Lesbians discuss their struggle

The increasing public presence of lesbian women in several domains of personal and professional achievement became the focus of a Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Awareness Days symposium presented by the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Academic Union on Saturday in the Annenberg School. The event encompassed many different aspects of society, with each of the four speakers discussing a specific area. Event moderator and Social Work Professor Yvonne Williams introduced each speaker before they began their individual speeches. Sue Rankin, a former women's softball coach at Penn State University, spoke about athletics. She read many accounts of lesbian women athletes and coaches who had either been discriminated against or remained closeted for fear of discrimination. She also told the audience about one of her colleagues at Penn State who was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer as saying that "no lesbians" was a rule of success for her team. Rankin said she was infuriated when Penn State did not take actions against her colleague for her comments and resigned as a result, deciding that she had put up with enough harassment. She is currently working as the lesbian head of a diversity group at Penn State that hopes to promote awareness and provide support for other members of the lesbian, gay and bisexual community there. Roey Thorpe, a doctoral student in history at SUNY Binghampton and a City Council member in Ithaca, NY., has been an activist for lesbian, gay and bisexual rights. She told the group that she ran as an "out lesbian" against the heterosexual wife of the local fire chief -- and won. Thorpe said her involvement as a lesbian council member has changed the way she thinks about presenting herself in public. "One of the most important parts of my job is to frame the way things get talked about," Thorpe said, describing how she has worked to improve relations between the police and the gay and lesbian community. As a council member, Thorpe does lament that she no longer has time for activism. "I did not aspire to be a politician," she said. "But it is necessary that people who have the language, perspective and experience to speak about issues, stand by them." The third speaker was the Rev. Irene Monroe, an ordained minister and Harvard Divinity School doctoral student. An African-American lesbian minister in a black church, Monroe began with the statement "I am not alone." She explained that it was "very, very hard" for her to come out as a gay person in the black community. "We've had enough struggles to be seen as whole people," Monroe said. "Black homosexuals are sometimes regarded as dangerous because homophobia in the black community could weaken the movement towards racial liberation." Monroe, who founded a religious support group for black lesbians, said she believes that the black church is largely controlled by black male supremacy, similar to white male supremacy. She recently obtained her congregation's support in a march for gay pride. The fourth speaker, novelist Sarah Schulman, explained that although not religious, she was on the "same train" as Monroe in pursuing visibility by remaining strong in her identity. "Lesbianism is not viewed as poetic," Schulman said. "There is a minority hold who controls the voice of American Lit." She explained that she is currently trying to apply political business tactics to cope with the incredibly technical side of publishing. However, she said she refuses to change her content to fit other peoples ideas of what she should write.