LGBTQ Update

The LGBTQ Resource Center will host a flag-raising ceremony to replace the flag that disappeared after one of two vandalism incidents against the center last month.

Program Assistant David Griffith said the ceremony would honor the center’s mission of providing services to people of all gender identities and sexual orientations.

“We aren’t reading too much into the situation,” he said. “The recent thefts will do nothing to deter the center from its mission.”

Alma Rosa Silva-Bañuelos, the center’s program coordinator, said she arrived at the Center Dec. 13 at 8:30 a.m. and noticed the rainbow flag was missing. A couple of days after the flag incident, she said someone took the center’s name placard.

The incident was reported to UNMPD and the FBI, Silva-Bañuelos said. UNM police officials said the incident is under investigation.

Since it opened, the center received more than 830 visits and more than 226 service visitors during November, according to LGBTQ Resource Center statistics.

Silva-Bañuelos said the center representatives realize that with increased visibility there might be increased discrimination.
“We hope to bring awareness and appreciation for LGBTQ issues and identities instead of just tolerance,” she said.

Center representatives notified the FBI of the vandalism because the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act expanded the 1969 U.S. federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

*Rainbow flag raising
LGBTQ Resource Center courtyard
Jan. 20
3:30 p.m.*