Brian Buford is the Program Manager for the Office for Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Services at the University of Louisville. His office is responsible for providing support and advocacy for GLBT students, staff and faculty at U of L. The office also offers education and awareness on GLBT issues to the wider U of L community to address heterosexism and homophobia. As stated on his office’s website, his efforts are aimed to help create “a safe campus climate for [GLBT] students, staff and faculty and their allies.”

A twenty-year employee of U of L, Buford began serving in his current position this past fall. His previous campus positions included working to help create drug-free schools and managing training and development for the Human Resources department.

I recently interviewed Buford about his work at the University of Louisville.

D.V.P.: How did your office/position at U of L come into existence and how is it funded?

B.B.: A few years ago, someone papered the campus with anti-[gay] posters that were really upsetting to students and employees. The campus community was really in shock to see such blatant hate and homophobia. After the incident, students from Common Ground asked to talk with the Provost about how the climate could be improved for LGBT students. They asked the Provost, among other things, to establish a LGBT office and to start doing training (now called "Safe Zone" training) to help campus members be better allies to students. That was the beginning.

The Vice Provost for Diversity, Dr. Mordean Taylor-Archer, hired a graduate assistant to do the training and open an office. Two incredible women have served in that role, Kristy Lomeier and Cindy Conley. So for these last few years, the job has been done by graduate students while they were pursuing degrees and trying to balance both. In the last few years, members of the campus community made a case for hiring a fulltime staff member to give continuity and a stronger presence to the office.

I report to Dr. Taylor-Archer, who is the Vice Provost for Diversity. And she's given this office a place at the table with her other diversity efforts and funded it from her budget. She's an amazing ally for LGBT people and absolutely tireless in her determination to make the campus a welcoming place. And by bringing us into her fold, we get to learn from the experience and wisdom of other groups that have been doing social justice work for years, like the Women's Center and the Muhammad Ali Institute for Peace and Justice.

D.V.P.: A statement on your office’s website states that your work on behalf of more than just students. You also work to advocate on behalf of staff and faculty members. What kind of help to you offer to GLBT staff and faculty members?

B.B.: My first opportunity to work on LGBT issues happened before the office was established. I was part of the core group of faculty and staff who established the group Faculty and Staff for Human Rights and advocated successfully for domestic partner benefits at U of L. People told us that it would be really hard to make that happen, but we were successful. So now working on policy issues and benefits for employees of the university is still a focus of mine.

I recently collaborated with our Employee Assistance Program to make sure they had a strong cadre of counseling providers who were well-versed in LGBT issues.

We consider faculty and staff to be keys to making the campus welcoming and friendly for LGBT students and so we offer training to create more awareness and support.

D.V.P.: What is the relationship between your office at the Common Ground organization?

B.B.: Common Ground is the registered student organization (RSO) that focuses on LGBT issues, and it's been meeting an important need for years at U of L. My office is heavily involved in Common Ground and I consider them to be really important partners in the work we do on campus. But we also realize that one student group cannot meet every need, and that there are some students that won't find their niche in Common Ground.

I think that students who are closeted or just coming out need different services, as do those who are ready to be more active in political issues. So the LGBT Office tries to fill the gaps and make sure that there is a broad array of services to meet many needs. We've recently been helping the School of Medicine start a health sciences LGBT student group, and that's really exciting to me because it just expands the opportunities that are out there. Medical students have a really different experience than do undergraduates, and so Common Ground hasn't been a place where they historically have gone for support. I hope in the coming year that we have lots of places that people can get involved, whatever their interest.

D.V.P.: Is the secular university environment (at least at U of L) any more "gay-friendly" than it was say 10 or 20 years ago? What still needs to change to make the university even more inclusive of the queer community?

B.B.: I’ve been teaching and talking about LGBT issues at U of L for about 20 years now, and I think it's changed dramatically over that time. When I first started doing class presentations in the late 80s I would ask the students if they knew LGBT people and nobody would raise their hand. They didn't know anything about our community and they would ask really basic questions. Today's college student is much more savvy. Now if I ask who knows someone gay, everyone raises their hands. So at least they have some personal connection to help them understand what the issues are.

Students are coming out in high school and attending gay-straight alliances long before they get to college. So things are really changing and they come to us with a very different mindset than when I first started doing this work. And although we work in a challenging political environment in Kentucky (we've been challenged in the state legislature every year we've offered DP benefits), the university administration is supportive of the LGBT Office and takes pride in what we've accomplished. When President Ramsey recently awarded his first diversity vision awards, he included the university's work on LGBT issues in his speech and I thought that was just a really positive message about his commitment.

And of course, I'm really proud that we have an endowed chair in race, gender, class, and sexuality. Dr. Kaila Story has added to the academic experience for students by offering new coursework in queer theory, black lesbian studies, and more. And she's just getting started. You should see students come out of her classes. They are so excited about what they're learning. I know students who aren't even registered or getting course credit who go to Dr. Story's classes because they are so eager to learn more. That's a real sign of what students care about. And you know, I can't even tell you how proud I am that U of L is meeting that need.

Another sign of change has been the way in which we found a space for the office to operate. The old multicultural center inside the Red Barn was being used by the Black Student Association over the last few years, but they offered to share it with Common Ground and the LGBT Office as a way of building relationship between two groups that both care about social justice. I think some people were worried that it wouldn't work, but the students have done an incredible job of supporting one another and making the space about larger issues of tolerance and acceptance. In fact, they named the space "The Intersection" to reflect the fact that this is a place where race, sexuality, and gender come together at the crossroads (a concept that Dr. Story emphasizes strongly in her courses).

That's not to say that there isn't a lot of work to do. We still have to work harder on transgender issues by looking at our policies in housing, employment, and basic facilities. We still haven't achieved total equity in our benefits package for faculty and staff.

D.V.P.: Can our non-U of L readers do anything to help further the work of your office?

B.B.: We realize that we can't exist in a vacuum and that we need to be collaborating with the community to be successful. Our students need resources and services when they leave campus, and we need friend and supporters to help us meet all the needs. We've really had such good support so far from Fairness, Sienna, PFLAG and others who have come forward to lend a hand.

One thing we are trying to do now is create a resource library in the office of books, DVDs, and other materials that students can check out or just read while they are hanging out. So if any of your readers want to make room on their shelves by donating some things to us, we'd love that. Just send me a message to brian.buford@louisville.edu and we can arrange to come pick things up