Shoulders to Stand On
One thing that I learned from viewing the Shoulders to Stand On documentary was how hostile the environment was for queer people even in what one might consider “liberal” spaces, such as the University of Rochester. I wonder how long it took for many university campuses such as ours to shift from hostile environments to more open-minded places with many queer people out and open about their queer identity. I also really liked learning about the queer radio shows and how many queer people remember them as their only source of queer media. I feel extremely lucky to have so much queer media at my fingertips.
From Perversity to Diversity
“From Perversity to Diversity” was an exhibit made up of art created by lesbian and gay students at the University of Rochester. Much of the art was objects and posters that were relevant to the LGB community at that time, such as sex toys, condoms, posters, badges, and items from the AIDS awareness movement. I decided to google the “university of rochester from perversity to diversity” and was able to find some citations of an article about the exhibit dated 1991. After learning about The Empty Closet in the documentary last class, I figured that said publication may have covered this exhibit. I googled “Empty Closet 1991” and up came The Empty Closet website with a database of all past issues. I looked through the issues from 1991 and after some browsing, I found the article “Perversity to Diversity’ Exhibit Causes Controversy at University of Rochester” on the first page of an issue from April of 1991.
-RF