Queer News on Campus- June 7, 2011

1) Eurekalert; Unprotected sex more likely in serious gay relationships

2) Inside Higher Ed; Agents, Diversity, Service Learning

3) Arizona Republic; Community college seek funding for scholarships for gay students

1) Unprotected sex more likely in serious gay relationships

Maria Paul; June 1, 2011

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/nu-usm060111.php

CHICAGO --- Gay young men in serious relationships are six times more likely to have unprotected sex than those who hook up with casual partners, according to new Northwestern Medicine research.

The findings provide a new direction for prevention efforts in this population who account for nearly 70 percent of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in adolescents and young adults in the United States and who also have the highest increase in new infections.

"Being in a serious relationship provides a number of mental and physical health benefits, but it also increases behaviors that put you at risk for HIV transmission," said Brian Mustanski, associate professor in medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and lead author of a paper on the research, published online in the journal Health Psychology. "Men who believe a relationship is serious mistakenly think they don't need to protect themselves."

About 80 percent of gay young men who are HIV positive don't know it, because they aren't being tested frequently enough, he noted. "It isn't enough to ask your partner his HIV status," Mustanski said. "Instead, both people in a serious, monogamous couple relationship should go and receive at least two HIV tests before deciding to stop using condoms."

The new Northwestern research shows HIV prevention programs should be directed toward serious relationships rather than the current focus on individuals who hook up in casual relationships.

"We need to do greater outreach to young male couples," said Mustanski, who conducted the research when he was at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "This is one population that has really been left behind. We should be focusing on serious relationships."

To help reach this group, Mustanski plans to produce two videos for gay youth this summer that discuss having healthy relationships and HIV prevention. The videos will be available on www.impactprogram.org.

The study findings dovetail with recent Centers for Disease Control data showing the majority of HIV transmissions occur in serious relationships. Being in a committed relationship more strongly influenced whether a gay man had unprotected sex than using drugs with a partner, the latter doubling the risk. A new shift to focus research on committed gay couples is partly a result of the burgeoning same-sex marriage movement, Mustanski said.

The Northwestern study looked at the behaviors of a diverse population of 122 young men (16 to 20 years old when the study began) over two years in Chicago and the suburbs. The men are a subset of participants in Mustanski's ongoing longitudinal study on the sexual and mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth. The study, named Project Q2, is the longest running longitudinal study of LGBT youth ever conducted.

Studying the health of sexual and gender minorities has become a new priority for the federal government. In March, the Institute of Medicine issued a report stating researchers need to engage LGBT populations in health studies.

To meet that goal, Northwestern has just entered a partnership with the Center on Halsted, the largest social service center in the Midwest for the LGBT community. Mustanski's research program on the sexual and physical health of sexual minorities – called the IMPACT Program-- will now reside in the Center on Halsted, which has a large HIV testing program and youth program. The move will facilitate research with the LGBT community.

"This collaboration gives us a chance to learn from the staff of the Center about emerging issues in the community, so that we can make those issues a research priority," Mustanski said. "And we can share our latest findings on prevention and healthy relationships with the staff, so they can immediately apply that to their services. There is a lot that we can learn from each other."

"We are thrilled to have the IMPACT program at Center on Halsted," said Modesto Tico Valle, the chief executive officer of the Center. "LGBT people are often excluded from major research endeavors, and IMPACT's focus on our community's health and development is vital. By embedding itself in the Center, IMPACT will have firsthand access to a diverse array of LGBT people to inform their research. We, in turn, have an invaluable opportunity to put IMPACT's research findings into practice, improving our programs to better meet the needs of our clients."

2) Agents, Diversity, Service Learning

Elizabeth Redden; June 6

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/06/06/international_educators_discuss_use_of_agents_gay_students_and_other_issues

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- The annual NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference, which concluded Friday, featured a variety of panels on issues pertaining to international student recruitment and admissions, international student advising, and study abroad. Throughout the weeklong conference, the longstanding debate about the ethics of using agents in international recruiting remained in the spotlight, and on Friday panels focused on such subjects as strategies for better supporting gay international students and the growth and academic content of service learning abroad.

