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In 1996, Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano was reelected just months after coming out as gay, making him the first openly gay mayor elected to office in United States history. But as Student Body President at ASU in the early '80s, Giuliano had not yet gone public about his sexuality. He described the experience of being a gay student at ASU in the '70s and '80s.
"It was a double life. It was closeted," he said. "I would say the vast majority (of gay students) were closeted."
Because of this, finding other queer students was difficult. The most common place to do so were run-down gay bars, but some chose more drastic measures.
"There were these ads in the back of the New Times — almost like gay romance ads ... and you could kind of very clandestinely try to meet people that way," Giuliano said.
According to Giuliano, there was one organization of openly gay students on campus. Free Spirit was a small group of gay men who advocated for queer rights at ASU during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
"The gay activists at the time, quite honestly, they gave us who were closeted sort of the safety of the closet," Giuliano said about the relationship between Free Spirit members and closeted gay students. "They knew who we were, we knew who they were, and they played such a valuable role in shifting society and moving the culture."
Since then, the landscape for queer students at ASU has improved dramatically. The University now has a massive community of openly LGBTQ+ students, and Free Spirit has been succeeded by the Rainbow Coalition, the umbrella organization for over a dozen LGBTQ+ clubs on campus.
Due to the work of Free Spirit and subsequent queer rights organizations on campus, the stigma surrounding being a member of the LGBTQ+ community has mostly faded.
Now, Tempe's new Undergraduate Student Government President Mason DoVico has achieved exactly what Giuliano avoided doing in the '80s: becoming the first openly gay student body president.
DoVico, a senior studying political science and business, announced after being elected in April that he is "Arizona State University's first openly gay, Latino Student Body President." A feat that would’ve been considered unthinkable a few decades ago, it is a testament to the substantial progress made by gay rights movements both at ASU and nationwide in recent years. DoVico has touted his win as a victory for equality and inclusion at ASU and has committed to help make the University an inclusive space for all students.
"I find pride in who I am," he said. "I wouldn’t apologize for it in any way, just as I expect nobody else to apologize for who they are in any way."
Giuliano had encouraging words for DoVico: "I’m glad that it’s not a big deal," he said. "I’m glad that it’s not an issue and that he’s not being judged by his sexual orientation, he’s being judged by the job he’s gonna do, the work that he wants to get done."
Although DoVico's position suggests that stigma is fading, it certainly hasn't fully disappeared, and queer rights activists at ASU argue that the University is still chronically behind the times in implementing institutional change that would benefit queer students.
One example is the push to get an LGBTQ+ resource center established on campus. An LGBTQ+ resource center at ASU was first proposed in 2006. Nearly two decades and numerous failed proposals later, students are still trying to get it approved.
READ MORE: Rainbow Coalition's decade-long journey to build a space for LGBTQ+ students
'An investment in queer students'
Students and staff advocating for the resource center are requesting the creation of an on-campus safe space designated for queer students where they can feel comfortable, avoid harassment and seek necessary resources while at ASU. In addition, they are calling for a room and dedicated staff specifically for this purpose.
Madelaine Adelman, a professor in the School of Social Transformation, has done extensive research on LGBTQ+ issues in schools and has been fighting for queer rights on campus for nearly three decades.
"(The LGBTQ+ resource center) can be a place where those who feel isolated, or don't feel like they belong, can come to break isolation, to feel connected, to cultivate a sense of safety, to enhance their sense of belonging, to partake in activities, to help build community," Adelman said.
Michael Kintscher, a Ph.D. student studying computer science, has firsthand experience advocating for an LGBTQ+ resource center on campus as a former officer for the Rainbow Coalition and a founding member of GRADient, the only queer graduate student organization at ASU.
"Right now, I would say queer students are tolerated on campus, but not welcome," Kintscher said.
Because of this, they feel a safe space would be important to many queer students on campus.
"This student center is a physical manifestation. It's an investment in queer students," Kintscher said.
Its existence, they claim, would not just provide queer students with a safe space and sense of community, it would be a sign of good faith to LGBTQ+ students and a vital step in making queer students feel welcomed, not just tolerated.
"Space conveys visibility, existence and power on a campus, and not having a dedicated space contributes to invisibility," Adelman said. "The absence itself can be interpreted by students, faculty and staff, that the population — the community — is not a priority.
"We know that there's a disproportionate number of queer students who are facing hardships, like harassment, or lack of housing, or issues with financial aid based on family estrangement, so a resource center can also be a conduit for information that some students don’t even know where to start, to go," she added.
Queer rights activists on campus argue that an LGBTQ+ resource center at ASU is far from an extreme demand. Countless colleges across the country have adopted such centers, including schools with fewer students and less money than ASU. Even UA has one, which was established back in 2007.
