LGBTQ Experiences in US History

One of the objects from the Special Collections that we visited during our last class that I found most interesting was the dairy entries from a previous student at the University of Rochester. In his diary entries, this student described his interactions with transgender individuals in the Rochester community.   I think that the inclusion of this specific object in a public exhibit would be important because it may help show transgender experiences in the time frame that the diary was written, the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s. The diary also does a good job at showing the authors progression to meeting a transgender individual for the first time to learning more about transgender issues and attending and facilitating transgender forums at the University of Rochester. The author talked about specific transgender experiences such as an individual transitioning after marriage and what came along with the transition, in this case divorce. While these experiences are not told by a transgender individual, I still think it shows transgender experiences at the time. 

I think that throughout the LGBTQ movement, the movement has mainly been focused on white gay men rather than minorities or even individuals that identify as bisexual, transgender, gender queer, pansexual, etc. I think that this is displayed in both the policies that the LGBTQ movement has fought for an media representation of LGBTQ issues. For example, a big focus in LGBTQ policies has been in winning the fight for gay marriage. Meanwhile, minority members of the LGBTQ community have been fighting for simple rights such as the right to use the bathroom of their identified gender. Minority communities also face systematic racism which, with the possible stigma LGBTQ members may face, just makes it that much harder for individuals. Inclusion and representation is important for minorities in LGBTQ communities because it allows people who identify with those represented feel less alone and have a role model to look to.

 

The objects that were present at my table were a collection of articles that contained information about lesbians during the history of Rochester. One of the articles that I read was written in the campus times for the University of Rochester. The piece was deeply personal as the author reflected on her  experience as a lesbian at the University of Rochester at the time when the Gay Liberation Front was founded. She spoke about how she knew of some other lesbians because of word of mouth and that she had been hoping to find more at the GLF meetings but was unsuccessful because the majority of people at the meetings were always men. One of her biggest points, however, was that the reason that she had been unable to meet other lesbians was because they were all afraid to come out for some reason or another.  This fear stemmed from the fact that  they might not be accepted for who they were and was perpetrated, in some ways, by the lack of a group to represent them specifically.

The first part of the article that I read talked about how women didn’t show up to GLF meetings, possibly because they did not feel included in the meetings. One of the explanations for this exclusion could simply be in the naming of the group. By using the term “gay” as opposed to some all-encompassing term (LGBTQ+, queer, etc) the Gay Liberation Front could have made anyone who did not identify as “gay” feel as though they were not welcomed. This is an example of one of the simplest forms of exclusion that I have found throughout my life: using the term “gay” as an encompassing term for the LGBTQ+ community.  In my personal experience, my high school had a Gay Straight Alliance my freshman through junior years. Although it never prevented me from going to meetings, the fact that I was not represented in the name of a group that I felt as though I belonged in could have made me feel as though I was not supposed to be a part of that group. My senior year, the Gay Straight Alliance changed its name to the Gender and Sexuality Alliance. Because of this change, myself and other people who did not identify as gay could feel as though they were really represented by the group.

The Campus Times has apparently been a place to vent anger over the school’s oppressive systems for longer than I thought, with several editorial columns about such issues even back in the 1970s. I was particularly intrigued by a few articles from May 1971 decrying Eastman Dean Flora Burton’s homophobic policies. These articles were harshly critical both of Dean Burton’s threatening of students discovered to be having gay sex, and of the administration’s refusal to respond to these allegations. My impression had always been that this was not the kind of issue that earned a place in newspapers any time before the past two decades or so, and it was surprising to me to learn not only that it was talked about, but that people were able to be so vocal about it. I also thought it was very relevant to current events on campus—protests against racism, the sexual harrassment lawsuits, and so on—where we STILL see the administration’s refusal to enact actual beneficial change in response. If anything could be found, I would want to include with these something indicating whether any changes came about after these articles, or if the administration’s inactivity was just as pervasive back then.

Lack of inclusion is something that I, as a non-binary person, notice almost constantly in my everyday life. Our language is so deeply coded with binary-gendered speech that this exclusion is essentially unavoidable. I am always particularly aware of phrases people use that are meant to address everyone in an audience, but still depend on gender divisions—for example, when a crowd is addressed as “ladies and gentlemen,” or when the members of a group are spoken of as “brothers and sisters.” Even spaces where the existence of non-binary people is recognized frequently use expressions like these. Just the other day, I saw an intersectional feminist page comment about “support for our black brothers and sisters,” yet also posting about issues for non-binary people, which blatantly ignores that non-binary people of color do exist. This exclusion, of course, is only one part of it; beyond that there are issues of pronouns, “polite” terms of address (which are usually limited to “sir” or “ma’am”), and the fact that Hylan building has a small bathroom on each of its 11 floors and all of them are gendered.

