Students at Iowa State University held a funeral for the LGBTQIA+ Center, forced to close under Senate File 2435, which bans initiatives promoting DEI principles. Around 50 mourners gathered with a coffin draped in a Pride flag, signifying the loss of support for marginalized communities. Initially established in 1992 as LGBTSS, the Center is now primarily a study space, its previous supportive descriptions altered on the university's website. With SF 2435 set to enact in 2025, student advocates express deep concern over the implications for inclusivity on campus.
The Center was forced to shut down by Senate File 2435, which bans 'any effort to promote... a particular, widely contested opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology...'.
What began in November, 1992 as the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Student Services (LGBTSS) - later rebranded to the Center in 2019 - is now a general reservable study space.
The group gathered around a coffin decorated with an LGBTQ+ Pride flag, as many carried flags of their own to mourn the loss of Iowa State's Center.
The Center is still listed as open on ISU's website, though its description has been changed since the start of the calendar year.
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