By Kira Barrett

For The Diamondback

When James Bolger attended the University of Maryland in the late 1970s, there was only one LGBT organization on campus.

The Gay Student Alliance was “just a small room in the fourth floor” of Stamp Student Union, Bolger said. “We used to table outside of Stamp and get harassed.”

Four decades later, Quelcome celebrated the LGBT Equity Center’s 20th anniversary Thursday night at Stamp Student Union. The welcome festival offers LGBTQ students a place to network and get to know various student groups and organizations on the campus.

“You’re beautiful, you are impressive and you are full of expectations,” said Luke Jensen, Bolger’s husband and the director of the LGBT Equity Center, to the crowd of more than 100 students in attendance. “I want you to voice these expectations.”

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Jensen started the LGBT Equity Center in 1998 as what he described as “a one-person office in a community of thousands” with the goal of “collaboration and improving the climate.”

Two years later, he started Quelcome. The Equity Center has sponsored the event ever since, as it’s grown from “mostly straight cisgender employees who wanted to show support” to the well-attended event that it is today, Jensen said,

The Center now offers leadership and empowerment opportunities for LGBT students.

“We are student-first, and we want to build the appropriate infrastructure,” Jensen said. “The idea is, we put the tools in place, and people who want to do good have the tools available.”

[Read more: “It’s terrifying to go back there”: Students react to hate bias incidents in UMD dorms]

This university is regarded as one of the top LGBT campuses in the country — it was ranked No. 7 nationally last year by Best Colleges. Jensen said the school has come a long way from the days of harassment and exclusion.

“We are now the best of the best,” said Jensen. “Now, we just don’t want to leave any corner unaddressed.”

Now, Quelcome is a way for students to get comfortable on campus and join the LGBT community, said Sofia Elkin, a junior women’s studies major.

“It’s a way to meet new people that you know you can feel safe around,” Elkin said.

Patrick Fox, a junior aerospace engineering major, attended Quelcome to build his social circles.

“It’s cool to be around other queer people,” Fox said. “Not everybody on campus always understands.”