LGBT groups suffer from lack of legitimacy

BY KUSHAL DAVE

EUGENE WONG/YH

This connection—that gay and lesbian academics are equivalent to gay and lesbian social life—is one that Gordon is not so quick to make today. Earlier this semester, however, his colleague, Deputy Provost Charles Long, told the Herald that an office for an expanded gay and lesbian studies "will probably become a de facto gathering place" in lieu of a new student center. [YH 2/23/01] But does this relationship of compensation exist? Will the changes enabled by the recent $1 million donation from Arthur Kramer, SY '49, GRD '51, LAW '53, improve the general situation of gay and lesbian students at Yale? Or is the grouping of gay and lesbian students and studies a way for the Administration to get around accusations of neglect?

One thing the Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies (FLAGS) and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Co-op undeniably have in common is a lack of funds. FLAGS Chair Marianne Lafrance describes begging "on hands and knees" for money to bring professors here. And former Co-op Co-Coordinator Alex Kent, CC '01, similarly recounts "scrounging and begging" for money for student events.

These financial problems have their root in the status accorded to both groups by the Administration. Being a program instead of a department keeps interdisciplinary women's and gender studies (which contains lesbian & gay studies as a track) from becoming too constrained, Lafrance explained. But it is also prevented them from having ladder faculty and resources, thus undermining predictability and reliability. In fact, FLAGS almost ran out of funding until the Administration came to the rescue.

The Co-op faces a similar predicament. It lacks funding because it is treated as just another club instead of as the equivalent of an ethnic organization. "We basically feel the Co-op deserves funding, just like the cultural houses get funding," Kent explained. "I feel that we're not regarded as anything important."

Lafrance, however, suggests that cultural houses are analogous to gay dorms, which at one time were necessary but are now antiquated. "I think the idea is no longer viable," she said, pointing out that this presumption of homogeneity within groups leads to their ghettoization.

She does agree with the Co-op about the need for places for students to gather and advocates for them within the Administration. "Sexuality is a complicated issue," she said. "Any institution needs to have resources so that students do not feel that they are weird, that they are sick, that they are abnormal...Sometimes those who are literal minorities need to have some protection, someone who is willing to go to bat for them."

Emily Wills, TC '04, a Co-op co-coordinator, explained, "I'm in Trumbull, my Dean is gay, I didn't learn that until he introduced Curtis to us. I think it's great that that happens, but the fact is that if I had known that there is that resource there, it would have been better." She wishes that some Administrators would identify themselves and say, "`Yes, I'm gay, and I am a resource.'"

An academic department should be just one of many places available for "people who have traditionally been marginalized to call home," Lafrance suggested. With the Kramer initiative, then, it may be possible to attract more students and help them learn about their own sexuality. Gordon explained that the department gives interested students "an opportunity to think more deeply and more connectedly about gay and lesbian issues."

But with the department as small as it is, especially compared with more established programs like the one at Brown, the crossover between the academic and the social can actually be problematic. Kent explained that in the current FLAGS class, The Sociology of Heterosexuality, many of the students are part of a well-established social group and alienate the rest of the class. "If more gay and lesbian studies classes are offered, that won't happen," she said, since students with similar interests will not be concentrated into the same handful of classes.

Richard Silverstein, SM '02, who is in the FLAGS class, perceives lesbian and gay studies as having "to fight to prove themselves as legitimate academic fields." Kent even noted that some students are afraid to take "Intro to Gay and Lesbian Studies" because they fear having it listed on their transcripts. "The Sociology of Heterosexuality," meanwhile, was almost not approved as a course, and was listed in a national conservative magazine as one of the 10 most useless courses in America.

But the degree of interest in the FLAGS class from those who are not part of this clique suggests the potential that could be realized by a larger lesbian and gay curriculum. By drawing more students, gay and straight, to it, the field could heighten the perception of legitimacy. Yet while Women's and Gender Studies Chair Margaret Homans believes that the Kramer agreement is proof that Yale recognizes this as a "legitimate academic field," she does not predict that any classes will be added as a result of the money in the short term.

The situation remains a bit of a catch-22. Gordon maintained, "In terms of the enrollments that we've been attracting, we probably have an adequate number of faculty." But he also acknowledged, "Sometimes, if you add more faculty, you attract more students."

Wills, a double major in political science and women's and gender studies, said, "I think it's important to have a theoretical base to underlie any kind of intellectual discipline." What she would like to see is a change making it "not strange that I can quote queer theorists in my international relations classes" or "not weird to start sentences in classes with `I am a lesbian.'"

Wills thinks the key is to have one dynamic professor who will make students take classes in a subject they might not otherwise give a second glance, the same way that students who are not particularly interested in China take Jonathan Spence's class. But this goal requires permanent faculty.

On the other hand, Lafrance explained that the original Kramer proposal was unacceptable in part because it called for full professorships in lesbian and gay studies, which she thinks may be too constraining. In such a fast-changing field, she explained, Yale would not want to be saddled with professors who only cover one aspect of the discipline.

As gay and lesbian studies works toward legitimacy, is this respect passed on to gay and lesbian students? "Having lesbian and gay studies around gives us more validity," Kent noted, citing cases of professors working with the Co-op and Yale's gay community and the way that interest in gay and lesbian classes makes an impression on administrators. But there still seems to be some dissatisfaction; Wills expresses hope that the grant will help in "linking the kind of social change energies to the academic energies."

Lafrance derides any accusations that lesbian and gay studies have moved away from activism. But while she acknowledges that it took explicit activism to get cultural studies programs into the academy, she also suggests that Yale's hallmark is serious academics, instead of flashy projects that might be done elsewhere. The nature of the department is constantly evolving—women's studies was originally part of American Studies before branching off and adding gender studies. Homans says that the discussion on making lesbian and gender studies a separate program is "still an open question."

Even as academics develop, Co-op members insist that a better gathering place, akin to the Women's Center, would prove their legitimacy in the eyes of the Administration. Wills explains such space would be used to discuss difficulties that gay and lesbian students face, such as coming out, dealing with roommates and professors, and creating appropriate contexts for queer relationships on campus. Wills told of meetings overfilling their current location on Crown Street, while Kent described low attendance at other meetings because of the location's inconvenience. The Co-op also needs a place to store files and organize its programs. The request for a student center is particularly striking in light of a new LGBT center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Why does Will take studies in gay and lesbian studies? "I think it's very important to study oppression, and that's what most ethnic and women's studies-type things are about," she explains. "It's a study of oppression, it's a study of the use of power, it's a study of social change."

Yale's Administration, through the power of its purse strings, wields a great deal of control over both lesbian and gay students and lesbian and gay studies. "There is a difference between being in an environment that is permissive and an environment that is encouraging and active," Wills explained. "The way FLAGS and the Co-op are treated is evidence of the collective unconscious understanding of what the place of gay and lesbian students is...they are treated as periphery." 

Yuka Igarashi contributed to this article.

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