(Follow Link to see Full article)

Supporting Gay International Students

At a Friday morning session, Tina Hatch, an adviser in the International Student Services office at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, presented findings from a survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender international students at her institution. Many of these students are coming out while in the United States: while only 8.33 percent of respondents described themselves as openly gay around most people when they first entered the country, 29.17 percent described themselves as such at the time they took the survey.

These students, said Hatch, are dealing with typical cultural adjustment issues as well as issues specific to their LGBT identities – concerns about how they would be perceived or accepted in their home countries and questions about whether to come out, and when and where and with whom they can be out here in the United States. They also have questions about immigration issues for themselves and their partners. The majority (70 percent) believed that life as a LGBT person would be easier for them in the U.S. than at home. They cited as top reasons for this the different culture and beliefs of the U.S. (67 percent) and the fact that they are away from family and friends (53 percent).

Only 25 students from Madison responded to the survey, but Hatch said she felt comfortable with that number given that a previous study on this topic, conducted by Nadine Kato in the late 90s, was distributed to 170 institutions and received 59 student responses. Hatch said her findings mirrored Kato’s with one significant exception: Kato found that international LGBT students felt most comfortable with American gay students, while in Hatch’s survey only two international students reported feeling a great deal of connection with the larger LGBT community on campus. Half felt slight or no belonging to this group.

Of the students who responded to Hatch’s survey, 16 were male, and 9 female. They came from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Canada, and Central and South America. Among Hatch’s findings:

·       The majority of students were out to friends in their home country or their American friends, while only seven of 25 were out to their parents, and eight of 25 to other family members.

·       Students expressed the greatest sense of belonging in their academic department or major, followed by among international students in general, followed by among people from their home country.

·       One in four students said they felt more comfortable being open about their sexual identity with American friends, while only one in three felt “about as comfortable” being out with friends from their home country as with Americans. More than one in five students did not feel comfortable being out with any group at all.

·       Students expressed fears of being discriminated against in the visa process, and frustration with current U.S. immigration laws, which do not grant equal rights to same-sex as to heterosexual partners. Students wrote comments such as, “I have been in a relationship with my American boyfriend for over three years and decided to get [a] legal marriage. If U.S. admit [sic] gay marriage, I could have got a green card, but since it doesn’t, we decide to move to Canada.” Another student wrote: “I have fears. I have an American partner. We live together and we have planned our lives together. Many times I have worried about my immigration situation. It’s so easy for an [sic] heterosexual international student to legalize his/her immigration status by marrying the person she/he loves. I can’t do that. I fully depend on finding a job in order to stay in the United States.”

·       Students also expressed concerns about returning home. As one wrote, “I’m afraid that I will go right back into the closet. There really isn’t any reasons [sic] I should need to, but it’s probably the fear of rejection from my family, or even just a general reflex to hide it, since I’ve grown up doing that.”

Hatch and her co-panelists presented ideas for better supporting LGBT international students, such as posting resources for LGBT students on the international student Web site, incorporating LGBT content in international student orientations and programming, and supporting students in applying for extensions of B2 (tourist) visas for their same-sex partners. “And, in terms of your office space, do you display anything that would suggest it’s a safe environment and communicates support, even if the student is not out?” Hatch asked. She noted that since administering the survey and increasing the visibility of her office’s support for LGBT students, five have come to her specifically to talk about coming out.

3) Community college seek funding for scholarships for gay students

Karen Schmidt; June 6

http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/2011/06/06/20110606community-colleges-seek-funding-scholarships-gay-students.html

To a young gay person whose family has refused emotional and financial support, getting a college education may seem impossible, according to those raising money for a new Maricopa Community Colleges scholarship.

"I've had students that during middle of the semester their parents found out they were gay and kicked them out of the house," said Dale Heuser, a professor at Paradise Valley Community College and faculty adviser for the PVCC chapter of the Gay-Straight Alliance. "They are immediately looking for a job and a place to live. Their world has been turned upside down overnight."

Fundraising is under way for the Out and Up Scholarship for LGBTQ - lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning - youths who are no longer welcome at home and have no financial or emotional support from family.

Each scholarship will cover up to $5,000 of the cost of tuition, books and fees for up to 60 credit hours, said Julie Roberts, a consultant working with Maricopa Community Colleges to raise funds for the scholarships.

