Gay students pay for a night bus system that discriminates against them and provides limited safe options for local nightlife.
Students pay fees for Tiger Trails to take them to bars designed to serve white, straight students.
Tiger Trails is a great service for LSU students and the Baton Rouge community. It provides an easy and dependable transit option to and from campus. At night, Tiger Trails transforms into a safe ride to and from Baton Rouge nightlife.
The Tiger Trails night routes prioritize Tigerland, where three out of four night bus routes travel. The Night B route runs one bus from campus to Downtown and Government Street.
Consequently, the wait times for buses are shorter if you choose to go Tigerland than if you go downtown.
But no matter how great, our student fees pay for Tiger Trails to reward bars that either deny admittance to black students or are unsafe for gay students.
The Daily Reveille previously reported that a gay couple was attacked for dancing at Reggie’s after a bouncer told them to “take it somewhere else” in 2011. They sustained various injuries — including a broken nose — for daring to dance together.
Tigerland also prefers to serve the white, straight clientele its dress code seeks. Columnist Clarke Perkins wrote about this dress code in The Daily Reveille last month: “No overly baggy clothing, no camouflage shorts, no overly long or plain T-shirts, no long or exposed chains, no sunglasses worn inside, no visible tattoos, no visible piercingsv on males.”
This policy targets black and gay clientele. Tigerland tells certain LSU students, “We don’t serve your kind,” while our student fees endorse sending students to bars thriving off discrimination.
Furthermore, Tigerland is home to the infamous Reggie’s, which proudly displays a Confederate flag in its bar. This flag is a symbol of the South fighting to preserve American slavery — an institution deeming white ownership of black bodies morally acceptable.
Tiger Trails endorses white straight nightclubs, leaving many students stranded at 2 a.m. The contrast between Ben Hur residents and LGBT students could not be more clear.
In 2013, Ben Hur residents pressured Student Government and Tiger Trails to provide a bus route for them. They decided they wouldn’t walk home down Nicholson Drive at 2 a.m. In response, SG used temporary funds to finance the route in 2013 to ensure the safety of Ben Hur residents.
The Cottages and The Woodlands haven’t been open as long as Splash, but SG still swiftly acted to provide a bus route for them. LGBT students are still waiting for their bus stop.
I don’t want Tiger Trails to stop serving Tigerland or Ben Hur. However, I do want Tiger Trails to offer students a variety of bus options to serve all of LSU — not just the straight, white parts. All LSU students deserve to be connected to Baton Rouge nightlife.
LGBT students need a safe and dependable way of getting around at night and have access to bars that don’t turn them away or make them feel unsafe.
The LSU student body isn’t homogenous and neither is Baton Rouge’s nightlife. It’s time Tiger Trails catches on and creates night bus routes reflective of the student body it serves.
Michael Beyer is a 21-year-old political science senior from New Orleans. You can reach him on Twitter @michbeyer.