By RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
Fort Hays State University’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance operated a table in the Quad on Friday to promote National Coming Out Day to students. Various books about LGBTQ+ topics were presented, and the alliance connected with students to educate them about the community.
Kiernan McCarty, president of SGA and senior majoring in studio art, sets out to find others in the community and make them feel included.
“Our main initiative is to be representations for LBGTQ+ students on campus and just give those people visibility on the Fort Hays campus,” he said. “I’m here to chat with people and share my knowledge on LGBT history and social issues. We’re here for a whole lot of things and a lot of it relates to creativity, knowledge, and education. So, that’s our purpose.”
SGA president Kiernan McCarty and vice president Kaz Perkins chat with Alexana Morgan. 
Academic advisor Katie Lunsford visits McCarty, Perkins and Morgan. 
Books about LBGTQ+ topics are presented to students. 
GSA sets sets out to connect with members of the LGBTQ+ community on campus and help them feel included. 
The Gender & Sexuality Alliance operates a table in the Quad.
McCarty believes the initiative has succeeded, but more work needs to be done.
“So far, we struggle with student member retention and our officers frequently turn over,” he said. “It’s a little hard to get an established structure for our organization, but it’s worked out in the way that I think we’ve established a lot of positive community connections through the work that we do.”
McCarty said that overall, the GSA has faced mixed reception from people but has garnered respectful discussion among others.
“There are some people that seek out arguments, and there are people who tend to get people arguing with them,” McCarty said. “For me, I haven’t had any uncivil discussions. I’ve had some uncomfortable discussions and conversations, mostly just people asking me personal questions.”
McCarty also points out that he’s faced situations from within the LBGTQ+ community.
“We’ve encountered many problems,” he said. “Sometimes, infighting in the queer community is a problem for us to establish a good structure, but I feel a lot of our problems feel out of our control just because the nature of our identity is being politicized. I would say that also a lot of queer folks in the community tend to be low income, which is a huge problem and presents a lot of barriers for us to get work done.”
He states that more strides are needed for the community and GSA.
“I think it’s best for us to focus on the problems without our community before so we can support each other,” McCarty said. “Then we can have enough energy to go to the rest of the community and be like, ‘Hey, guys! We have some cool stuff to offer you.’”