The scholarships will be awarded beginning with the fall semester. Scholarship applications are being reviewed, Roberts said.

Those eligible for the Out and Up scholarship must be a disenfranchised LGBTQ person younger than 25 who is taking at least nine credit hours per semester, Roberts said.

The scholarship "has the flexibility to meet the needs of someone trying to support themselves," Roberts said.

Heuser said finding a way to support oneself often takes precedence over education for gay students whose parents have kicked them out of their homes.

"School becomes a lower priority when your priority is 'Where is my next meal going to come from?' " Heuser said.

Many gay youths end up living on the streets after being kicked out of their homes, said Madelaine Adelman, co-chairwoman of the Phoenix chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

"Parental rejection . . . can lead to homelessness, which means they often have a hard time getting to school," Adelman said.

Roberts said when her daughter's high-school friend came out to his parents, they tossed him out.

"He was a smart boy, he wanted to be an architect, and all of a sudden he's not going to college," Roberts said. "He did poorly in school, so he wasn't eligible for scholarships. Just because of who he is."

About $85,000 has been raised of the $200,000 needed to fund the scholarships, Roberts said. Anyone wishing to make a contribution to the scholarship fund can do so at www.maricopa.edu.

The scholarship will not only help the students who receive it but could have a positive effect on the community as well, Adelman said.

"I think it's a real point of pride when a community cares," Adelman said. "Every donor can be part of this sense of pride."

In addition to providing financial support, Adelman said, the scholarship sends the message to LGBTQ students that "you exist, you matter and the community cares."

Queer News on Campus- June 1, 2011

1) Campus Progress; The lives of gay and lesbian cadets at the United States Service Academies

2) The Bottom Line; UCSB Respect Coalition host alternative Horowitz event

3) The Daily Princetonian; Reunions: LGBT alumni address challenges, hopes

1) The lives of gay and lesbian cadets at the United States Service Academies

May 25, 2011; Eric Randall & IIana Seager

http://campusprogress.org/articles/the_lives_of_gay_and_lesbian_cadets_at_the_united_states_service_acade/

This past year, Ben, a cadet at the Air Force Academy, began seeing more of his classmate Tania. About three months ago, the two were chatting in Tania’s dorm room, and Ben made an admission.

“Hey, I really like you,” Ben said.

As a woman at a school with an overwhelmingly male student body, Tania had likely encountered this situation before. But she quickly replied to Ben with a confession of her own.

“It’ll never work out between us,” she told him. “I’m a lesbian.”

At a U.S. Service academy where “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) is law, Tania made a shocking and risky move. (Because this article went to press before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” went into effect, cadets' names have been changed to protect them.)

Since 1994, when President Clinton lost his fight to repeal a WWII-era law banning gay, lesbian, and bisexual citizens from serving in the military, his compromise—“don’t ask, don’t tell”—has required them to remain silent about their sexual orientation. Since the policy’s introduction, the military has discharged over 13,000 troops for violating it, 261 of them in 2010 alone.

In coming out, Tania took a leap of faith that Ben would keep her secret. In fact, Tania’s trust gave Ben the confidence to reveal something he’d never told any of his fellow cadets: He has sex with men.

Though Ben was comfortable with this side of his identity, he never brought it with him to school. Now Tania was able to introduce him to a small network of gay classmates who had confided in each other after arriving at the academy.

Ben and Tania form by no means the first or the only community of gay cadets at a United States Service academy, and their luck in finding one another should not discount the larger culture of repression bred under the policy dictating their conduct at school. But the many quiet friendships between gay peers and their allies that have formed in recent years indicate a growing tolerance among members of our generation enrolled in military schools. While gay, lesbian, and bisexual cadets said they do not expect the upcoming repeal of the policy to create an immediate culture of openness and tolerance, they predict much of the military’s next generation will be ready to accept queer service members.

Ben wanted to go to the Air Force Academy long before he started questioning his sexuality. He grew up in the Philippines for 11 years, but when his mother passed away, his father, a U.S. Air Force veteran, moved him to America. He toured the Air Force Academy campus in his sophomore year of high school and knew it felt right.

