The DeRosa University center ballroom gets engulfed in laughter and indistinct chattering as hundreds of students file into it. These students, though seemingly happy, are united by a history of pain and violence. As a community, they have been bullied, isolated, harassed and belittled both by society and the law.

Through the daily struggles of discrimination, this community has remained one of the most inclusive and supportive minority group in the nation. This is the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex and asexual community, also known as LGBTQIA.

Between Feb. 21 through Feb. 23, the University of the Pacific in Stockton hosted a LGBTQIA conference for high school and college students.

The conference was open to all members and allies of the gay community and was attended by various Spectrum and Gay Straight Alliance clubs, including the Moorpark College Spectrum Club.

The conference was titled “Reconstructing the Rainbow: Building a Brighter Future.” Besides encouraging students to engage and network with each other, the conference sought to “strengthen your identity and have pride for being a member of the LGBTQIA community,” according to their website.

The topics covered everything from creating community leaders to bringing awareness to gays in non-mainstream communities.

“Being gay has a different cultural context in every culture,” Matthew Bohm, 18, club treasurer said.

The convention brought light to a big problem within LGBT community of inter-gay intolerance.

“Discrimination in any form is still discrimination,” said Bohm.

This is a natural occurrence through any community, said club secretary Meghan Karch, 20.

“It’s inevitable because there will be people who want to seal themselves off,” Karch said.

“The discrimination from other gays feels a lot like the discrimination LGBT people have faced from the straight community,” Bohm said. “It’s all the same problem.”

One of the caucuses offered was based on the “fringe” communities of LGBT, which are generally discriminated against. It was specifically set up so that everyone could be included and was not moderated, but was left for the students to lead, according to Bohm.

The more mainstream LGBTQIA communities were reached through the leading speeches. Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, gave the key note address. Matthew Shepard is a “gay icon” according to The Recorder, and is held as a community symbol of the violence they are experiencing.

Shepard was a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming when two young men abducted him, according to the Matthew Shepard Foundation website. The men tied Shepard to a split rail fence where they battered him with the butt of a pistol. He was found shortly after midnight and died on Oct. 12, 1998, surrounded by family.

Shepard’s parents started the Matthew Shepard Foundation with the goal to “replace hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance.”

In 2009, the foundation played a large role in creating and implementing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act. This strengthened and expanded the government’s power in prosecuting any violent crimes (resulting in physical injury) based on the victim’s race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or sexual identity.

“No one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love,” President Obama said in a speech after signing the bill.

Matthew’s mother, and foundation owner, spoke to the attendees in Stockton about the importance of changing society for the better. Many of them are around the same age as her son when he was attacked.

“We have to keep this from happening again,” Bohm said.

The Moorpark Spectrum club is planning on using the lessons they received as part of a presentation during multicultural day, in hopes of bringing awareness and equality to the students of Moorpark College. They are hoping to spread the feeling of unity from the convention to the campus at large.

“It’s not just gay rights; it’s human rights,” Bohm said.

The club executives are available upon teacher request to share what they learned at the conference, as well as their personal experience with the LGBTQIA community. Teachers can contact the club’s supervisor, Sally Ponce-O’Rourke, at [email protected].