Revealing a hid­den part of an iden­tity can be one of the hard­est obsta­cles in the lives of mem­bers of the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community.

Hannah Davis, an FSU stu­dent, has expe­ri­enced bul­ly­ing first­hand for being a lesbian.

When Davis was a senior in high school, two boys began to sing in class “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry.

“Everyone knew I was gay at this time,” Davis said. “It was funny at first, but they kept going far­ther and far­ther with it and say­ing more things.”

Another inci­dence of bul­ly­ing took place at Shooters in Big Rapids.

“This guy was telling me to apol­o­gize to his girl­friend for some­thing that I didn’t do, and when I told him I wasn’t going to, he called me a dyke and threat­ened to kick my ass,” Davis said.

On Oct. 10, the day before National Coming Out Day, Dr. Kristen A. Renn was brought to cam­pus by the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning and other groups to deliver a pre­sen­ta­tion titled Intersections of Teaching, Learning, and Identity: Improving Classroom Climate for LGBT Students.

“Dr. Renn was brought to Ferris to help cre­ate a learn­ing envi­ron­ment to sup­port the diverse groups of stu­dents who come to cam­pus. She par­tic­u­larly focused on LGBT stu­dents,” said Dr. Tom Stanislav, direc­tor of the FCTL.

The need for this can be found in the University’s Stategic Goals: “Create envi­ron­ments for stu­dent learn­ing that are inclu­sive of and sen­si­tive to a diverse stu­dent population.”

Staislav said the uni­ver­sity is aware of its LGBT stu­dents and wants to cre­ate a learn­ing envi­ron­ment that is sen­si­tive of them.

“We want to be a uni­ver­sity where all stu­dents, fac­ulty and staff feel wel­comed and safe and a place where they can call home,” Stanislav said. “It’s as much their insti­tu­tion as it is any­body else’s.”

The realm of dif­fi­cul­ties for LGBT stu­dents extends out­side the world of school; Davis has also expe­ri­enced obsta­cles in the workplace.

“I don’t think that it’s because I’m gay, it’s because of the fact that I’m a girl who looks like a boy,” Davis said. “I’ve had peo­ple ask me if they can have another server because they are uncom­fort­able hav­ing me as a server.”

Families of GLBTs han­dle the news of their loved one’s “com­ing out” dif­fer­ently. In Davis’ case, her entire fam­ily and cir­cle of friends knows she is a les­bian. Her imme­di­ate fam­ily was very accepting.

“My bio­log­i­cal mother took it very well and told me she has known since I was lit­tle. She’s very proud of me for com­ing out and being myself,” Davis said.

Some LGBT’s imme­di­ately fam­i­lies don’t take the news as well. Mike Karel, senior in account­ing and finance, has yet to tell his fam­ily that he is gay because of how his par­ents took the news when they found out that his older sis­ter is a lesbian.

“A big part of me wants to come out to my par­ents because it sucks hid­ing who you are from peo­ple who raised you,” he said. “But my sis­ter is a les­bian, and there have been ridicu­lous ram­i­fi­ca­tions from that.”

Karel’s par­ents have cut off nearly all com­mu­ni­ca­tion with their daughter..

“My mom has gone to ‘turn your kid straight’ con­fer­ences and I’ve found lit­er­a­ture in her room about how to turn your kid straight. Part of it is reli­gion for my mom, and my dad is very old school and doesn’t show emo­tion,” he said. “When I see him, it’s always a hand­shake. He was get­ting heart surgery and I went to go give him a hug and he stopped me and just shook my hand.”

Karel wants to tell his par­ents, but knows they will cut him off just like they did to his older sis­ter. His sis­ter has been with the same woman for ten years, and their mother still believes it’s just a phase, that she can change, and is still pray­ing for her daughter.

“I’m of the mind­set that it’s OK if you don’t like homo­sex­u­al­ity, but hate the sin, not the sin­ner,” he said. “Love your child; she was your daugh­ter five min­utes before she told you, and she’s your daugh­ter 20 years after she told you.”

Karel is scared once his par­ents know, they won’t want to social­ize with him, help him, or love him anymore.

“I could lose my par­ents essen­tially. I feel like if –rather when– I tell them it’s going to be like, ‘All right, see you at your funeral.’”

Once he has more inde­pen­dence and doesn’t rely on his par­ents as much, Karel plans on telling them about his sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion. He believes they may already know, but just don’t want to see what’s in front of them. Both of his sis­ters know he’s gay, but his brother is unaware.

“I think he’s sus­pi­cious,” Karel said. “He asked me one day if I was gay; it caught me off guard and I wasn’t ready to tell him, so I said no. He responded, ‘Good, we don’t need another one in the family.’”

Karel offers advice to those in sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions: although you don’t want to cut a fam­ily mem­ber out of your life, if it’s sep­a­rat­ing you from hap­pi­ness, then it shouldn’t even be a question.

“Don’t let it hide who you are. I’m def­i­nitely hap­pier now that I’m out. Once you come to accept your­self, the hurt will stop a lit­tle more because you won’t let it affect you as much,” Karel said.

Davis believes it is extremely impor­tant for all peo­ple to be treated equally and with respect.

“They are still the per­son you knew and respected until you found out their sex­u­al­ity. No one would choose a life of dis­re­spect, ridicule and hatred.”