In his senior year, he moved out of the Catholic school system and into a public high school in Colorado, where he began questioning his sexuality. One day while he was working at his school library, a classmate invited him to join the men’s swim team. After practice one afternoon, the friend offered him a ride home but instead drove to his own house. Parked in the driveway, the friend confessed his attraction to him. That was the first time Ben had sex with a guy.

Ben continued experimenting with men throughout that year, but he was determined not to let this stop him from joining the military.

Ben wasn’t the only high school student who weighed family tradition and a sense of patriotic duty more heavily than sexual orientation when choosing a school. Samantha, now a second-year cadet at the Coast Guard Academy, was president of her high school’s gay-straight alliance and went into the college application process without any doubt she was interested in women. When her parents told her she would have to pay for her own college education if she wanted to “live that way,” she started to consider the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., which, like all service academies, fully funds its cadets.

“I really like the mission of the Coast Guard Academy,” Samantha said by phone from New London this February. “I always wanted to do something that helps people every day.”

Eleanor, 19, now a second-year cadet at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., was set on the military even earlier. Her father, an Air Force veteran, raised her to put others before herself—a quality that prepared her for military service.

“I wanted to make a difference,” she said. “If I had to sacrifice some of my personal freedom, then I was okay with it.”

She came out to a few friends in her junior year of high school and later took heart in the fall of her senior year, when Barack Obama won the presidency, that he would repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

But by the time Eleanor, Ben, Tania, and Samantha reported for basic training, no repeal had come. In President Obama’s first year in office, LGBT issues, including the repeal he had promised during his campaign, fell by the wayside as health care took center stage.

When she reported for duty at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Yale junior Katie Miller found hiding her earlier life as an openly gay high school student more difficult than she anticipated. She assumed the DADT policy would provide her with privacy and her classmates would not ask her about her romantic life.

She said: “Naturally, people just inquired about whether I left someone at home. And that’s when I started making up lies. At first I said, ‘No, I’m not seeing anyone,’ but that was the absolutely wrong decision to try to avoid inquiries and romantic approaches from male cadets. And then later on I would say I was in a relationship with a boyfriend named Chris—I was dating a girl named Kristen, so I played the gender pronoun game. And then it started becoming an active portrayal of someone I wasn’t. It wasn’t just a ‘live and let be’ sort of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ I needed to actively lie to protect myself.”

Chase, 19, now in his second year at the Air Force Academy, noted he had an easier time keeping his sexuality private in his first few months. Basic training kept him so busy and physically exhausted he often didn’t think about the situation he’d put himself in until he lay in bed. When his new classmates shared sentiments about their significant others, he felt powerless to participate, despite having left his boyfriend at home when he came to the academy.

Through freshman year, the pressure grew greater. Chase listened to his peers discuss the national debate over DADT and heard some classmates express vehement opposition to the policy’s repeal. While out on a run with a close female friend in his squadron, he broke down crying and came out to her.

“She was really supportive,” he said. “We talked about how I could find people to talk to when I needed to that weren’t in my chain of command.”

At Coast Guard, Samantha also looked for safe people to talk to about the stress she was feeling during her first year at the academy. During boot camp, she was ready to quit the academy altogether. She came out to the chaplain who, she was surprised to find, rather than turn her in, helped her cope with her anxiety and convinced her to stay.

The chaplain was the first of several allies and gay peers Samantha would eventually find at the academy. Her meeting with the chaplain marked the beginning of her growing understanding that even in the repressive environment of military service, an underground of gay cadets and their supporters provided a safe space.

“It’s an underground movement. There’s not a designated area to eat or team to join,” she said of the Coast Guard Academy culture. “Certain people know about each other, but the pockets aren’t fused together.”

“I got lucky and met a good group of people,” she added.

Many lesbian cadets reported that they came together on sports teams. Because sports teams often travel to meet other teams, gay team members have used them to reach out to surrounding colleges for social activities and support, a number of cadets said. With romantic relationships between cadets at different academies, ties have strengthened, making gay life at the academies, particularly for women, centered around but not restricted to sports teams. Some teams even have reputations among the student body for attracting gay students.