An object that really stood out to me during our session at the Rare Books and Special Collections library was the little section in my article of the Empty Closet. My article was dated January 1975 Number 46, the small section in the newspaper was titled: “Transexual Murder.” I think that this piece is important and if we can find others like it, that they should be included in the exhibition for a few reasons. One, I think that it shows the progression of the LGBTQ movement and how trans people were not included in the moment originally. I think that highlighting this is important because its essential to show where the movement started and how far the movement has improved since then. Second, I think this piece and other like it are important because it generates questions about the trans population that is now included in the LGBTQ moevement as well as calls to question other forms of identity, such as class and race.

In the article, it tells the story of Leah Wilder, age 33 who was murdered off campus in the city of Rochester in 1975. Her story can be found only if you were to look through the paper carefully. I honestly glossed right over it the first few times I looked through it, and it was only pointed out to Raul and myself by Lina. I am glad that she did because, like I mentioned above, I think this article speaks to the importance to the trans movement and acceptance within the LGBTQ community. I tried searching for more information on Leah Wilder, but was unsuccessful in finding anything. One thing’s for sure, although there may be no record of her anywhere else, she will forever be remembered through this article. I am happy that I got the opportunity to learn a little about her.

Originally, I had a hard time thinking about a particular example of inclusion that left me unsatisfied. But after a little while of thinking, I think I felt this way last semester in one of my GSW classes. The reason why I felt this way was because during the class I was surrounded by people that were invested in learning about topics within my major but my peers did not take into consideration the fact that class and race play a factor into our discussions. I found myself constantly having to bring up issues of race and I found our conversations limiting to open discussion.

One set of items that stood out to me from Rare Books and Special Collections was the collection of articles on the distinct “Perversity to Diversity” art exhibits held at the University of Rochester in 1991 and 1992. This included the two Empty Closet articles on the original “Perversity to Diversity” exhibit assigned earlier in the class as well as a Campus Times article on a forum held to discuss the exhibit and another Empty Closet article discussing the sequel exhibit curated the following spring: “Perversity to Diversity: Gaze Again.” This set of articles resonated with me because they gave insight into: 1) the visceral negativity from the non-LGBTQ+ community in response to the original exhibit, expressed in comments referring to the exhibit as “sick” and “violent” and “degrading”; and 2) the choice of the LGBTQ+ community to make the sequel exhibit less bold in its depictions of their culture. I believe the inclusion of this collection would be important to campus and city communities because it illustrates just how lightly the LGBTQ+ community has been expected to tread in public even within the past two decades.

I recently attended the College Feminists’ production of The Vagina Monologues. The poster for the event included a disclaimer that anyone seeking disability accommodations for the event should contact the University Intercessor at least five business days in advance. I’m happy the College Feminists included this on their poster; but I’m markedly disappointed with the University’s required time frame to grant such accommodations. This is quite literally a message that anyone in need of accommodations on a decidedly inaccessible campus must make an explicit arrangement five business days in advance to exist on this campus. Why is this the case? Why is a university with such financial and labor resources unable to prioritize simple requests for accommodations with lesser notice? I don’t believe there’s a real lack of capability; I believe this simply reflects the belief that the disabled community is a burden and their needs are appropriately handled as a standard business transaction.

One particular article that stands out to me from the exhibit was one from the Democrat and Chronicle from the 1980s, titled “Wife Attempts to Save Marriage to Homosexual Husband.” The article details a woman named Debby asking Ann Landers, an advice columnist, for advice about how she married a man who later came out as gay. The detail that most stands out to me is how desperately she tried to change him, rather than divorce him outright. The article notes that Debby “stayed in that marriage six years anyway, thinking [she] could straighten him out.” Debby truly did love her husband, and desperately wanted to “fix” him, but it did not work. The tone Ann Landers responds with seems to feel very sorry for Debby; it was a most unfortunate mistake on her part to fall for her husband. In fact, she does not mention at all that her husband was struggling too: most likely trying as hard as he could to fit in and hide his same-sex attraction. While this lack of sympathy is not terribly surprising given the negative feelings for homosexuality in the ’80s, it does make me wonder: if the article were written today, would the advice really be any different? Though I’m not sure, I suspect the man’s position might still be ignored, even given improvement to the climate surrounding LGBTQ topics.

Although it’s been some time now, I wanted to bring up the film, “Hidden Figures,” from last year. The movie focuses on three brilliant African American women working for NASA during the earlier stages of the Space Race, exploring their struggle to get the recognition and respect they deserved. What left me feeling unsatisfied was not about the movie per se, but the fact that my prior education on the Space Race (and other similar scientific endeavors) seldom mentioned people of any minority at all. As Hidden Figures showed, there were plenty of non-white women working on the project, yet I was fully unaware of that prior to watching the film. In addition to race and gender, however, my education on non-heterosexual scientific figures is sadly lacking. Off the top of my head, the only such example I can think of is Alan Turing; no other examples come to mind whatsoever, which quite frankly makes me a little sad.

