Kansas University’s gay students say they look forward to showing off their campus’ progressive policies to students from other universities this week.

But members of the campus activist group Queers and Allies say the university’s relative tolerance makes further advances more difficult.

“It makes people complacent,” member Tina Warriner said. “We’ve reached a certain plateau.”

KU’s Student Development Center this week will play host to the first Big 12 Gay Conference. The event coincides with Lawrence’s annual Pride Week.

Though it’s not an official Big 12 event, about 50 students from universities across the Midwest are expected to attend conference sessions Thursday through Saturday.

“It’s the idea that it’s never been done, and it’s planting a seed for next year,” said Laurie Sisk, a graduate student in journalism and the conference’s organizer. “We want to get this jump-started and build some unity with the schools in the region. Most of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) groups on campuses are very small, and when we combine we can make significant progress to make life easier on our campuses.”

And, Queers and Allies members say, KU and Lawrence would make pretty good models for other universities and cities.

Both Lawrence and KU include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policy. Lawrence is the only city in Kansas to have such a policy.

KU also offers unmarried couples  both same-sex and heterosexual  access to child-care facilities, married couple housing and health benefits through Watkins Student Health Center.

But Christine Robinson, a KU graduate student in women’s studies, is working with a group of students who want to extend unmarried partner benefits at KU and all Kansas regents’ universities.

The benefits could include health insurance, pension plans, bereavement policies and family and medical leave.

“They’re not applying their policies equally in regard to sexual orientation,” Robinson said. “It’s a violation of equal protection of the laws.”

The task force is drafting a proposal for the regents, but Robinson said members haven’t set a date for its presentation.

Other issues

For years, Queers and Allies members have complained that the Food and Drug Administration’s policy prohibiting gay men from donating blood is discriminatory.

They scored a minor victory last fall, convincing Student Senate to pull funding intended to advertise a student blood drive in the University Daily Kansan. The move was a symbolic gesture in support of Queers and Allies, Robinson said.

“Nobody’s against donating blood,” said Matthew Kaufman, a Queers and Allies member and graduate student in urban design and planning. “We just don’t support the blanket policy of not accepting blood from gay men who have had sex with other gay men.”

Activists also want to target the Kansas sodomy law, which prohibits physical relationships between same-sex couples.

Good climate

Despite their goals for change, members of the gay community say KU and Lawrence are accepting places for gay and lesbian students.

“It’s almost as if Lawrence isn’t in the state of Kansas,” Sisk said. “You find a lot of unity between the community and the university.”

Funding for Pride Week might be an indication of that acceptance. Queers and Allies has received about $500 from a potentially unlikely source  fraternities and sororities.

They’re also making money off Fred Phelps, the anti-gay demonstrator from Topeka. The group takes pledge donations for every minute Phelps is in Lawrence demonstrating during Pride Week. Members raised $700 through the promotion last year.

“That way it helps us that he’s here,” Kaufman said.