As more international students stream onto the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus, the university is taking steps to support those students who may identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender and fear they won’t be accepted in their home country or by their international peers at CU.
For starters, the GLBTQ Resource Center on campus has a new name: The Gender and Sexuality Center.
In addition to getting rid of the confusing “alphabet soup,” the new name is meant to be less intimidating for allies and people who are not yet comfortable identifying as gay or lesbian, said Scarlet Bowen, director of the center.
The center’s old name was also heavily skewed toward Western culture. Bowen pointed out that many Native American people prefer the term “two-spirit” over gay or lesbian, for example.
“A lot of people, even from the U.S., are still extremely nervous to come into our office because they’re in a questioning stage and the stigma may still be weighing very heavily on them,” she said. “We also have international students who are coming from countries where it may be criminalized very severely, so they’re not just facing stigma, they’re actually facing a fear of being identified.”
Some international students have scholarships sponsored by their home country that they risk losing if they’re outed as gay, lesbian or transgender, Bowen said.
The campus is now providing information and referrals to gay and lesbian students who may choose to seek asylum from their country.
“It’s a very difficult decision to make,” Bowen said. “But even just knowing that it’s a possibility, even if they don’t go through the process, it’s very helpful psychologically and helps them concentrate on their studies a little more.”
CU asked Bryon Large, a Denver immigration attorney and president of the Colorado LGBT Bar Association, to speak about asylum at its annual TRANSforming Gender Conference in March.
Large said asylum can be granted based on five factors, including membership in a particular social group. Identifying as gay, lesbian or transgender falls under that category.
Support group could come in fall
There are more than 70 countries that criminalize being gay or lesbian and a handful where the offense may be punishable by death. In other countries, law enforcement officials simply turn the other way when gay and lesbian people are being mistreated.
Large said he’s glad the university is aware that being gay or lesbian creates unique challenges for international students and that they’re providing those students with resources when necessary.
“The basic requirement (for asylum) is that they have a well-founded fear of persecution based on their sexual orientation or sexual identity,” Large said. “There are other small requirements, but that’s the big one.”
Center staffers are open to meeting with students outside of the resource center, which is located in the Center for Community, and they’re working to create an anonymous chat function for the center’s website.
Staffers will also put gay, lesbian, transgender or questioning international students in touch with each other privately, with their consent. They’re also talking about starting a support group in the fall.
The center wants to start using the slogan “You Don’t Have to Be Out To Come In” and plans to create rainbow buttons with the word “love” written in different languages.
A sense of living double life
The center also hired student Jiji Baik, who is originally from South Korea, to work roughly 12 hours a week on ways the center can better serve international students.
Baik will be a junior this fall. She started volunteering at the center as a freshman because she didn’t feel like she fit in completely with her international peers.
“I was just looking for a community where I could express myself,” said Baik, who identifies as lesbian.
But, she’s noticed over time that she doesn’t totally fit in at the center either. She’s thousands of miles from home in a new country, something that only international students can relate to. Because she grew up in Seoul, she’s not familiar with a lot of American cultural references or important moments in U.S. gay and lesbian history.
“When I’m with the queer community, it’s like I’m the only international student,” she said, “And when I’m with the international students, I feel very left out because I cannot talk about my experiences. I cannot really say who I’m dating and what challenges I’m facing.”
Baik, an environmental studies major, said she sometimes feels like she’s living a double life. She hasn’t told her parents and family members in South Korea about her queer identity because she doesn’t want them to stop paying for her CU tuition.
Through her work with the center, she wants to help normalize being queer and let international students know that there are people on campus that will support them.
Baik said she’s trying to create international allies.
“It’s small stuff like approaching them as a friend,” she said. “I’ll give them my phone number or my email, ask them if they want to have coffee and talk about anything. It doesn’t have to be their queer identity.”
Sarah Kuta: 303-473-1106, kutas@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/sarahkuta