–AG

In the January 1975 edition of New Women’s Times, Barbara Britton published an article titled “Why I Am Angry.” It talks about Barbara’s experience with pushback from the administration of S.U.C (SUNY) Geneseo for writing an article in the campus newspaper about discrimination and hate crimes against LGBTQ people in the community. Originally, she had been summoned to the Dean’s office on the pretense of housing agreement infringements, but the conversation evolved into reprimands for her writing. The article starts with “Perhaps constant conflict from working in the Lesbian movement is trying to decide whether events against you are coincidental or whether the nature of the event is grounds for paranoia.” This specific quote stood out to me because it is something that queer people ask themselves every day. Is a perceived microaggression actually hostile, or is the perpetrator just uneducated? This piece might be important to include in an exhibit for two reasons. First, attention could be brought to the timelessness of that first sentence to show that, although progress has been made in the intervening four decades, some things are still the same. Also, the document has historic value by providing a snapshot of how gay people were treated in rural New York in the 1970’s.

Recently, an acquaintance of mine, an Asian American woman, tried to apply for a business internship at Morgan Stanley. The program is specifically for minorities, so one would think it would be very inclusive. However, she soon realized that the internship was not for Asian Americans. This might not have been such an issue had the internship not included practically every other racial minority, as well as LGBTQ people. This is frustrating to me because even something aimed specifically at minorities left out a very large portion of the minority population in the United States. They may have some logic for failing to include Asian as a category, but without justification it seems like a mistake or even intentional discrimination. I would like to see more care when creating minority programming, whether that be not letting careless slips like this through, or justifying them if they aren’t slips.

One object that stood out to me was the first edition of The Empty Closet from 1971. This item stood out to me because it related directly to the documentary, Shoulders to Stand On, that we watched in class. It also stood out to me because it was written by the University of Rochester Gay Liberation Front which consisted of UofR students who attended in January 1971. The authors of this object were people directly in my shoes, which made it stand out to me. The inclusion of this object in a public exhibition would be extremely important to campus communities because it allows for students to see the direct impact that their university had on the gay rights movement. To me, it was surprising to hear that Rochester, and more specifically the university, played such a role in the early days of the gay rights movement. Seeing this object on display can inform people of the important history of the university they attend.

In my everyday life I experience a lack of inclusion that has left me unsatisfied in the University of Rochester Greek life. I feel that Greek life consists of mostly white, straight, and cisgender people. Though I am white and cisgender, I am not straight and often feel left-out in this regard. However, I feel that Greek life poses more problems to many other people, especially people of color. I have had friends express to me that they feel that Greek life is not a safe-space for them and that they don’t belong in Greek life. I even had a member of my sorority who lives on the sorority floor with me receive hate messages outside of her door. I wish that the UofR would do something to make Greek life more inclusive, but also feel that something needs to be done on a national level to even make inclusion in Greek life somewhat possible.

An object that stood out to me during our session at Special Collections was the “NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt” from 1994.  I think that this object should be included in the public exhibition because I believe that it is a very important piece of our LGBT history and that it is our duty to remember those who have passed away in our community. I also believe that this quilt will help bring awareness about how dangerous AIDS is, and how important it is to take action to prevent the transmission of AIDS. I think that this piece could also be a really good reason to collaborate with Trillium Health in Rochester, NY on their resources for HIV prevention.

When it comes to remembering the AIDS epidemic, the LGBT community is always the first people who come to mind because it was our people who were affected by this disease, and it is also our community that is still at a higher risk of being infected with AIDS. Due to this being a predominantly LGBT health issue, heterosexual people usually are not as concerned about this history because it didn’t affect them as much. I believe that this quilt would help to show the heterosexual community that AIDS was an issue that also concerned their community because so many people knew of someone who was affected by AIDS and signed the quilt to remember them.

 

An example of inclusion that has made me feel unsatisfied was in a psychology questionnaire for the psychology of human sexuality. There were questions regarding sexuality and sexual activity, and one of the questions was “Have you ever had vaginal sex?” This question was very hard to answer because it was not specific, and I wasn’t sure if this question was being asked in the heteronormative sense, in which vaginal sex was solely the penetration of the vagina by a male penis. If this were to be true, which I was pretty sure that it was being asked in a heteronormative sense, then it would be completely erasing/invalidating lesbian sex (which does not involve a penis). Having surveys that are supposed to be acquiring as much information from the general public as possible in order to collect data and understand society, that completely ignores lesbians and causes them to question whether their sex is valid or not because it is not heterosexual is an example of why the inclusion of all groups is very important.

 

~BZ

In the ongoing battle over bathroom laws, Iowa Republicans  have just put forward a new bill, House File 2164, which would allow businesses and schools alike to discriminate against transgender people; it would block them from using the bathroom which matches their gender identity. Sandy Salmon, the bill’s representative, says that the bill is intended to “protect women and girls” by blocking potential sexual predators from entering the women’s bathroom.

This move comes despite mounting evidence that blocking people from using their preferred bathroom does not, in any way, reduce sexual assault. This social issue is interesting to me because it raises the point: Do the lawmakers truly believe they are protecting women? Or are they simply disguising their biasses against trans people?

#LGBTQexperiencesUSA #transphobia #BathroomBill

Source: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/02/01/iowa-just-introduced-an-anti-trans-bathroom-bill/

–AG