To the Editor:
I would like to comment on the recent sidewalk chalk championing gay, lesbian and bisexual rights. Even though this was done a few weeks ago, the issuses raised are current ones and very much timely to the College community. They are also issues with which I struggle on a daily basis.
Marginalized groups within the Dartmouth community often find their voices silenced by the mainstream, conservative, "Old Dartmouth." It is this "Old Dartmouth" which scares away many of our brightest prospective students, who don't happen to fit the rich, white, conservative, heterosexual male mold of the old school. It almost scared me away.
The (silent) sidewalk chalk messages represent our muted voice. Even though I wasn't personally involved with the messages, seeing them in passing, casually, reassured me that "Old Dartmouth" is giving way to the "New Dartmouth," and that there is a supportive community out there.
As a white, bisexual male, I can easily pass for "normal" in mainstream Dartmouth. But I choose not to live that lie. Coming out of the proverbial closet is one of the most liberating and metamorphic experiences in a gay, lesbian or bisexual's lifetime.
But at Dartmouth, the mainstream campus can seem an unwelcome and unnavigable river. This doesn't have to be, and I encourage everybody still living in the closet, and everone that is questioning their sexuality, to jump in that seemingly terrible river and experience the refreshment of coming out, of honesty and self-love.
There is a support network out there for gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and this message, the same that was scrawled on the sidewalks, is one of the most urgent messages of our generation.
