The GW lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community celebrated the grand opening of a new resource center in the Marvin Center Monday as part of National Coming Out Week.
The new facility, located on the building’s fourth floor, is designed to provide additional services and support to LGBT students and to foster a larger LGBT community.
“One of the primary objectives for the LGBT Resource Center is to promote awareness and a sense of inclusiveness between both the GW and LGBT communities,” said sophomore Melissa Gindin, a student coordinator for the center.
GW officials announced last month that the center would be in the Marvin Center after administrators reviewed proposals created last spring. Gindin and Aaron Fox, the center’s full-time coordinator, moved into their office last week.
“We are all optimistic about the opening of the LGBT Resource Center,” Fox said. “We are very excited about what we have planned for this year.”
Gindin said she hopes the center will be able to help community members with jobs and other opportunities.
“While our main focus of the resource center is to promote awareness and acceptance, we hope to provide other services to the LGBT community, including counseling and outlooks for internship or job opportunities, as a part of our long-term goals,” Gindin said.
Even before the grand opening of the new office, Fox and Gindin sponsored events on campus and in the D.C. area for the LGBT community – such as “Day in D.C.” walking tours to local LGBT organizations and historic sites.
“The resource center also sponsored a workshop for 10 LGBT students who met representatives of LGBT organizations and learned about being out the workplace,” Fox said.
Ian Goldin, a freshman, said he hopes the center will be able to assist LGBT students with past issues such as living situations and gender-neutral bathrooms on campus.
He said, “The resource center allows for a real LGBT community to be created, and can address issues specific to the LGBT community that in the past may have not been able to be resolved … such as issues that may arise in living situations in the dorms.”
