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In the early weeks of the 2021-2022 school year, Grand View University’s Pride Club became active once again. However, a few months into 2023, Iowa Legislature voted against LGBTQIA+ visibility in public schools. ‘LGBTQIA+’ is an acronym used to describe individuals that identify as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual LGBTQIA+ communities in Iowa and their allies are concerned about how this will affect academic settings and lives. Visibility and representation for these individuals are important so that they may be seen, heard, and welcome in all spaces.   

GVU Pride became inactive when the pandemic hit back in 2020. Two years later, Social Work major and Theatre minor Katy Crowley took the reins of presidency for Pride. Crowley is involved in other clubs on campus such as Diversity Alliance, Alpha Psi Omega (APO) Theatre Club, and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Women’s Empowerment Club. Crowley’s involvement has allowed her to build relationships on campus along with creating spaces she feels are necessary for all students.   

With the thought of leaders coming and going, Crowley envisions a GVU Pride club that is built by current and future leaders alike, all working together for the same goal of keeping the spirit of Pride alive at Grand View.   

“We don’t have to be perfect. We will give it our best and we will learn from our mistakes,” Crowley said.   

GVU Pride is also open to students who want to engage in diverse environments where LGBTQIA+ people are celebrated and accepted. Crowley explains the limitations when it comes to learning more about the LGBTQIA+ community. 

“If you have any questions about who we are, I am personally comfortable answering them. Not everyone member of the LGBTQ+ community can and will say that,” Crowley said.   

Crowley has been able to abide by GVU Pride’s mission statement which is to be “… a brave space for anyone… we want to create a safe space for all sexualities, gender identities, and those questioning or curious,” Crowley said.  

The overall goal of the club is to fully support students who seek to express themselves in whatever way they desire.  

“If you are curious, or just an ally and supportive, or if you’re not ready to be out yet, we are welcoming to anyone embraces our mission statement,” Crowley said.   

Crowley is an advocate for safe spaces, which is a place or feeling where there is no opposition, challenges, or discrimination to one’s personal beliefs or morals. Crowley acknowledges this may not always be guaranteed. She is realistic as to what GVU Pride can provide for students.   

“I cannot promise that space to people on campus because I never know who is going to show up saying what,” Crowley said.   

Despite not knowing the outcomes of advocating for safe spaces, Crowley attempts to execute her leadership in a way that creates unity and a sense of community for people to belong. Crowley additionally mentions the importance of brave spaces, which she believes is an essential environment where people can, “… feel comfortable being able to speak up in advocating for themselves and sharing their experiences and beliefs and who they are.” 

Providing these safe spaces is something vital to the unity and progress of LGBTQIA+ individuals. Unfortunately, there are many in the community who may suffer trauma from having their identity suppressed at a young age.   

“I literally thought I was going to burn in hell as a child because I recognized the fact that I had this attraction towards women, and I was really scared of it because I hadn’t seen any representation of it… it just really wasn’t out there,” Crowley said.   

The lack of representation Crowley is talking about may be a reason why many feel fear with the idea of coming out, or even being associated with anything having to do with LGBTQIA+ individuals.   

“I felt very scared and alone as a kid. I felt like I couldn’t come out for many reasons, and just the reason that nobody else seemed to feel the way the I felt,” Crowley said.  

Despite these unfortunate feelings and events Crowely experienced, she has built an affinity space where people with similar experiences, or even moral support, may join.   

“It’s the little moments in the meetings that I enjoy the most, of just people coming to the meetings and speaking out for who they are when they don’t necessarily do that in other spaces, that they can identify with certain pronouns within our club, or they can identify with certain names in our club. I’m really proud of that,” Crowley said.   

English professor and Pride Advisor Dr. Joshua Call has been with the club for 13 years now. According to Call, there have been many faculty and staff that have worked closely with Pride. However, most of them have either retired or moved on to other positions. Call now currently co-advises with social work professor, Myke Selha.   

When speaking over how the political backlash on LGBTQIA+ has recently increased, Call explained how clubs that focus on LGBTQIA+ lives are essential. However, having a group dedicated to something important and relevant may carry some risks.   

“Groups like Pride become more necessary, but it becomes harder for students to want to be visible in Pride because it requires them to essentially be out, be visible, be potentially targeted, and that carries with it a lot of risk and implications,” Call said.   

Despite possible risks, Call upholds the Pride mission statement and shares the same vision and goals as Crowley. Pride may have hardships like any other team yet Call reassures that Pride is under strong leadership.  

“We are adamant about making sure that the people in the space and who come to us, are welcome, supported, and included. It is a space that does not engage in the rhetorical dismissiveness that we see in the world around us, and we police that very heavily,” Call said.   

Call ensures that Pride has dedicated itself to being open to students so that they may have a space where they feel comfortable thriving in their identities, whatever they may be.   

