Director of LBGT Studies Marilee Lindemann (right) listens as Gita Deane, a plaintiff in a recent same-sex marriage lawsuit, speaks about her experiences in a same-sex relationship.

Leaders of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community said they fear heterosexual students are disconnected from issues like same-sex marriage and equal rights for gays.

They held a forum yesterday to combat the perceived apathy among the straight community, and to discuss LGBT issues in the aftermath of the Deane v. Conaway lawsuit – a Baltimore court’s ruling that tentatively upholds same-sex marriage.

Nearly 50 students and faculty of diverse sexual orientations and ethnicities attended the panel, which was sponsored by the university’s Asian American Studies, Women’s Studies and LBGT Studies programs.

The star of the panel was Gita Deane, one of the lead plaintiffs in the 2004 lawsuit that spurred a Baltimore Circuit Court judge to decide Jan. 20 that Maryland’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Other speakers included university faculty and members of off-campus groups such as Equality Maryland, the state’s largest LGBT civil rights organization.

Professor Philip Tajitsu Nash of the Asian American Studies Program organized the event to draw the attention of non-LBGT students to the issue of same-sex marriage, he said. Nash became interested in civil rights for women and minority groups while studying at Rutgers School of Law.

“For me, this is not just an issue for LGBT, but a civil rights issue,” Nash said.

Nash, who is biracial, compared the obstacles faced by interracial couples until the late 1960s – when the Supreme Court finally overturned the ban against interracial marriage – to those faced by same-sex couples today.

“If those laws had been followed precisely, I wouldn’t have been born,” he said. “And I said to myself, ‘Gee, well how is this different than what is happening now?'”

Deane agreed with Nash’s parallel between interracial and same-sex marriages, describing how normal events like going to the doctor and checking through airport customs are marred because she cannot marry her partner and legally validate their family.

“It’s these types of everyday things that make it really hard, that when you encounter you say, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t know this would be a problem,'” she said. “Things are not going to be fair for our family – the legal protection other families have, we do not have. That’s why I’m in this lawsuit, to give my family the safety and security we deserve.”

Many heterosexual students may feel disconnected from homosexual issues because they don’t think it concerns their lives or their civil rights, said Marilee Lindemann, director of the LGBT studies program, but people must realize the two communities’ rights are interconnected, she said.

“We’re all going to see Brokeback Mountain and mourning the loss of Will and Grace and receiving conflicting messages about LGBT issues in our culture,” Lindemann said. “But discussion and communication are the most important steps in this process. We really can’t do this by ourselves.”

Senior psychology major Gus Collins, president of the campus organization Pride Alliance, said all students must understand the power they have to change the current climate.

“One of the questions I get all the time is, why is equality important to college students? Why do any of them care?” he said. “In my mind, this has gone beyond an issue of civil rights. This is about what we are as a democracy, what we can talk about and discuss. We’re here in an institution of higher thought and expression and to not get involved is criminal.”

Nash encouraged students to support Deane and same-sex couples by attending the Feb. 13 rally in Annapolis.

“Don’t die before your time – get involved in something,” he said. “This is one of the most important issues of our time. You should get involved in it, or any issue you believe in.”

Contact reporter Roxana Hadadi at roxanadbk@gmail.com.