Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender groups struggle for equal rights at historically black universities and colleges, such as D.C.'s Howard University, according to Brandon Braud, Human Rights Campaign's diversity manager.
However, AU's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally Resource Center Program Coordinator Nicholas Shigeru Sakurai had a different outlook on GLBT issues at historically black universities. He said focusing on GLBT issues at historically black schools might perpetuate stereotypes.
"Some people do have the stereotype that black people are more homophobic," he said, saying that singling out one community makes little sense when the predominantly white lawmakers pass most homophobic policies.
The Human Rights Campaign, which represents GLBT interests, began a program to support GLBT students at historically black colleges and universities in 2002.
"We started the program out of this need that we discovered," Braud said, who investigated the issue when Human Rights Campaign received little feedback on programming from historically black colleges and universities.
Historically black colleges and universities tend to be conservative and the black community has not dealt with GLBT issues, Braud said. Such factors make it harder for GLBT students to feel safe coming out or to receive charters for organizations on campus, he said.
"I agree with other African American individuals doing the work within the GLBT community that this is one of the last taboos within the African American community," Braud said.
Many types of schools struggle with accepting GLBT issues, regardless of racial or religious makeup, Sakurai said.
AU tries to incorporate diversity into its programs by focusing on lesser-known GLBT topics, such as transgender issues and screening international GLBT films, Sakurai said.
There is a trend to create a hierarchy of oppression where GLBT persons of color feel torn between their racial identity and their sexual orientation, Sakurai said. However, Sakurai said he does not feel that such problems are common at AU.
At Howard University, the Bisexual, Lesbian, and Gay Organization of Students at Howard, BLAGOSAH, has been able to register with the university, but faces more obstacles than other student groups and a lack of respect from the university, according to its Vice President Jade Goodridge.
While BLAGOSAH can run programs and activities like any campus group, members must work through extra red tape, such as checking repeatedly on room requests, just to put on events, Goodridge said. However, the university would never admit outright discrimination, she said.
"There is always some explanation for why a group is not chartered, why a group is not protected, why a group is challenged," she said, although BLAGOSAH is a chartered club.
In 2003, the university decided a table in the student center where BLAGOSAH members handed out free condoms was an obstruction and banned the group from continuing to table, Goodridge said.
The group retaliated by handing out safe-sex kits on the quad and informing other students about the university's table ban.
"The student body is asleep in regards to GLBT causes," Goodridge said, pointing to the general disregard or avoidance of GLBT issues.
Most discrimination from the student body takes the form of verbal harassment, although some students ripped down BLAGOSAH's flyers with gay-friendly imagery in 2005, Goodridge said.
For Braud, the Human Rights Campaign project reflects an opinion that came out of the historically black colleges and universities.
"Regardless of whether you think it's a stereotype or not, it exists," he said.
