Masters, LGBT Co-op decry homophobic posters

JULIA TIERNAN/YH LEARN BY EXAMPLE: Instead of allowing derogatory posters to stifle their effors, LGBT Co-op members used them to expose homophobic sentiments among Yalies.

When Maya Gideon, MC '02, walked out of Connecticut Hall at 3 a.m. on Wed., Mar. 31, she found Old Campus covered in hot pink posters with small black triangles. These posters mocked this week's "Gay Pride Week," calling instead for weeks that celebrated each of the seven deadly sins--like "Sloth Week," "Envy Week," "Avarice Week," and so on.

Meanwhile, Margot Meitner, BR '00, took a 3:30 a.m. study break and noticed that these same signs plastered the walls in Branford's entryways. By 4 a.m., Gideon and Meitner, both Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Cooperative (LGBT Co-op) members, had coordinated an effort to
tear down the posters that an anonymous group had hung in every residential
college. "I was asleep when this was happening, but I know that Maya and Margot and about five others tore down as many posters as they could. They got most of them," Co-op member Katherine Kramer, CC '01, said.

Pride Week co-coordinator Tassi McKay, TD '00, heard about the event the next day. She decided that it was important to bring it up at a rally held in front of Sterling Memorial Library on Wed., Mar. 31, organized to demand increased LGBT funding, a LGBT freshman counselor, and a LGBT student dean. "The posters are tangible evidence of homophobia on campus," McKay said.
"Just imagine waking up in your own residential college home and seeing hate signs aimed at you."

Morse Master Stanton Wheeler also thought that it was important to alert people to the homophobic postering. While the rally went on in from of Sterling, he wrote an impassioned e-mail to all Morse students. "While there is plenty of room on a college campus for legitimate expressions of diverse beliefs about matters as sensitive as religion and sexuality, there is no place for unsigned and hence irresponsible spewing of hatred," he wrote. "Do remember that a very few sick individuals can spread a massive amount of hatred through posters and such devices."

On Thurs., Apr. 1, Berkeley Master Harry Stout, Chairman of the Council of Masters, issued a press release on behalf of all the college Masters that echoed Wheeler's sentiments.

Meanwhile, many Co-op members stressed that the posters are indicative of pervasive feelings of homophobia on campus. "This is not an isolated incident," Co-op member Daniel Lang, PC '99, said. "It was a visible, well-organized, and well-funded homophobic attack. But there
is systematic and long-standing harassment on the campus. This might have been
the most visible attack, but it wasn't
the most hurtful and it wasn't even so
surprising."

Pride Week co-coordinator John Pluecker, ES '00, said that the postering is proof that Yale still has a long way to go before queers are accepted. He argued that Yale should group cases of harassment based on sexual orientation separately from other cases of harassment, the same way it does for race or gender harassment cases.

"Why on earth is there no grievance board and no efficient procedure in the Yale regulations dealing with harassment based on sexual orientation?" Pluecker asked. "Why is this type of harassment grouped with all forms of sexual assault and brought before Ex-Comm in the same way?"

McKay added, "In a weird way, the posters helped serve our purposes. It proved that homophobia is alive and well and that's hard to prove. Maybe now people will be more willing to listen to the other LGBT demands."

College Masters seem more concerned, however, about the anonymous character of the attacks. "I don't want to get into the politics of the event," Branford Master Steven Smith said. "I think that the message sent was wrong. It's upsetting that no one is identifying him or herself. It is inappropriate. If people have strong opinions, they should stand by them."

Still, students and Masters both agree that it's going to be hard to figure out who was behind the posters."I talked to [Calhoun] Master [William] Sledge about the event. We agreed that we would love to figure out who did it, but that we probably won't be able to," Kramer said. "The posters were unsigned and no saw anyone hanging them up. So what can we do?,"

Algeria Aljure contributed to this
article.

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