LGBTQ Experiences in US History

While watching the documentary “Shoulders to Stand on,” I learned how important the University of Rochester was to, not only to the LGBT community in Rochester, New York but also to the rest of the country. The documentary was an overall history of Rochester’s LGBT movement. In one part of the documentary, it talks about how the Todd Union building on campus was used for the University of Rochester Gay Liberation Front meetings. These meetings had many LGBTQ people from the all over the city of Rochester come together to try to find ways to decriminalize being gay, both politically and socially. A newspaper called “The Empty Closet” was also started as a source of information for many gay people, which included coming-out stories, health information, and news about the gay liberation movement. A radio show called “Lesbian Nation” aimed to reduce the isolation of gay people by allowing those who were either questioning their sexuality or not comfortable and “out of the closet” yet, to have access to hearing the gay radio program and helped them to know that there are other people like them all around the country.

 

“‘Perversity to Diversity’ Exhibit causes controversy at University of Rochester” was an article written by Susan Jordan and Michele Moore. The article explained how the on-campus gay art exhibit was shocking to most students and incredibly controversial. The research that I did to track down the date of when the article was written, was found by searching “University of Rochester Perversity to Diversity exhibit” in Google. The first thing to come up were those words in a section of a book (page 93) titled “Destabilizing Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debates” by Michèle Barrett and Anne Phillips. The line that helped me track down the date was when the author said “A few weeks before writing this…”, which I believe she was referring to the writing the book, so I looked to see when the book was published. It was published in 1992, so I assumed that exhibit must have come out in 1991, and that must have been when the “‘Perversity to Diversity’ Exhibit causes controversy at University of Rochester” article was written. 

 

 

“Destabilizing Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debates” by Michèle Barrett and Anne Phillips can be found at the following link:

 https://books.google.com/booksid=NgGRGDxEdNoC&pg=PA93&dq=University+of+Rochester+Preversity+to+Diversity+exhibit&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjx9rqg9unYAhWnRt8KHdHCBL8Q6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=University%20of%20Rochester%20Preversity%20to%20Diversity%20exhibit&f=false 

~BZ

In watching the beginning of the documentary, Shoulders to Stand On, in class, I was able to gain a better understanding of the immediacy of Rochester’s involvement, as both the city and the University, in the start of the gay rights movement. I learned that the UR students’ creation of the Gay Liberation Front entirely reflected the already divided political atmosphere in the 1970s with the Vietnam War. This was further emphasized when an interviewee commented on the “combative language” with the use of the word “front” in the organization’s title. According to those interviewed, the fact that the movement happened in concurrence with the Vietnam war actually made their fight easier. I also learned additional ways in which Rochester was at the forefront of the movement, such that the country’s first openly gay radio show, “Green Thursdays,” and the oldest openly gay newspaper, “The Empty Closet,” began there.

In looking for the date for the University’s “From Perversity to Diversity” exhibit, I first googled, “Perversity to Diversity exhibit at the University of Rochester.” Initially, I found a book, Femininity Played Straight: The Significance of Being a Lesbian, by Biddy Martin, which was published in 1996. In the chapter mentioning the University’s exhibit, Martin said, “A few weeks before writing this I had the opportunity to see an exhibit entitled, ‘Perversity and Diversity’ on the campus of the University of Rochester.” With that statement in mind, and the knowledge that the book was published in 1996, I knew it was likely that the exhibit was available for viewing a few years prior to the publication of the book, but that wasn’t an exact date. Going back to my initial google search, I then found another link about an artist, Cindy Smith, who was the curator of the exhibit. In her website’s bio section, which details the many exhibitions she has created singularly and in groups, lectures she has given, awards and grants she has received, and exhibits she has curated, UR’s exhibit’s date was listed as February of 1991.

The link to the book is: https://books.google.com/books?id=kTci6KBSJgYC&pg=PT103&lpg=PT103&dq=perversity+to+diversity+exhibit+at+university+of+rochester&source=bl&ots=2G47pRzld_&sig=JlobYz6zy85C2E_kNGMnpBIh_Dk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJjcq75eHYAhUEylMKHSTLBK8Q6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=perversity%20to%20diversity%20exhibit%20at%20university%20of%20rochester&f=false

The link to Cindy Smith’s website is: http://www.cindysmith.org/bio/ (It’s necessary to scroll nearly to the bottom of the page before coming across works she has curated.)

-MF