By EDDIE MIKUS

STAFF WRITER

Fordham’s People Recognizing Identities and Differences (PRIDE) Alliance group held an on-campus candlelight vigil on Dec. 3.

“The purpose of this event is to bring attention to members of the LGBTQ community who have taken their lives or lost their lives because of violence enacted against them,”  Sarah Lyons, FCRH ’15 and PRIDE secretary, said of the vigil.

Club members silently walked around campus, holding candles, and then participated in an open mic night. Throughout the event, students were able to discuss their reactions to the vigil and the cause.

The vigil was not precipitated by any event at Fordham University, but rather was intended to draw attention to an issue facing society at large.

“To my knowledge, it has not happened on campus, especially not the taking of lives of people in the LGBTQ community,” Lyons said when asked if any LGBTQ members had been subjected to violence at Fordham. “We’re speaking out against it, not just at Fordham, but more in society at large.”

Lyons explained that she personally did not differentiate between equality on Fordham’s campus and equality in the general public.

“I see Fordham as a really great learning institution and I think that we have a lot of great things going for us on campus,” Lyons stated. “But I think that we could do better in a lot of areas, and some of those areas are education and inclusion and promotion of tolerance and acceptance.”

She suggested that “acceptance” should be promoted from the first moment students arrive on Fordham’s campus.

“When you’re a freshman coming into college, if you’ve never seen a member of the LGBTQ community and you find yourself living with them, that’s a great way to promote tolerance right there because you’re immediately living in that space with them,” Lyons said. “So, perhaps at freshman orientation, there could be more of a dialogue about it there.”

Lyons also said, however, that Fordham has recently made great strides to increase acceptance of those students on campus who identify themselves as LGBTQ.

“We used to not be able to use the word ‘queer’ on poster, and now we are able to that, and we think that is a great step forward for Fordham,” Lyons explained.

Leslie Feigenbaum, FCRH ’13 and PRIDE president, spoke about efforts at Fordham to increase knowledge of issues facing the LGBTQ community.

“I feel like there’s a lot of silencing on campus, and there’s a movement on campus to make it more known,” Feigenbaum said.

Feigenbaum also spoke about what she felt the vigil itself would have on the Fordham community.

“It brings a lot of awareness, the way that young LGBTQ identity is often marginalized,” Feigenbaum said. “More events like this are great … just conversation in general keeps the momentum going.”

The open mic portion of the vigil included the reading of two poems by Andrea Meyer. One of the poems referenced Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers student who committed suicide in 2010.