Student Government held a town hall style meeting allowing students and local residents to voice their opinions on a potential Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center Wednesday evening in senate chambers.

The meeting featured a panel of speakers that fielded questions and concerns from audience members.

Tom Stafford, vice chancellor for student affairs and panel member, addressed the audience and said “step forward and help us create the kind of community we desire,” as a precursor to the dialogue.

Stafford said the major challenge is to find resources, such as money, space and staff to move forward with the center.

Panel member Jose Picart, vice provost for diversity and African American affairs, identified the concrete goals involved in the progression of the GLBT Center.

Picart said the University is looking for space for the center and people willing to donate to help finance the “community.”

“We’re not building,” he said. “We’re looking for a space that already exists.”

Attendees voiced their opinions throughout the question and answer session of the meeting — some of them raising their voices at times.

Hannah Cheek, a sophomore in biological sciences, expressed during the meeting she doesn’t see how the building will create more awareness when only LGBT students will use the center.

“I don’t really know of many heterosexual people who are going to go to this building or attend these events,” she said. “I’m not sure this building is going to be the best way to spread this type of lifestyle.”

Stafford responded to Cheek, correcting her terminology.

“By the way this is not a lifestyle, it’s an orientation,” Stafford said.

Terri Peterson, a transgender, said the center is needed to bring awareness to the subject and “show people we’re not crazy.”

“We’re Christians just like you are, Muslims just like you are, or whatever,” Peterson said. “We did not choose to be this way.”

Brittany Farrell, a senior in economics, asked the panel about suicide rates among schools with centers and those without.

She claimed that there are more suicides at schools with GLBT centers and a section of the audience responded to her comments with applause.

“I’m actually still reacting to the applause to hate crimes,” Richard Tyler, a counselor at the Student Affairs Counseling Center and panel member, said following Farrell’s comment.

“How many suicides [are] too many?” Tyler said. “If one person dies, that’s too many. If one is threatened and feels threatened to the point of leaving this University, that’s too many.”

Another section of the audience applauded Tyler’s comments.

“I would hate to think we [are] waiting for another [Matthew] Shepard,” Deb Luckadoo, director of Talley Student Center activities and panel member, said in response.

Attendees brought up the topic of religion multiple times during the meeting.

Orrick Quick, a senior in parks, recreation and tourism management, asked the panel if it considered itself Christian.

“How can you build a center that supports that behavior?” Quick said.

Brian McNeill, a student in sports management, inquired about the lack of a Christian center on campus.

“They’re pushing so hard for a gay center, when are they going to push for a Christian center?” McNeill said.

Quick compared sexual orientation to race and gender.

“You choose it. You are not born a homosexual,” Quick said.

William Swallow, director of undergraduate programs in statistics and panel member, disagreed.

“I don’t personally think it’s a choice,” Swallow said.

Swallow referenced animals in nature that are homosexual.

“Nature loves diversity,” Swallow said. “Society has a problem with it.”

Harrison Gilbert, a senior in political science, said the meeting went as expected.

“I think the meeting was what we all expected it to be,” he said. “No one’s mind was going to change.”

David Foxx, a junior in political science, said the meeting was more of an argument than a discussion.

“Nobody here actually listened to each other,” he said. “This wasn’t a dialogue, it was a barking match.”