Within the last six weeks, 11 teens indentifying with the GLBT community have committed suicide. 

In commemoration of the suicides, Michael Giancola, director of CSLEPS and Deb Luckadoo, director of Campus Activities, have partnered to plan a rally to show the GLBT community they have allies at the University.  The rally will be held in the brickyard at 12:15 p.m.

According to Giancola, the GLBT rally has two purposes.

“First, we want the rally to show support for the GLBT community on campus,” Giancola said.  “There are many people on campus that consider themselves allies and support them.”

The GLBT community allies want to show they care about all members of the GLBT community, according to Giancola.

“We also want to, in the face of things going on with the GLBT community, thought it was important to show our support for the GLBT community,” Giancola said.

According to Justine Hollingshead, the director of the GLBT center, the event is going to be a visible sign of support to the GLBT community.

“It’s a rally of sorts, with people being there to say ‘we visibly support the GLBT community,'” Hollingshead said.  “It’s a time to show the GLBT community that they have allies at this University who will stand with them.”

Organizers originally planned the rally as part of National Coming Out Week, Oct. 10 through Oct. 17.

“The students that Justine Hollingshead works with couldn’t get the energy up to do the rally because of all the teen suicides,” Luckadoo said.  “They were feeling oppressed because, people with whom they identify felt so lost that they committed suicide.”

According to Luckadoo, she and Giancola felt the event was important and worked together to plan it.

“We believe this is still an important event.  We decided to make it about the support allies have for the GLBT community,” Luckadoo said.  “I believe there are thousands more people that support and care for members of the GLBT community, than there are people that are disrespectful.”

Luckadoo said they want to bring out as many people as possible.

“I hope we can lift their spirits,” Luckadoo said.  “I believe they felt good last week because of Coming Out Week activities and the injunction of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  We want to reinforce that and tell them that there are people who support them.”

According to Giancola, this event is similar to other rallies and memorials that have been held on the Brickyard.

“We’re having this between classes so everyone can come out and not miss classes,” Giancola said.

Several members of the campus community will speak at the rally. Student Body President Kelly Hook and Student Chief Justin Monica Noble will be student speakers.  Thomas Stafford, vice chancellor of student affairs, and Jo-Ann Robinson, assistant vice provost for student diversity, will also speak at the rally, according to Giancola

Giancola said Robinson will be speaking about the importance of being inclusive.

“At the end, we’re going to be distributing purple bandanas with the N.C. State emblem on in that say ally,” Giancola said.

Giancola said he encourages all members of the N.C. State community to come out and show support to the GLBT community.

“At the end of the day, we’re all part of the same N.C. State,” Giancola said.

Hollingshead said the allies want all students to know that people are here to help them.

“We want students to know there are options besides suicide when dealing with mental health issues,” Hollingshead said.