"Beginning this year, queer students have become more visible, but also the resulting backlash has started," said Andrea Breau '03, Student Government Association cultural chair. "If you read 'The Digest,' you'll see that some students don't like seeing queer visibility. The message is that it can be visible but not too visible."

Students receive recognition for their performance during the 2nd Annual Colby Drag Show.

Sensing hostility, some GLBT students say that they can "be gay" but they cannot "do gay."

These developments on Mayflower Hill mirror knotty issues affecting American society and particularly institutions of higher education. According to a May 2003 report released by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, GLBT students face a hostile environment on college campuses, even at ones with strong support groups. Called "Campus Climate for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People," the report represents the largest-ever study that gives a national perspective on U.S. college campuses. It found that more than a third of gay college students nationwide experienced harassment in the past year and that 50 percent conceal their sexual orientation to avoid intimidation.

"While there have been significant improvements over the past decade, clearly harassment and bias are still major concerns for GLBT students," wrote Sean Cahill, the NGLTF Policy Institute director.

Heavy on stats and facts, the report omits real faces and real lives. But take a look around Colby and they are all there. Professors who hid their identities for years. Unsure 18-year-olds looking for answers and support. Confident, willful upperclassmen determined to make Colby more inclusive than when they arrived.

There's Allen LaPan, sometimes affectionately known as Auntie Al, in the mailroom. Stop and say hello and he'll tell you about numerous students he's mentored through the years. One was a 19-year-old man who came out to his parents. "His father started to cry," said LaPan. "The young student said, 'I'm sorry, Dad, I didn't mean to hurt you.' And the father replied, 'You didn't hurt me. I'm just sad that it took nineteen years for you to tell me.'"