The summer before I moved here to start my freshman year, I did a Google search to find out if Columbia was a gay-friendly city. Coming from Nebraska, the “we bleed red” ideology can apply both to our passion for our football team and to the deep Republican roots of our state. LGBTQ pride is seemingly unheard of there, and I wanted to know if mid-Missouri would be any different. My search did not adequately prepare me for just how wonderfully accepting Columbia is of the LGBTQ community.
I somehow stumbled my way into a Triangle Coalition meeting halfway through September of my freshman year with a good friend from my FIG class, and I knew then the MU LGBTQ Resource Center was the place for me. I spent the next year and a half attending more TriCo meetings and sitting in on InsideOut discussions before I randomly decided to apply to volunteer at the LGBTQ Resource Center. The date of my interview coincided with the Friday my first Maneater column was published.
When I first began writing about LGBTQ issues in January, I thought I was writing to an audience comprised of myself and some of my close family and friends who would only read my column because I shoved the newspaper in their faces and yelled “Look!” I didn’t think anyone would really read my columns because I truly didn’t think anyone cared about what I was discussing. As the semester dragged on, I realized I had vastly underestimated the LGBTQ pride of the Tigers.
April was filled to the brim with Pride Month event after Pride Month event that had overwhelmingly large support from students. I watched as people far and wide began lining up over an hour before the Let’s Get Loud Drag Show began. Even though I wasn’t able to attend, I saw pictures of the Pride Parade that showed a large number of diverse students walking through our campus in support of the LGBTQ community. I watched the [“If You Can Play, You Can Play” video](http://www.mutigers.com/allaccess/?media=386242) released by Mizzou Athletics so many times that I’m pretty sure I memorized the script. The pride I have in MU’s acceptance of the LGBTQ community is immense, as is the pride MU’s LGBTQ community and allies have themselves.
I thought that elated feeling could only escalate after seeing the Mizzou Facebook page post an album titled “Pride Parade” with six beautiful photos of the event, but that feeling was short-lived as I began to read the comments.
The disgraceful homophobia posted on that page by some Facebook users felt like a physical blow. I have spent the past two years immersing myself in this amazing community that had been full of only love and support, and to see those comments felt like I was back at square one, surrounded by a populace of close-minded individuals. But then I realized, no, it wasn’t the same. Because for every homophobic remark I saw, there were at least three loving ones in response. The album had more than 1,000 likes and 100 shares, all from people who presumably love and support the LGBTQ community here at MU.
It’s too easy for people to hide behind their keyboards and type away their close-mindedness, but it takes true and immense courage to walk proudly and openly through campus in support of the LGBTQ community.
That is something I need to keep tucked away in my pocket as I leave this semester behind. There are always going to be people who don’t understand and who don’t approve, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a strong and abundant force that is always willing to keep on marching.
So march on, Tigers, and thank you for showing me what real pride looks like.
