Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio has a gay/straight alliance known as BriTe SiGnaL Alliance that has been working tirelessly on implementing a Safe Space for their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.  It's time that Sinclair Community College makes room and helps fund a resource center for this organization to continue their work. 

There are over 4,000 college's and universities in the United States.  Of the more than 4,000 college's and universities, approximately 1/4 of them have a resource center for their LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) student clubs.

Sinclair Community College is an urban community college located in downtown Dayton, Ohio and is the largest community college at a single location in the state of Ohio. 

Sinclair had an enrollment of 25,345 students in 2009, making the main campus one of the largest (by enrollment) community college campuses in North America.

In a survey completed in 2003, More than 1,600 surveys were returned representing: 1,000 students, 150 faculty and 467 staff/administrators, 326 people of color, 66 people with disabilities, 572 gay people, 458 lesbian people, 334 bisexual people, 68 transgender people, 848 women, 720 men, and 825 “closeted” people. 

More than one-third (36 percent) of GLBT undergraduate students reported experiencing harassment within the past year. In addition, 79 percent of those harassed identified students as the source of harassment. The most common form of harassment was derogatory remarks (89 percent). Disturbingly, twenty percent feared for their physical safety because of their sexual orientation/gender identity, and 51 percent concealed their sexual orientation/gender identity to avoid intimidation.

Forty-three percent of the respondents rated the overall campus climate as homophobic. In order to avoid discrimination, 36 percent of respondents reported that they would likely conceal their sexual orientation/gender identity. Further, 10 percent of respondents would avoid areas of campus where GLBT persons congregate for fear of being labeled.

With that said, I would like to invite you to sign this petition and show Sinclair Community College that a resource center IS necessary.  With this resource center we plan to continue implementing the Safe Space program providing LGBT individuals with safe places to go when they need someone to talk to, or get help.  We also plan to staff the resource center with qualified volunteers during the schools open hours.  These volunteers will be equipped with material to help an individual go to the right place to receive help.  The resource center will provide literature and educational materials to be checked out for informational purposes.  There will also be several educational pamphlets, posters, etc. for students that need it.

I URGE you to sign this petition so that when we take it another step forward, we have you backing us up!

Thank you for your time!

Christopher Perkins