I want to take a break from my column, “Tabula Rasa,” to touch on an important topic in our country and on our campus: discrimination. It has recently been brought up at Residence Hall Association meetings and Student Senate that certain students have made the first-year residence hall lobbies hostile to other Drake students who have the happenstance of being gay, lesbian or bisexual.

Some Drake students have been going up to their peers and informing them of their own religious beliefs. This is something I respect greatly. Anyone has the right to do so, and I admire this practice of self-expression.

However, when addressing the LGBT population and religious minorities, many leave these interactions feeling demeaned, degraded and belittled. For years, homosexuals on campus have been openly told, “You’re going to hell unless you are straight.”

Before addressing the problems of this statement, let me discuss the specific issue I have with it.

Many gay men and women live life in the “closet,” full of self-loathing, shame and fear. Often, their biggest fear often is not that they will lose friends, family or respect; it is that the god they believe in will send them to an eternal Hell. This fear has led millions in modern society to live their only life in a lie.

So, here are students that tell minorities on campus one of their worst dreams is going to come true. Students tell a minority, which may already deal with outstanding psychological, spiritual and social challenges, that they cannot reconcile faith and their lifestyle. They inform a group that if they accept who they are, then they will face severe consequences.

This leads to the invisibility of gays in our society. For every person that comes out and deals with discrimination, there are many more who do not because of stories they have heard. This is by far the most disgusting effect of this slander. And that, in short, is why I decided to write this column.

The Residence Hall Association’s motto is “Making halls into homes.” A hall is a public forum where you can shout, yell and belittle one another. A home is a place where you can be yourself.

I have many close friends in religious organizations. None of them are discriminatory, so we cannot make blanket statements about all religious organizations or even one organization on campus. I have been in many religious organizations myself.

Yet, if there are individuals that degrade others, they should not be allowed to meet in living spaces. Period. And let us desperately hope and pray that degradation would never systematically be promoted by an organization at Drake University.

There’s talk of making the residence hall lobbies into designated “safe spaces” for LGBT students. What a sad necessity that in our post-secondary institution, an institution dedicated to pluralism and self-expression, certain areas have to be designated as “safe spaces” to be yourself.

While I have heard stories of many being approached and told of their sinfulness, I heard one account that especially angered me. One friend was approached a few years ago and asked to play a board game in her first-year hall lobby. Agreeing, she sat down with her new friend to play a simple board game.

After disclosing her sexuality, a group slowly formed around this sole individual. The group, gradually growing, told the individual of her “sin.” Completely alone and just months into her time at Drake University, she was reasonably embarrassed and felt harassed.

It sounds eerily similar to the crowds that grew around black people half-way through the 20th century when they went somewhere they “don’t belong.”

This is not a column about gay marriage, nor is it a column about the values of homosexuals. This is a column about the value of diversity and its place on college campuses.

Not only have gays been told they’re going to hell, but so have Jews and non-Christians alike. This is college, and it is the most secure place in our society for competing viewpoints. If we allow a sect of our student population to condemn another to hell for their views, in their own living space, then what do we value as an institution?

My theory on life is simple: Live and let live. I believe any organization should be able to meet in first-year hall lobbies and express themselves, as long as they don’t limit others’ rights to self-expression. Gay people and straight people. White people and black people. Christian people and Atheist people.

I am a white, Christian, homosexual male, but I can say that I am comfortable with blacks, browns and greens. I am comfortable with males, females and everything in between. I am comfortable with Atheists, Muslims, Jews and Christians.

We are all intelligent individuals in college; let’s be comfortable with diversity. And I pray that one day, everywhere will be a “safe space.”

Price is a first-year journalism major and can be contacted at ryan.price@drake.edu.