"(An LGBTQ+ resource center) is a common component for universities and colleges to contribute to a better climate for queer students on campus," Adelman said. She added that many queer students coming to ASU may expect the University to have such a center and that those students may feel ignored when they find out that the space does not exist.
'We’re not building separate spaces for separate groups'
Kintscher described the school’s response to calls for a resource center as a mix of ignoring them and saying a lot of words but not backing it up with action.
ASU has, at multiple points, rejected proposals for an LGBTQ+ resource center, and University President Michael Crow on several occasions has told students, the public and The State Press that he is opposed to one.
According to Kintscher and Kelly Baur, a Ph.D. student studying linguistics, last year the Graduate Student Government President Megan McCaughan offered to create a temporary queer safe space in the Graduate Student Center, and GSG approved the decision; however, Kintscher and Baur said that they, along with many student activists and members of GSG, claim the University sent "veiled threats" to take the entire Graduate Student Center away. Because of unrelated GSG infighting, this temporary resource center is no longer open to students.
The school's grounds for rejecting the concept is the belief that all spaces at ASU should be a safe space for all students.
"We want every person in every building to be treated the same, and if you start building buildings for this group or that group, all of a sudden you're now saying, well, that’s who can go into that building," Crow said in a meeting with The State Press last year.
Baur argued that the existence of several churches on campus contradicts this attitude.
Crow reaffirmed his position at the President Crow Student Forum on Sept. 10. "We’re not building separate spaces for separate groups," he said. "We have the student pavilion on the Tempe campus."
"(Crow’s stance) is great on paper, but that’s not the lived reality of people from marginalized communities," Baur said. "It's this very neoliberal understanding of inclusion, where we just include everyone … but it doesn’t take into account that if there’s white supremacists or fascists or homophobic people, that inherently doesn’t make that space inclusive for all of those marginalized groups."
For certain queer students, there is no safe space on campus — nor is there a safe space for queer faculty.
In October 2023, David Boyles, an openly gay English professor at ASU, was harassed and then physically assaulted by two members of Turning Point USA, a right-wing political organization with a heavy on-campus presence. The professor sustained injuries, which he later said were "relatively minor." Since the altercation, the two Turning Point USA members were charged, have admitted guilt and are now required to complete court-ordered diversion programs.
Although the attack sent shock waves through the LGBTQ+ community at ASU, Crow and the administration’s response left much to be desired in many of the eyes of those who advocated for the professor.
"A lot of members of our queer student community were quick to point out that, while President Crow did use some strong language in his statement, that it was never backed up by any action, and as of today literally nothing has changed," Kintscher said.
"If our University is going to treat their literal employees like this, how are they going to treat us as students?" Kintscher asked.
The new president’s stance
"There are so many different avenues that we can explore with a possible (LGBTQ+ resource) center," DoVico said; however, he avoided taking a hard stance on the issue.
"My main thing would be that I sort of ensure that ASU as a whole is a place that LGBTQ+ students feel safe," he said, echoing Crow's sentiments. DoVico said he feels 100% safe as an openly gay student at ASU and said he will place heavy focus on making the resources ASU already has more accessible.
"ASU has so many resources," he said. "I think working with ASU admin is definitely going to be a big priority to ensure that we can refine those resources, to ensure that students have an easier way to go about (accessing them)."
Hope for the future
Despite the University's aversion to the idea, queer activists at ASU remain hopeful about the prospect of a queer student center. Although getting the space that meets students' demands is important, this issue is about more than the room itself.
"Visibility and representation really matters," Kintscher said.
When asked how students can help, Kintscher said "talking about it and asking questions is the single most important thing — making sure that the administration and the University knows that this isn't three students in a corner asking for this. This is something that there’s general interest in and an expectation that students, especially in our generation, have when they come to a campus."
"I'm surprised and sad if queer students today think they need that," Giuliano said on calls for an LGBTQ+ resource center, but he indicated that he supports queer students at ASU advocating for what they think is necessary. "If there's a need, students are going to need to mobilize and support each other."
Students and staff agree that the creation of an LGBTQ+ resource center would not mark the end of the fight for inclusion for LGBTQ+ students, but it would show ASU’s commitment toward real change.
As a gesture of good faith to other LGBTQ+ community members, Kintscher always wears a rainbow wristband to class.
"I got this at Phoenix Pride in 2019, and I wear it almost every day on campus. And that's just because it's my small way of being like 'Yeah, there’s queer people on this campus.' The University doesn't show it, but we're hoping that other students attending the University like myself will know that they're not alone on campus."
Edited by Savannah Dagupion, Leah Mesquita and Audrey Eagerton.
This story is part of The Active Issue, which was released on October 4, 2024. See the entire publication here.
Editor's note: This article was updated from the print version to include details on what happened to the Turning Point USA members after the incident with David Boyles.
Reach the reporter at evansilverbergrep@gmail.com and follow @evansotherstuff on Instagram.
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