GLBTA Life at AU
Making the Right Choice for You
Official Rules and Policies
GLBT Organizations, Offices, and Resource Centers
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally Resource Center (GLBTA Resource Center), located in the Mary Graydon Center, is the University office that works to heighten awareness of issues dealing with sexual orientation and gender identity. The Resource Center is professionally staffed full-time, and also has undergraduate and graduate students on staff. The staff provides academic advice, peer support, referrals, and resource information on GLBT issues. The GLBTA Resource Center is a safe space that all members of the American University community are welcome to visit to explore the many aspects of human sexuality and gender identity in an open, non-prejudicial atmosphere. We encourage you to stop by the GLBTA Resource Center during our normal, weekday office hours.
The Center houses a library of fiction and non-fiction texts, scholarly journals, popular magazines and newspapers that focus on GLBT issues. We also collect information on local and national GLBT organizations, such as the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), which is non-profit organization in Washington, D.C. that provides a wide array of services to Washington area youth under 22. These resources are available to all students, staff, and faculty members at American University.
The GLBTA Resource Center also plans social, educational, academic, and political events on the American University campus. The GLBTA Resource Center works closely with the GLBT organizations on-campus to organize events such as movie nights, guest speakers, academic colloquia, brown bag lunches, political discussions, and coffee hours. The GLBTA Resource Center promotes and encourages safer sex by providing safer sex information, referrals for free and confidential STD and HIV testing, and for HIV/AIDS assistance. The GLBTA Resource Center also has information on substance abuse prevention programs for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. There are other groups and projects that work out of the GLBTA Resource Center, such as the Rainbow Speakers Bureau, the Spectrum Project, the Safe Space Sticker Program, and various support and discussion groups.
The GLBT student group at American University is called AU Queers and Allies. AU Queers and Allies holds weekly meetings during the fall and spring semesters, organizes various events for GLBT students, and serves as a friendly way to meet other GLBT students at American University. Each meeting usually has at least ten to twenty people, some of which have been coming to meetings for some time, while others are new and looking to find out what the organization is all about. AU Queers and Allies provides a safe and fun social environment for students to explore their identities, make new friends, and learn about the diversity within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. AU Queers and Allies has official University recognition, and is financially supported by the American University Student Confederation. AU Queers and Allies works with the GLBTA Resource Center to organize various events on campus throughout the school year.
There are also other specialized GLBT organizations on campus. There is a group called the Lambda Graduate Group, which serves as a place for GLBT graduate students to network about social events, learn about research others may be doing in studies relating to GLBT populations, as well as creates a campus atmosphere that is welcoming to GLBT graduate students.
The Gay and Lesbian Faculty/Staff Network is another organization that consists of GLBT faculty who work together as members of the American University community to combat homophobia, discuss American University's policies, as well as create a dialogue on faculty projects relating to GLBT issues. In the Washington College of Law at American University, there is a group called the Lambda Law Society. The group is a place where GLBT law students meet each other and share knowledge about GLBT legal issues, as well as issues affecting them as GLBT law students. The Washington College of Law has a long history of being a very welcoming place to people from very diverse backgrounds. There is quite a wide array of resources and organizations at American diversity for GLBT students, should you choose to participate.
