Forum talks about gay relationships at U.

What happens when your best friend is gay? That was the question that members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance and the Greek Social Action Committee tackled in an open forum held at the Castle last night. About 30 students attended the event -- which was a part of Bisexual Gay Lesbian Awareness Week -- to talk about the challenges of "coming out" in college. And although the discussion covered many emotional and difficult topics, the students were generally upbeat and even broke into laughter once in a while. One woman spoke of her difficulty in telling her brother that she is a lesbian. She said whenever she brought up the subject with him, he brushed her off. "Just because he's brushing you off doesn't mean it's not registering," responded Bob Schoenberg, who coordinates bisexual, lesbian and gay programming for the University. Another student spoke about a close friend of hers who is a gay. "Watching her fall in love and go through all these things is just like any other couple," she said. LGBA co-chairperson Jodi Bromberg spoke about being bisexual and in a sorority and what it feels like to bring a woman to a formal or tell sorority sisters that she is bisexual. She said people often do not know how to respond when she talks to them about her sexuality. "When I come out to other people, they respond with these really personal things that I really didn't want to know," she said. Although the discussion went well, it seemed more members of the gay community participated at the event than Greek-affiliated students. "I'm disappointed that more Greeks didn't come," GSAC co-chairperson Roseann Cho. But the College junior added, "it was a positive experience." And most students said the discussion brought up a lot of important issues for gay students and their friends. "I thought it went very well," Jerry Gaylord, treasurer for Stanford University's LGBA, said. "I thought the panelists were very candid."