The American poet James Russell Lowell once said, “There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an East wind is to put on your overcoat.” In many ways the founding of the LGBT center at the University was inevitable. Even with the growing societal acceptance, recent actions of our student body have necessitated founding a center to meet the needs of LGBT students, and provide educational growth opportunities for the entire campus community.

All those arguing against the center have done so using religious arguments. However, some of our students are wise enough to realize that policy on the basis of religion is not popular or legal. The religious arguments are now riding under arguments against the size of the LGBT population at N.C. State and financial obligations.

Critics of the center often argue that the University doesn’t have the LGBT population to justify the costs, and existing staff should handle their needs. However, the numbers simply tell a different story — as the latest LGBT campus study finds that 10-percent of students are part of this community. If all LGBT students were housed on campus it would fill Lee, Sullivan, Bragaw and the Tri-Towers to capacity. The LGBT faculty/staff population would fill every desk at the Red Hat headquarters on Centennial Campus. If the LGBT population were a UNC university it would be larger than UNC-Asheville, Elizabeth City State, and the School of the Arts. If the population chartered a town it would be larger than 415 of North Carolina’s 550 municipalities. To expect the needs of a group this size to be met by a 20 hour a week grad student is quite illogical.

I understand that students are concerned about the costs of operating the University. For example, it concerns me that ComTech charges departments $34 per month for phone service that AT&T Inc. bills them $15.50 for. It irritates me that the Grace Community Church operates as a student group and as a result saves over $20,000 in university facility fees. Students absorb these costs in both scenarios. All those supporting the LGBT center are aware that budgets are tight and financial propriety is important, but they also acknowledge that the campus climate has necessitated the center.

There was a time on our campus when some words being used on Facebook and The Wolf Web were being used against African-Americans and women on our campus. While the missions of those centers are far from complete they represent what can be for LGBT people on our campus. While what is happening in the anonymity of the Internet, and from behind dorm room blinds might be acceptable discrimination on this campus today, it will not be the story of State in the future.