The LGBT Resource Center celebrated its 20-year anniversary on Monday. About 85 students, staff and community members gathered to share lunch while discussing future plans for the center as well as celebrating its accomplishments.

Curt McKay, former LGBT Resource Center director who retired in 2008, was a panelist at the lunch and said the campus atmosphere has improved for LGBT students since the center’s opening in 1993. McKay was involved with a group of faculty and staff in 1993 who wanted to change that atmosphere.

“There’s still lots of work to be done, but we’ve come a long way in 20 years,” McKay said. “But it’s up to us to keep facilitating their (students’) ideas, to help them figure out what they want to do and develop as leaders to do the things they think are important to keep us moving forward.”

Jim Hall, associate dean for student affairs and medical scholars program, was also a panelist at the lunch and discussed the evolution of the center’s name.

“It’s important to be open to possibilities,” Hall said. “First, it (the group) started as the Gay Illini, then the Lesbian-Gay Illini, then the People for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns, and that’s where the current office name came from.”

He said that after Leslie Feinberg, a transgender speaker and author, spoke on campus in the ’90s, the center decided to include transgender in the name. 

McKay said these topics weren’t being discussed in 1993 when the center opened.

“Even in the ’90s, it was a big deal if there was a gay character on a TV show,” McKay said. “Now, it’s almost commonplace… We’re (LGBT individuals) just so much more a part of the common fabric of everyday life…and I’m sure that’s reflected on campus.”

The center has expanded its physical space three times, which the panelists said has allowed for a better sense of community for students. 

“It helps students be more visible and receive the kind of services they need,” McKay said. “All kinds of things (could happen with more space), ranging from things like the drag show the Illini Union Board puts on, to (bringing to campus) serious people like Keith Boykin, who show how our commonalities cross lots of boundaries.”

Boykin, political strategist and author, visited campus Monday to discuss his latest book “For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home.”

Leslie Morrow, current director of the center, said despite these improvements, she would still like to see more expansion because the center has outgrown its current space.

“We’re the only space under the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations where our (Quench Series) lunches don’t take place in our space because it is way too small and not easily accessible,” Morrow said.

Josh Pagan, vice president of PRIDE and senior in LAS, said center has provided some of the most important resources he’s utilized on campus.

“My high school didn’t really have an organized Gay-Straight Alliance, so I was never able to have sense of community with other LGBT individuals,” Pagan said. “I think that it’s important for any campus to have lots of LGBT activities and programs, but I think it’s even more important to have a place that students can meet with each other.”

Janelle can be reached at [email protected].