GLBT individuals should not have to deal with harassment and prejudice while authorities turn a blind eye. Ultimately, it is about people getting the civil liberties that everyone deserves.

Beth is a junior in college and a member of the Campus Organizing Team.

I was raised in a conservative Southern Baptist household. When I got to be about fourteen years old, I dropped my ideologies for realism. I came to understand that many students at my school were being denied the opportunities allowed to other students, namely, heterosexual students. GLBT youth were being harassed, bullied, and broken down. After long and stressful struggle, I succeeded in creating a GLBT support/activism group as a school-sponsored organization. We were involved in protests, support meetings, and school-wide functions.

After graduation, I joined SODA, which was OSU’s Sexual Orientation Diversity Association. After being present in the group’s officer decisions my first year, I was elected secretary for my second year and again for this upcoming year. SODA facilitates protests, support functions, conferences and on-campus demonstrations. We are part of a pro-condom event, as well as present in AIDS awareness, Day of Silence, a safe-sex workshop, and many guest speakers to talk about issues facing the GLBT community.

What motivates me is interpersonal relationships with people. After seeing so many close friends and family denied their intrinsic human rights, I could no longer stand by and watch. Teenagers should know about their own bodies. GLBT individuals should not have to deal with harassment and prejudice while authorities turn a blind eye. Ultimately, it is about people getting the civil liberties that everyone deserves.

For people of my generation and future generation, I want to see tangible change. I hope that the GLBT community is allotted all of the civil liberties as their heterosexual counterparts. I hope that students are allowed to know about their own bodies and have a comprehensive understanding about their own sexual health. I hope that GLBT activities, whether it be sex, marriage, or adoption, becomes not a taboo, but a beautiful aspect of the human condition.

It is important for young people to participate in advocacy because they will ultimately be the only force seeing through change throughout generations. If the youth of America are empowered, eventually so will be the lawmakers and overall society.