Bowie State unveils first LGBT resource center at a historically black university

Bowie State University became the first historically black college or university to open a resource center on campus for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex students and their allies.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Allies Resource Center will offer students a library of LGBT educational materials, student meeting space, counseling services, workshops and programs to raise campus awareness about issues related to sexual orientation, according to a press release from the university.

“What we’re trying to do is to get a coherent approach in identifying and spreading the awareness in dispelling myths about the (LGBT) community itself and educate individuals that come into the university so that we send our students out of this campus with the knowledge of the extreme level of diversity,” said Adrian Krishnasamy, director of the Resource Center and assistant professor in the Department of Communications for Bowie State University.

Krishnasamy currently oversees the operation of the center along with two student volunteers. However, the university is seeking funding to staff the center. The Resource Center has been funded through donations from The DC Center for the LGBT Community and other organizations.

The idea for the center was born in 2007 when Krishnasamy, who played a key role in the center’s conception, started teaching at Bowie State. However, it wasn’t until four years later that plans were set in motion. In 2011, the Dean for the School of Education told Krishnasamy that the University of Maryland, College Park campus was away furniture for free.

“So that’s how it all started, getting the furniture in and then getting the resources in and putting the computers in and fixing up the center and putting the computers,” Krishnasamy said. “…It’s been an evolving process, but it started with the furniture moving at first.”

Krishnasamy envisions the center as a safe haven for LGBT students “to come out, and there are resources for them to come out.”  Read More