At Air Force, Eleanor went to a meeting for the rugby team. Within a couple of weeks, some teammates asked her directly if she was gay, and when she told them yes, they immediately took her under their wing.

Katie said the West Point rugby team has become a safe space for lesbian cadets as well. During basic training, Katie’s “gaydar” alerted her to a fellow female cadet in her company she immediately knew was queer. Though the tightly scheduled life of the academy left little time to talk to friends, Katie found a quiet hour one Sunday to ask the cadet about her sexuality.

“It was really risky, but it worked out okay,” she said.

From there, the girls’ friendship developed. They both ended up joining the women’s rugby team, and while members of the team initially weren’t comfortable talking about sexuality, Katie and her friend eventually forged a comfortable community for themselves there.

The Internet is another mutual support network queer cadets use to connect with one another, though this avenue is sometimes barred. Eleanor said at the Air Force Academy she cannot access any LGBT-related websites. As a result, Facebook has become one of the strongest forms of communication LGBT cadets have, and undergraduate groups of gay cadets have formed on the site.

OutServe, an underground network of actively serving LGBT service members created by an Air Force officer, went public in July 2010 and has since grown to include about 3,000 members, over 60 of whom are cadets from the Coast Guard Academy, Air Force Academy, Naval Academy and West Point. Within the organization, there is a chapter dedicated to the service academies that allows cadets to discuss issues such as the repeal of DADT. The chapter gives cadets a way to meet other LGBT cadets and servicemembers—and realize they are not alone anymore.

Eleanor emphasized she had been lucky to stumble upon a group of friends that could support her at the Air Force Academy. Students who have yet to find other gay cadets would likely portray their experiences at the academy differently. Aside from these small wells of support, the more predictable culture of a military academy still reigns supreme.

While most of the cadets interviewed said that many peers are as liberal on gay issues as our generation at large is, there are still a lot of cadets with strong anti-gay feelings.

“Every single time I had to put up with a derogatory comment,” Katie said, “I could feel my teeth clenching. It became a struggle to be silent. I care very much about the military, but I realized that this was so wrong and that I wasn’t okay with it. I didn’t think I was going to be able to stomach this kind of cognitive dissonance that was emerging.”

Katie, of course, famously decided to come out publicly via the “Rachel Maddow Show” in August 2010. Since then she has accepted a discharge from West Point, transferred to Yale, and helped lead a national campaign for DADT’s repeal.

Katie’s arrival at Yale coincided with a larger push for repeal among Democrats and activists. Despite Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) protests that not enough was known about the impact of the policy’s repeal on military morale and general function, a report published by the Pentagon in late November 2010 found overturning DADT would have a very low risk of disrupting service. Though passage of a repeal looked unlikely heading into the November midterm elections, the lame duck Congress mustered enough bipartisan support to pass the repeal, which President Obama later signed into law on December 22, 2010.

Though the repeal will not take effect for several months, gay cadets greeted it with understandable joy. (Because of a provision in the new law, the repeal cannot actually go into effect until the president, Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attest in writing to the consistency of its implementation strategy with standards of military readiness and effectiveness.) Most of them were home on leave for winter break.

Remembering the day she found out that the repeal had passed, Eleanor said she had to duck out of a family meal in order to respond with enthusiasm to a text message from a friend telling her the news. (Eleanor is not out to her family.)

“I always felt like I was hiding,” she said. “Now it’s not open, but it’s less scary. The reality is definitely starting to strike us now.”

Since the policy’s repeal, academies have sent out a rush of information to help students understand the changes they will face. At the Air Force Academy, students received an email listing the top ten things Air Force cadets need to know about the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The list establishes that commanders should not ask students about their sexual orientation, and that students face no repercussions should a commanding officer find out they are involved with someone of the same sex. The list also confirms that gay, lesbian, and bisexual Airmen and women have equal opportunity for service and protects them from harassment.

While gay cadets welcome the repeal, many of them say they will still be cautious about coming out to others at the academy. Certainly, a cultural shift toward total acceptance will take longer than a few months.

“Most people are not going to jump out of the closet,” Eleanor predicted. “People will feel the waters out a bit. There are some people at this school who don’t know they know gay people.”

