Jan De La Torre fears for his life.

As a gay man and a person of color, he struggles every day as a double minority.

"Gay people of color exist," the international studies senior said. "We are not an invisible part of this minority."

Candles and the bright light of a full moon lit faces of a variety of races and ethnicities in front of the rock on Farm Lane on Tuesday night. Nearly 75 people stood holding white candles in the warm fall evening for the National Coming Out Days candlelight vigil.

The vigil commemorated lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender people of color and members of the LBGT international community. The vigil was part of a week of events at MSU intended to recognize and celebrate the lives of LBGT people.

"We have to be represented; our visibility has to increase," De La Torre said as he handed out small yellow ribbons, symbolizing solidarity. "The stories of LBGT people of color are unique - usually you only see stories of the white middle class Joe from the suburbs."

The vigil also was held in remembrance of a 15-year-old New Jersey resident named Sakia Gunn. She was murdered in May while on her way home from a trip to New York. She was approached by a group of men who propositioned her and her friends. When the men learned Gunn and the others were lesbians, a fight broke out, and she was stabbed to death in the chest.

The principal of Gunn's high school refused to hold a moment of silence for her, and although the media didn't report Gunn's death, they noticed hate crimes such as that of Matthew Shepard - a University of Wyoming student beaten to death five years ago because he was gay.

LaJoya Johnson, who organized the event, said society needs to be aware of people such as Gunn who are "a minority of a minority."

"There is no media attention about LBGT people of color," said Johnson, external vice president of the Alliance of Lesbian-Bi-Gay-Transgendered and Straight Ally Students.

"The vigil is very important to me because people die of hate crimes all the time, especially people of color," she said "People just don't know about it."

The group held a moment of silence for those killed by hate crimes, broken only by the hum of passing cars on Farm Lane and a train in the distance.

Society in general isn't the only reason LBGT people of color and international students are being ignored, alliance President Nat Furrow said.

"The LBGT community has basically ignored the incident of Sakia Gunn, which to me highlights the racism and classism within our community," she said.

Communication sophomore Rae Eli Marcus agreed.

"Multiple identities are so key because so often they get ignored," said Marcus, who attended the vigil for the first time this year. "If we don't address them as a community, there's no way society will."

TJ Jourian, LBGT Concerns intern, said he, too, has felt the "edge of a double minority." He extended the challenge into the LBGT community to be more accepting of all people.

"That will make us a all a lot stronger than we are today," he said.

A lot stronger and also more aware, De La Torre said.

"There are many more Sakia Gunns out there," he said. "They lost their lives because they are living their lives their way."

For more information on National Coming Out Days, call (517) 355-8286 or visit www.msu.edu/~alliance.

Shannon Houghton can be reached at hought27@msu.edu.