The BiLAGA officers emphasized that the group is for everybody who wants to get involved. "We have some members who are gay-friendly people, they are straight but want to support their friends who are gay or bisexual," according to Kevin. BiLAGA at WPI is not the only gay group in Worcester. Clark, Worcester State College and Anna Maria also have BiLAGA organizations, and the city also has a gay youth program. "We are a lot stronger than we were. We are trying to make people more aware that we exist and that we are actually getting more involved on campus," said Kevin.
Marie, BiLAGA's president, says that in the past most officers were not comfortable being out and that was the main reason why BiLAGA was not publicized; they want to change that. "We want to make a bigger effort to be more out, more available and do more outreach to the community."
BiLAGA is more of a support group for gay students and faculty than an active club. "It is a place where you can meet friends without feeling threatened," said Stacy, '98, BiLAGA's treasurer, who explained that they also try to do some community work. "A lot of the money we had was used to buy books for the BiLAGA library. Some of them are old, and some of them are very funny."
But the key issue for BiLAGA is to educate the community. "It takes exposure to break down stereotypes that are based on ignorance. People who are hateful and homophobic don't have to stay that way. We are here to try to educate the rest of the campus and ourselves," Marie said. According to her, people tend to be more open-minded once they get to know somebody who is gay. "Most of the time, they don't know anybody who is gay, and they react as society has taught them to react. But once they get to know a gay person, they realize that they (the gay community) are also people and then many of the stereotypes are broken."
BiLAGA bought a total of 30 books for the BiLAGA library, which is located in Health Services and accessible to anybody. They also co-sponsored with Alpha Psi Omega, the drama honor society, a masquerade ball for the WPI community this past Saturday.
BiLAGA meets every other week to discuss business pertaining to the alliance and try to meet in-between formal meetings to socialize and have meals together. During the formal meetings, they discuss upcoming conferences, budgetary issues, and the planning of future events. Stacy also commented BiLAGA would like to do more community work but are restrained by the limited budget they have. BiLAGA also has it's own mailing list, Bilaga@wpi.
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