Ben and Katie both mentioned that commanding officers might still exercise subtle discrimination when considering service members for promotions.

“I’ve talked about this with my gay friends,” he said. “Not knowing how it’d affect our career, it’d be best not to make it obvious, but as far as our personal lives it would get rid of that anxiety and fear of being found out.”

Katie said the bravery of gay cadets will change the attitudes of their colleagues and their commanding officers.

Despite the communities of peers and culture of tolerance Eleanor, Ben, Chase, Tania, and Samantha have found—even with the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” behind them—it doesn’t seem likely they will be charging down the halls of the academies with rainbow flags.

“The military is a culture of conformity, at its essence,” Katie said. “I don’t know if (the older generation will) ever change their minds toward gays. But the younger generation I think will be much more conducive.”

Eric Randall and Ilana Seager are students at Yale University. The article originally appeared in Q Magazine, a student publication that receives funding and training as a member of Campus Progress'journalism network.

2) UCSB Respect Coalition host alternative Horowitz event

May 26, 2011; Cheyenne Johnson

http://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2011/05/ucsb-respect-coalition-hosts-alternative-horowitz-event

The University of California, Santa Barbara Respect Coalition, a group composed of several campus organizations such as the Campus Democrats, A.S. Queer Commission, and the Muslim Student Association, sponsored “The Alternative: Empowering Our Voices” discussion event held the same evening as David Horowitz’s lecture on May 26.

The Alternative speakers included Doctoral Student at the Religious Studies Department Elliot Bazzano, Executive Director of Santa Barbara Hillel Rabbi Evan Goodman, Black Studies Professor George Lipsitz, A.S Associate Director for Media Elizabeth Robinson, Global Studies Associate Professor Paul Amar, student speaker Noor Aljawad, and UCSB Respect Coalition member Max Samarov.

Second-year Global Studies major student Sophia Armen, along with second-year student Danielle Stevens, led the discussion in hopes of encouraging “ a community discussion” amongst students, as well as defending against the “hate speech” Horowitz presented. The room was filled to capacity with UCSB students, Santa Barbara community members, and representatives from several local news organizations. Students were asked to provide questions for the panelists, to be answered at the end of the individual presentations. Students remained engaged throughout the discussion, clapping and snapping their fingers in support of the opinions presented.

Bazano opened his speech with a short video entitled “A Land Called Paradise” in which Muslim men, women, and children were filmed holding signs with phrases such as “Islam tells me to help the less fortunate, but sometimes I’d rather watch Grey’s Anatomy” and “Broccoli is my personal jihad.” He went on to analyze Horowitz’s logic in accusing the Muslim Student Association of being inspired by and supporting Hamas, an Islamist political party.

“It’s like alcoholics anonymous in the sense that they share certain things,” Bazanao said. “But there’s no central government that they all follow.”

Rabbi Goodman followed Bazano’s speech, stating that he told Horowitz the MSA at UCSB “is not what you say it is.” This comment was met with vast applause from the audience.

Lipsitz discussed how people like Horowitz encourage division amongst people in an attempt to remain powerful, while creating an “orgy of recreational hate” that impedes the growth of a more accepting society. .

“[This is a] consistent attempt to divert attention away from the real work we have to do,” explained Lipsitz.

Lipsitz also spoke out against the demonization of Muslim groups and other human beings. However, he believed that audience members present at the alternative event showed him and others how many people supported love more than hate.

Robinson followed, presenting her views on universities and her commitment to human rights.

“Universities are not a safe place for most of us”, Robinson said. Following her assertion, Robinson presented accounts of events involving discriminatory acts occurring on campuses. Robinson mainly focused on opposition to Palestinian groups at UCSB.

Aljawad presented an opinion similar to Robinson’s, saying that Muslims were underrepresented in many Western countries, while the discrimination they faced was not fully acknowledged.

Amar said Horowitz wanted students and society “to be split up in to tiny little groups that are afraid of each other.”

“But we can’t be split up anymore,” concluded Amar.

Samarov closed the speech portion of the event with a non-Muslim student perspective on Horowitz. Samarov said that after conducting his own research on the matter, he’d decided the “MSA does not deserve the accusations” presented by Horowitz and that the group “does not have anything to do with terrorism.”

