SECOND DEGREE: Out and About

The University has become a very hostile environment for some students recently. Rape, assaults, bomb scares and threatening phone calls, just to name a few, have all helped create an unsettling sense of apprehension on campus this year. But for many students at the University, threats and ostracism go beyond just those tangible crimes that are reported to the police each week. It remains a more on-going and pervasive sense that in the eyes of some students, faculty and administrators, certain students at the University do not belong. Lesbian, gay and bi-sexual graduate students face a host of problems and concerns every day during their stay here – problems which extend beyond the usual barrage all graduate students endure. · Elizabeth Clement, a graduate student in history, knows first-hand the unease students show when they encounter discussions of anything gay or lesbian in the classroom. "I think most students at Penn are terrified about it – talking about sexuality," Clement said. In one instance, she tried to get students in her Women and America class to analyze Carroll Smith-Rosenberg's landmark work "The Female World of Love and Ritual," an essay which examines female relations in the 19th century. Needless to say, her class, which consisted primarily of women, was reluctant at first to address the issues of lesbianism contained in the piece. "They could say why Jerry Falwell would hate it," Clement said. But after 25 minutes of dodging the key issue, and after threats of class not ending until someone could state the thesis of the argument, a student finally offered an answer. However, it was not as direct as Clement was hoping for. "Someone finally said that you might think that some of these women were lesbians," she said. "There was an incredible inability to engage the material." Clement had less of a problem in another class, where students studied an interview with Bayard Rustin, a gay adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr. While students were more forward in that discussion, Clement said she feels that some students were using race to distance themselves from the issues of sexuality, a result of of "identity politics." Clement said while she does not want her students be racist and homophobic, she does want them to speak their minds. "It's important to challenge people's assumptions by getting them to talk, to talk especially about the issue," Clement stated. · But introducing materials and coursework on homosexuality is not nearly as difficult as introducing one's own homosexuality. For a teaching assistant who must maintain some kind of power dynamic over students, coming out can be a difficult and complicated decision. Such a move can at times benefit a class, but can just as easily work against the TA. "There are a lot of reasons to be closeted," Clement said. "It depends on where you want to take your shit from. I have a hard time being inconsistent, by not living my life." Often revealing one's sexuality in the classroom depends on the course, the class and the context. "When I come out to class it's in the context of a discussion," Clement said. "In a lot of situations, though, I don't feel comfortable coming out – that is easier for me and sometimes lazier." Many lesbian and gay graduate students worry that by coming out, their students will see them not as a TA, but as their homosexual TA. Marc Stein, also a history graduate student, said friends advised him to stay closeted in class, since undergraduates have had so few gay authority figures. "I was told my students would look at me and not pay enough attention to the material," Stein said. Stein followed that advice for the first year. But later, he supplemented professors' lectures with those dealing with gay history. While Stein found most students attentive to his lecture, he said he was somewhat dismayed by their "very liberal" reactions – it is good that "gay people are studying their history." Stein said he feels this sentiment extends from the assumption that gay and lesbian material should not be of interest to everyone. Moreover, students often incorrectly assume that a TA is gay or lesbian if they introduce such material, or conversely if the TA is gay, all the material he or she studies pertains to gays and lesbians. "I don't want to encourage students that only gay people should study these issues," Stein said. Edward Kako, co-chair of Lambda Grads, will face these decisions when he becomes a TA in the spring. "I want to be able to have some sense of authority in the classroom," said Kako, a psychology graduate student. "But I don't want to compromise my own values in favor of keeping my students happy or attentive." Deciding to come out is just one decision. Lesbian and gay TAs also have to be concerned with something as trivial as what they want to wear. "I also have to think about how to deal with my students on a day-to-day basis," Kako said. "Do I wear a pink triangle, or change my style of dress?" Clement, who already seems to have made a decision, said she wears a pink triangle to class not for the straight people, but to let other gay people know that "we are everywhere and that some people feel safe enough to express that." Kako pointed out that professors and the way they structure their courses will also play a part in his decision. He said without support from a professor, bringing up issues of sexuality might seem "self-serving" in the classroom. · But being a TA is just one aspect of a graduate student's life. As gay and lesbian graduate students have dedicated their lives to scholarship, they often have to address their sexuality in the context of their fields of study. Marc Stein is writing his thesis on the history of gays and lesbians in Philadelphia. Stein says he came to the University to do research on gays and lesbians – something he was very up front about from the beginning, starting with his application. His research specifically addresses the relations between gays and lesbians in the city since the 1940s. Last spring he received the first ever award for research on gay and lesbian history. The Ken Dawson Award, sponsored by the Center for Lesbian and Gay studies at the City University of New York, pays $5,000 to its recipient. Stein said he finds the mere existence of such a prize encouraging. "This says something about how far the field has come to offer grants in the area," he said. Stein says the History Department has generally been supportive of his work in the field, especially the four faculty members sitting on his dissertation committee. "I think that Penn's History Department is pretty unique, but at the same time it's not really as comfortable a place as the English Department," he said. For Stein, being out has been an integral factor in his research. But for many students, their research often has nothing to do with being gay or straight – which means coming out can be a more complicated decision. "I'm out in my department, and that's a frightening thing," Clement said. "But it's hard not being out; that can be very painful." · Outside of classrooms and departments, gay and lesbian graduate students feel they face an environment of institutional prejudice. The University's relationship with ROTC and NROTC has been a particular and long-lasting point of contention with lesbian and gay students. Most students feel that the University is shying away from its obligations under the Anti-Discrimination Policy. The recent attention given to the "water buffalo" and Daily Pennsylvanian confiscation cases have, in the minds of many students, detracted from issues that are just as important. Andrew Nestler, a mathematics graduate student, said the University, by not enforcing the Anti-Discrimination Policy on ROTC, sends a message that "lesbian, gay and bisexual students are not as equally valued as straight students." Last year's decision, which allowed graduate students to live with anyone on campus, could be called a victory for lesbian and gay students, but Nestler feels the administration should be doing more. "We'd like to see a little more backbone and spine on the part of the administration," said Nestler, who is also the Lambda Grad representative to University Council and GAPSA. Many blame past University President Sheldon Hackney for the dilemma that Interim President Claire Fagin now faces. "Under Hackney, the University openly embraced a policy of permitting a discriminating agency to operate on campus," Stein said. Kako said he wants the University to come to a decision on ROTC that will provide an acceptable adherence to the Anti-Discrimination Policy and still provide benefits to ROTC students. Kako doesn't blame individual administrators, but feels that as a group, they create a "bureaucratic abyss" which over and over swallows up the concerns of lesbian and gay students. "The main concern is just freedom to be who you are and freedom of expression without the threat of violence," said Nestler.