Chris Bacon
Iowa Central Community College

Last year, as a freshman in college, I began to attend Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) meetings held at the high school I graduated from. The Iowa Pride Network was a great resource for the group, helping with ideas for meetings and ways to deal with the negativity of the school environment we all had to face.

I left the meetings inspired and decided to start a GSA at Iowa Central Community College. Later in the year, I attended the Iowa Pride Network College Coalition’s LGBT & Allied Student Day at the Capitol which proved to be a truly educational and fun event.

We were briefed on how to address our senators and representatives about LGBT issues, and ways to express our concerns. The Iowa Pride Network has played a key role in educating me, as well as many others, on how to establish and successfully run GSAs, fight homophobia and bigotry, and become a voice for LGBT students in Iowa.