GW is often considered one of the friendliest campuses in the country for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, but has never had an openly gay president of the Student Association.
That would change if junior Nick Gumas wins the election this week. The junior has become the frontrunner in the smallest race for SA president since 2010, picking up endorsements from the largest student groups across campus and far more than fellow SA senator Daniel Egel-Weiss.
Gumas, who has been president of the largest LGBT student organization Allied in Pride for two years, is not running with gay issues on his platform. But he said his experience writing non-discrimination policies into the SA bylaws and planning the event Allied in Greek – a drag contest between fraternities to raise money for charity – were some of his best qualifications.
He has racked up 38 student organization endorsements as of Monday night, while Egel-Weiss has nabbed six. Gumas has pledged to boost mental health services by creating a peer counseling program and cut student costs by removing the internship credit fee.
“The policies I’m advocating for benefit everyone,” Gumas said. “The president of the SA’s job is not to cater to a particular interest or a facet of the campus. It’s to find common problems that all students are facing and advocate for solutions to those problems, and I believe that’s what my platform is.”
Both the Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council have urged its members to vote for Gumas, despite Egel-Weiss’ position as president of Zeta Beta Tau. Gumas would also be the first SA president to not be involved in Greek life in six years, defying what is historically a key qualification at a campus that’s one-third Greek.
Gumas added that planning Allied in Greek, which was held for the first time last year to encourage support for the LGBT community from fraternities and sororities, had been a way to determine the needs of those students.
“I just see it as another opportunity to get more student feedback on what we can do to improve the University,” he said.
Peyton Zere, president of the IFC, said working with Gumas to put on the drag contest had put him in a positive light for Greek chapter leaders.
“Even though Nick is not a member of Greek Life, he has showed our community that important issues and ideas will be heard and acted on, no matter the organization that is promoting it,” he said.
Michael Komo, president of Lambda Law, an organization for LGBT law students, said having an openly gay SA president would show how diverse groups on campus are breaking through glass ceilings.
Komo, who was an SA senator and president of Allied in Pride as an undergraduate, said some students are quick to condemn candidates who only focus on issues related to a particular group.
“You don’t want to focus solely on on those issues because it’s easy to be criticized for only focusing on those issues,” said Komo, who also spearheaded the SA’s lobbying effort for gender-neutral housing four years ago.
Gumas has also mostly steered clear of controversial issues. When a group of gay and lesbian students protested against a campus priest’s alleged poor treatment of their LGBT peers – stirring up the only major anti-gay controversy on campus in recent years – Gumas and Allied in Pride did not enter the fray.
As chair of the SA’s student life committee, Gumas said he has also met with more than 100 student organizations throughout the year, giving him face time with many of the campus’ most likely voters.
Still, Egel-Weiss outranks Gumas in the SA as the senate’s president pro-tempore. Egel-Weiss, who has branded himself as the student organization-minded president, also sits on the committee’s coveted financial committee.
Gumas also worked with IFC and PanHel, as well as the Club Sports Council and other groups, on a study of the culture of hazing at the University last year.
Morgan Corr, chair of the LGBT alumni association and the SA’s executive vice president in 2005 and 2006, said the election of an openly gay SA president would make a statement about openness at GW.
GW has been ranked one of the most open campuses in the country for gay and lesbian students, and was one of the first colleges in the country to offer an LGBT minor and gender-neutral housing.
Georgetown University elected a gay president of its student government last year, while American University students elected a transgender president two years ago.
Still, Corr said the open culture on campus would make it clear that students would elect Gumas for his ideas and past experiences.
“You’re electing a person who’s qualified and happens to be gay,” he said.
-Mary Ellen McIntire contributed to this report.
