Gay students seek more support

Gay students seek more support
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,  United States  -SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — In the spring of 2006, some students at the University of Illinois at Springfield celebrated National Coming Out Day by decorating campus sidewalks with gay-pride slogans.

Members of the university's Queer Straight Alliance chalked slogans such as "Gay is OK," "It's OK to Come Out" and "We're here we're queer, get used to it," recalled QSA President Jimmy Brower.

But those slogans were soon answered by what were deemed to be anti-gay sentiments chalked on the sidewalks. The following fall, a conservative student group held a "traditional marriage rally," which many took to be a veiled slam against gay rights.

"There seems to be a tension I'd rather we didn't have," said university Chancellor Richard Ringeisen recently.