For many members of San Diego’s GLBT community, North County is a distant land with very few groups or support organizations for the community. However, at Cal State San Marcos, the school’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Student Organization (LGBTSO) is providing much needed outreach and support, not only on campus, but for the entire community. In less than a year, the organization has grown to include 75 members and gained acceptance at the school with a student population of 6,500.

“I had been involved in LGBT groups in the past, and I transferred to Cal State San Marcos last fall and I wondered if there were any groups on campus,” Matt McCoy, the president and founder of the organization said. “I asked around and there wasn’t anything so I got some names of some professors who were out on campus and asked them about how to go about doing it. Within a couple of weeks, three of us started having informal meetings, talking about what we wanted to be as an organization.”

McCoy said they began posting fliers around campus and got a listserv set up immediately; the school administration was quick to support them.

“They jumped up for joy,” said McCoy of school administrators’ reaction to the organization. “They were really glad that we were getting something started. They wanted it to be a student run thing and they wanted to be sure there was enough student involvement to make it work.”

By the middle of the semester the LGBTSO had secured a meeting place on campus and had 50 people on the listserv, making it one of the larger student-run organizations on campus.

“A lot of the organizations struggle, and this is a problem across the board, because this is a commuter campus people don’t feel attached to their school,” said Daniel Dollar, the organization’s vice-president. “They don’t get involved very much so the numbers are kind of low.”

Dollar learned of the organization early last year through friends and was surprised to find out how large it was.

“San Marcos is a very conservative area,” Dollar added. “I had always thought that I would be one of maybe five people that identifies as LGBT. However, once I came into the organization and got involved in the outreach and went beyond my little closed circle, the numbers were surprising.”

The organization is open to all students, regardless of their sexual orientation. Its membership ranges in age from 17 to 59 and even won an award last year being named the most inclusive organization on campus.

The organization is also active in providing question and answer panels for human sexuality courses — this year they will begin speaking in classrooms at local community colleges. Most exciting though, the group’s outreach this year will take LGBTSO members into several North County high schools, including San Marcos High, Orange Glen High, Escondido High and Oceanside High, as part of the schools’ “Contemporary Living” courses.

On campus the LGBTSO also holds weekly discussion groups supervised by a school psychologist to help students who may be dealing with issues ranging from coming out to interaction with other students on campus.

The LGBTSO holds weekly meetings every Monday from 4:00-5:00 p.m. in room ACD 407 on the Cal State campus. They hold an unofficial meeting on Tuesdays from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at a coffee house near campus. For more information on the group, contact Matt McCoy via e-mail at mccoy005@csusm.edu or visit the Gay and Lesbian Times online at www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to their website.