Northwestern, you are on thin ice.
As a community, your level of supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students like me on campus isn’t enough.
A “reasonable” amount of funding was set aside to build the Norris Ice Rink, yet the LGBT Resource Center space amounts to a broom closet lost in a sea of student organization offices on Norris third floor. LGBTQ students have felt the brunt of marginalization from the religious community with groups like Campus Crusade (Cru) expressing heavy disrespect. At their social functions, some in the Greek community create hostile environments for LGBTQs. Thin ice indeed, NU, thin ice.
The ice is not as thin as it could’ve been. President Morton Schapiro, Doris Dirks, other staff/administrators, and groups like Rainbow Alliance and In Technicolor, where I serve as board chair, are making great efforts. Yet we live in a world where LGBTQ young adults kill themselves everyday over ostracism from families, communities and schools. Put yourself in an LGBTQ’s “skates,” if you will. Think of an identity you hold, like your family’s faith tradition, your nationality or sex (M or F). Take one of those and hold to it as you continue reading.
Imagine hearing or reading each day that your identity is “a threat to modern society,” can be “changed through prayer” and deserves no protection under the law. Imagine so-called Christians telling you, as a heterosexual person, that supporting LGBTQs is against your religion, and they “pray the Lord changes your heart.” Well, guess what? A student described this as an encounter with Cru here at Northwestern.
Imagine a frat party, dancing with your significant other and hearing, “OMG, look at them kiss. Gross!” Imagine being told “that doesn’t belong here” or being booted from a party you paid money to attend, all because you wanted to dance with your lover. Guess what? NU LGBTQs have felt that with the Greek community.
Imagine your student organization trying to host events to raise awareness about your community or group, only to have your publicity defaced with slurs or ripped from the ground. Well, guess what? Rainbow Alliance executive board members at the time, myself included, received word from our publicity chair that our Rainbow Week flyers received such treatment in early October. At a time where news of gay college student suicides was rolling in the news cycle incessantly, it hurt my heart and the hearts of other LGBTQs and their allies here at NU and across the country.
Imagine a group protesting at your doorstep, saying all people like you are hell-bound. Well, guess what? NU Hillel in early September faced off with the Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-gay and anti-Semitic “church” organization holding signs like “Jews Must Repent” and “God Hates Fags.” Hillel Rabbi Josh Feigelson has thanked NU LGBTQs for countering Westboro’s efforts in their own way. It’d be great if the NU community reciprocated.
NU is not like Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., where being transgender equals expulsion. Quite contrary, NU’s environment allows LGBTQs to develop and learn without fear for physical safety. Yet the University of Chicago, a competitor school, has an Office of LGBTQ Student Life, funded with various programs, more office space, and an administrator who devotes 100 percent of his job to LGBTQ issues. And NU doesn’t? And why do groups like In Technicolor and Rainbow Alliance have to do songs and dances to get a sliver of ASG funding? Claire Lew and Hiro Kawashima, care to address substantive concerns other than frivolous business casual dress codes for ASG retreats? On all of these issues, my relationship with NU is on thin ice.
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” The 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death recently passed, yet the words of his song “Imagine” ring true on this issue. NU students, staff, administrators and even the Evanston community: “I hope one day you will join us (LGBTQs), and (we) will be as one.”
Derrick Clifton is a Communication junior. He can be reached at [email protected].
Want to weigh in? Send a letter to the editor to Forum Editor Nicole Hong at n-hong@northwes
