there is also still plenty of room for improvement.

Let’s start by going back in time a bit and looking at the experiences of some past LGBTQIA+ students at TLU. I asked alumni if they had felt secure expressing their identity during their years at TLU. Katy Wallace said she hadn’t at first—but that was at least in part because she was still struggling within herself, and she actually did later find acceptance, a sense of community, and allies among TLU’s faculty and staff. Katy went on to say that there was always a bit of lingering uncertainty due to some “less than positive experiences” she had on campus.

To the same question, another alumnus, Randy Lee Lynn, simply said, “Absolutely. TLU was where I learned who I was.” He also said that he never even felt any need to hide his identity during his years at TLU. Another alumnus, however, said that while she felt more secure at TLU than at many other places, the college was still an imperfect haven. “There were moments where friends were dismissive and the infrastructure for support did not really exist, but there was nothing overtly homophobic that I personally experienced. I was, however, always worried about certain professors (particularly older ones and those in the theology department) finding out. This was more about my own ingrained sense of fear about older people and religious people not being accepting than anything about those professors.” She also added that while college life wasn’t always super comfortable, she never thought that anything truly bad would happen to her at TLU.

Overall, it appears people’s experiences in relation to feeling accepted and supported at TLU have been varied, but TLU has the potential of being a solid haven for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. It’s also worth noting that all of the alumni mentioned attended TLU during the 2010s, so these students’ experiences were all fairly close to one another chronologically.

These just represent a few of the voices of TLU’s LGBTQIA+ students. We’ll be getting a glimpse of more experiences of students past and present soon—so be sure to tune back in next time!