Questions posed by the audience were answered by several of the presenters and a short spoken word clip was shown embracing the freedom to be one’s self.

When asked about the effects of the alternative event, fourth year Religious Studies major Asma Raja believed there was still a long way to go.

“There are still a lot of racist remnants and hateful images [on-campus],” stated Raja, an opinion expressed by several of the attendees. “I think this presentation will inspire more people to get involved.”

3) Reunions: LGBT alumni address challenges, hopes

May 30, 2011; Alaka Halder

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2011/05/30/28626/

An audience of around 60 students and alumni gathered in McCosh 46 on Saturday afternoon for a panel titled “Efforts of Princeton University Students and Alumni for LGBT Equality.” The talk was sponsored as part of the University’s Reunions programming by the Princeton Equality Project and the Fund for Reunion/Princeton Bisexual, Transgendered, Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association.

Participants in the discussion included Rep. Jared Polis ’96, Mark Burstein, the University’s executive vice president and the former chair of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, and Karen Magee ’83, a University trustee and a senior vice president of Time Warner, Inc., as well as student representatives from PEP.

The panelists, who all said they live openly as members of the LGBT community, discussed attitudes toward LGBT individuals in the United States as well as the efforts of University community members in favor of LGBT eqyality.

Magee opened the discussion with a brief history of the FFR, which was established in 1986 when a group of Harvard and Yale alumni decided to launch an association for Ivy League LGBT alumni. “This was actually the beginning, or precursor, to the Fund for Reunion organization that we have today,” she said. “This was really wholly accidental.”

The panel focused on the question of whether there was a fundamental difference between being a leader in the LGBT movement and a leader who is a member of the LGBT community. Polis, who is one of four openly gay congressmen and the first openly gay man to be elected to the House as a freshman, said that he did not really consider himself to be a LGBT leader. Instead, he said, he felt “more like someone who is an elected position who's gay.”

“I wouldn’t say that Barack Obama is a leader of the black movement,” he added. “Is there still a black empowerment movement? Yes, and it’s important, but it’s probably less important than it was 30 years ago ... As you have more and more gays in the building, you probably need less and less protesting outside.”

Polis said he was optimistic that the United States would eventually achieve LGBT equality, noting that he “had it easier” than did previous generations and that he saw the country achieving equality “sooner rather than later.”

“I don’t think it would be a detriment for someone running for president of the United States,” he said of the difficulties faced by openly gay citizens. “I don’t think people will care that much about these things anymore, and this is becoming increasingly true.”

Burstein, however, stressed that it was still difficult for gay people to live openly in certain situations, such as in corporate environments.

“I feel that an essential part of leadership is being both out and open,” he said. He added that this part was particularly important for informing people against misconceptions. “There are still many people out there who have very big questions about what it means to be LGBT and open.”

Burstein praised the University for being open and accommodating to its LGBT community. “I think you also have to think about mobilizing straight allies in different ways,” he said. “I am a huge beneficiary of straight allies.”

He recalled that President Tilghman had been very welcoming and reassuring when he first joined the University and told her that he was gay. “First thing Shirley says: ‘Oh my God, I want you here even more ... You'll be just fine.’ ”

“It's a big statement from her,” he added.

Magee and Polis also shared advice with current students who may be looking for their place within the LGBT community.

Polis said that it was no longer a handicap to be an LGBT person running for office. “I would recommend anybody running for office to be out before you run,” he said, adding that it was “not a big deal, unless you're seen as hiding something.”

Polis stressed, however, that it was much harder difficult for a Republican to live openly than for a Democrat to do so. “If you’re a Democrat, there's no reason to be closeted,” he said. “I don't see why you would be.”

Magee, who had been “outed” in the workplace in 1992 after defending a lawsuit, suggested that LGBT students work for organizations that are known for being accepting of the LGBT community. “Don’t join a workplace where there are no open executives,” she said.

At the end of the panel, Burstein, Magee and Polis answered questions from members of the audience and concluded the discussion by noting the importance of having more members of the LGBT community in high-profile positions to foster more general understanding and acceptance.

“I would say that if you're not involved, to get involved,” Magee said.