“It is a space for people to both come because they know who they are and who they want to be, and it’s a space for people to come and get information and ask questions and be secure in being able to ask and learn because they need a space to do that without reprisal or judgment,” Call said.   

Clubs that focus on LGBTQIA+ individuals are not only open for members that are directly a part of that community, but for their allies as well. Allies play a vital role when it comes to the progress of Pride.   

“Pride is fantastic in that it is both open to people in the community, but also to allies, who want to be good allies and learn how to be good allies,” Call said.   

However, there are many in power who may be opposed to the sorts of association and visibility of LGBTQIA+ individuals. In January 2023, House File 8 was introduced by Iowa Republican legislators. The bill is targeted towards k-3rd grade students, and its purpose is to prohibit topics in the classroom regarding LGBTQIA+ representation, which is not limited to sexual orientation and identity.  

Similarly, House File 9 was also purposed by Iowa Republican leaders.

This bill targets k-12 grade levels and consists of a restriction against teachers approving a student’s preferred pronouns and gender identity if it is not the same as what is stated on their birth certificate. The only counteraction to House File 9 is if parents give written consent and vouch for their student’s identity expression. According to Axios, Rep. Skyler Wheeler believes the bill is not meant to target or ‘out’ anyone in specific, if not “stick to what we’ve been teaching.”  

According to Wheeler, bills like House File 9 will assist parents in being knowledgeable of their child’s exposure to gender identity and sexual orientation. Both bills apply to a younger demographic. However, there may be future repercussions that affect these students later in their academic and social life. Individuals who do not support either bill argue that these efforts will put transgender students at risk and may cause certain students to be ‘outed,’ if students do not have an at-home support system. Although Call says the bill is attempting to restrict teachers from “indoctrinating K through 3rd graders into a sexual identity,” he also claims that is not the true significance of the bill. 

“The point is about trying to control the discourse. The point is about trying to keep people at a young age from acknowledging that these identities even exist,” Call said.   

In a diverse world, there may be political strives and social conformity that cause people to not be exposed to certain identities, making them ignorant and therefore oblivious to the diversity that exists around them.  

“If you can control a demographic from acknowledging an identity, then what you can create is a population that increasingly over time is redescent to acknowledge the existence and lived realities of others. And if that’s the case, then all of a sudden queerness becomes something that only exists on the margins again,” Call said.   

Call explains how learning methods and limitations are guided by those in charge of education policy, therefore putting students at the mercy of Iowa leader’s decisions.   

“If you control the educational structure, you can control the dispositions and outcomes. It is quite literally about controlling ideology and all the ways that it says it is not,” Call said.   

It is not clear whether the Iowa Republican leaders that proposed House Files 8 and 9 were also in support of banning LGBTQIA+ marriage back in 2009. However, many have speculations on the motives behind legislators stripping this community’s fundamental human rights for education, marriage, health, and more. This could prove censorship and prejudice happening to individuals who are LGBTQIA+, therefore making the efforts of allies essential.   

“Our job is to be as loud and as vocal as possible about how we are a space that can be safe. About how our job is to create, if you will, a sort of bubble of safety around us. Because the louder we are, the larger that bubble is,” Call said.   

Call argues that “queerness is very clearly under attack.” He states that the work of allies should be against the many struggles this community already faces with people that are not a part of this community. Despite certain Iowa legislators censoring the LGBTQIA+ community, having allies at institutional levels may be small-scale, yet positive work for Pride’s progress in comparison to political efforts.  

“I think the university right now is doing a very good job of being open to what it can do. It’s sort of new territory for us. We are being welcomed into conversations. We’re being invited into learning spaces. People who are basically willing to learn,” Call said.  

Accepting and understanding the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community is asking questions like, ‘What is queerness? What does it look like? What can we provide and support them with?’ GVU is doing a fair job attending to these needs and engaging in conversations for radical change.   

Regarding existing progress for LGBTQIA+ visibility, Call believes GVU is “doing a better than average job attending to these needs. That will ebb and flow because that’s what happens when you are advocating for communities on the margin.”   

The struggle for equity of LGBTQIA+ individuals is something that stems from the idea that anything other than heteronormativity should be rejected.  Heteronormativity is a term used to describe the idea that being ‘straight’ is the ‘default,’ ‘natural’ or ‘normal’ sexual orientation in comparison to queer identities. This may be the cause for certain individuals’ negative connotation of the LGBTQIA+ community.  

“The notion that this is something that we have to rebel against is ridiculous, its fallacious, its politically motivated. It has nothing to do with actual reality,” Call said.    

Legislation attempting to hide queer identities may be a negative portrayal of queer lives that do in fact exist. Any efforts attempting to hide this reality may provoke both obliviousness and ignorance in generations to come.   

“Queerness exists, it has always existed, and it will continue to exist…and you can try and legislate it away. It won’t be successful,” Call said.   

The solution to anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation may be to develop firsthand relationships with those in this community, who suffer the day-to-day repercussions of a system actively working against them.  

“I think, especially in rural places of Iowa, that there just isn’t any of that representation, either because it just doesn’t exist there, or because those people that are in that community aren’t comfortable coming out yet because of the repercussions and backlash if they do so,” Crowley said. 

The same lack of representation and awareness for diverse lives may also maintain some individuals uneasy with the idea of someone being ‘out of the closest.’  

“They want it back in the closet, and we’re not going back in the closet,” Call said.  

Call suggests that a way to better understand LGBTQIA+ individual’s is to “talk to people that are actually in the community, people that have transitioned, people that don’t identify as straight.” Doing this means working towards the goal of seeing LGBTQIA+ individuals as humans rather than a political category of people.   

“You need to get to know your constituents before you try to completely erase who they are,” Crowley said.  

The positivity that GVU Pride brings to many students is what creates meaningful relationships. However, this does not always remedy the pain and suffering that the LGBTQIA+ community has faced for many years. Crowley reflects on what it is like to have to hide such a crucial part of your identity, whilst also watching the cycle repeat itself due to a lack of compassion and understanding.   

“Its heavy for us… we know what it’s like to be that kid that can’t come out, and we know what it’s like to feel different than your peers, and feel excluded because of who you are, so it’s heartbreaking to see that other people have to go through that as well,” Crowley said.   

Dalton Dencklau has been actively working with GVU Pride since September of 2022 and is co-president with Crowley. Dencklau has been recently granted the position of Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, also known as DEI, of GVU. His work between DEI and GVU Pride may overlap since his advocacy is directed towards “underrepresented students and communities that have been previously marginalized.”   

The GVU community deserves to know what the future of LGBTQIA+ visibility on campus looks like. Dencklau ensures that progress is being made for inclusion of queer identities on campus.   

“I hope to increase queer visibility on campus while also enhancing my intersectionality to ensure everyone with a diverse background is seen, heard, and appreciated,” Dencklau said.   

As of the fall semester of 2022, GVU Pride and Dencklau have made efforts for radical change at the institutional level. LGBTQIA+ friendly housing is one of the efforts they are working towards. According to Dencklau, this idea came forward when, “situations from a gender non-conforming student were brought to light.”  

Dencklau and Crowley have been working with the institution administration and claim that progressive efforts have been made by the providing of resources and support for proposals that will affect this cause.   

Gender-neutral restrooms are efforts that Dencklau and GVU Pride have been advocating for since September of 2022 when the idea was brought on by a member in GVU Pride. The idea behind this is that non-binary, transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming individuals feel safe in certain spaces where their identity is seen and heard. When asked about the progress of gender-neutral restrooms at GVU, Dencklau says,  

“…It’s actually in the works right now. The institution has been a great support of this initiative, providing us with additional resources and ideas to help with this movement.”   

Institutional efforts require a team of people who are willing to work together for change. Thankfully, Dencklau has been working closely with Crowley, Dr. Call, Director of Inclusive and Supportive Programming, Steven Kellogg, Selha, Senior Student Affairs Officer, John Howe, Vice President for Administration and Finance, Chris Lee, and Dr. President Rachelle Keck. Dencklau additionally states that Viking Council and Student Life have been supportive of GVU Pride events and generating conversations in support of GVU LGBTQIA+ individuals.  

“We appreciate the support we have received so far and are looking forward to increasing visibility on our campus. We thank the advisors of GVU Pride, administration, faculty, staff, and the students of GV for listening to us and helping amplify our voices,” Dencklau said.  

Before his co-presidency, Dencklau was a member of GVU Pride and the LGBTQIA+ community for many years. He has found a sense of community in the club which has helped him express himself and find resonance within the GVU community. 

“My favorite memories from being a part of GVU Pride are the friendships I have made. I always feel accepted and welcomed every time I walk into a meeting or attend a GVU Pride event,” Dencklau said.   

Dencklau reflects on how essential it is to be a part of a community that celebrates your true authentic identity. GVU Pride has been active and engaged in amplifying the queer voices of Des Moines.  

“Finding a safe place within a community of like-minded individuals is so important and it has been one of the reasons I’m fighting so much for queer visibility on this campus,” Dencklau said.   

Aside from institutional changes attempting to be made, GVU Pride is hosting events that promote LGBTQIA+ visibility on campus. Events to come soon include drag shows, trivia nights, LGBTQIA+ networking opportunities, LGBTQIA+ advocacy and awareness. The overall goal is for the GVU community to have the opportunity to interact with diverse individuals whose experience may be different from their own. Accepting and understanding other human beings may be a learning opportunity for engaging with the real world after post-secondary education.