Dartmouth students spoke about being gay, lesbian and "on the fence" Tuesday evening at Alpha Delta fraternity as part of the "Don't Yell 'Fag' from the Front Porch" panel. The panelists, all members of the Gay Straight Alliance, talked about the difficulties of coming out, discomfort felt while socializing in Greek houses and ways that the Dartmouth community can be more accepting of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender community.
Michael Guzman '06 stressed that the key to making the Dartmouth social scene more comfortable for members of the GLBT community is to take small steps, and he cautioned against large events that attempt to bring gay and straight students together. He suggested, instead, that heterosexuals try to attend or participate in GLBT events to show support and acceptance.
"I think the first step is going to programming that's geared to the GLBT community," Guzman said. He cited the Queer Bar Night, which happens once a term at Lone Pine Tavern, as an example. If three fraternity brothers from AD showed up at this event, the GLBT participants would definitely notice, he added.
"We'd be like, 'That's really cool,'" Guzman said.
Moderator Andrew Goldstein '05 also supported the idea of taking small steps. He expressed how ecstatic he was earlier this year when his lacrosse captain referred to everybody's "significant others" instead of the usual term "girlfriends" in a BlitzMail message sent out to the team.
"It's just something so subtle, the change of a word," Goldstein said.
Panelist Ricky Cole '06 said he thought that more overt instances of acceptance would fare well on the Dartmouth campus. Cole said that fraternity brothers can go out of their way to make gay men feel welcome in their Greek houses and should go as far as inviting them over for a game of beer pong. Subtlety, such as merely allowing gay men to play pong in their basements, is not enough, he said. Cole's comments came in response to an AD brother who asked about the next level of making houses more accepting.
Prompted by audience members, panelists elaborated on what the letters in the acronym "GLBT" mean, on the differences among the terms transgender, transsexual and transvestite, and on the differences between gender and sex. The discussion focused on why Greek houses are not always welcoming social settings for GLBT students and how fraternities can change.
Later in the discussion, one audience member changed the focus from fraternities to sororities, saying that sorority houses can also be unfriendly towards GLBT students. She labeled certain specific sororities as narrow-minded and not accepting of lesbians. Anne Ladenburger '05, a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, refuted this claim about the mentioned sororities.
"I think a lot of organizations would be open to change, they just don't know how to," Ladenburger said. "Just because a house does not have openly homosexual members does not mean the house is homophobic," she noted. Ladenburger added that once houses have a few homosexual members, hopefully more homosexuals will start to feel comfortable joining.
A recurring topic among the panelists was the importance of not letting students make homophobic comments on campus. Cole said that he does not let people get away with derogatory comments, and instead, challenges them, asking if they have a problem they'd like to discuss with him. More often than not, he said, they just walk away. Cole, who said he is not discouraged, continues to challenge the homophobia he experiences on campus.
"I think that the way this campus is right now is because of the people who came before us," Cole said. He believes that the current Dartmouth community has the power to challenge and change its atmosphere.
The panel, which AD fraternity held twice before, was created in response to an AD brother yelling the word "fag" from the house's porch several years ago.
"AD is holding this event to address the problems within the Dartmouth social scene by associating faces of people within the Dartmouth community who are openly gay, in hopes to remedy problems within the Dartmouth community by giving gays a physical and emotional presence," Scott Feighner '06, AD's programming chair, said Tuesday.
Other panelists spoke about the difficulties faced in coming out to the Dartmouth community. Sean Garren '07 said it was easier not to tell people he is bisexual, opting to let his friends just figure it out little by little. He appreciated the friends who acted normally when they found out.
"I challenge people to be the best allies they can be," Garren said.
Laura Bozzuto '07 said it took a lot of courage to come out during freshmen Dartmouth Outing Club trips this past year, which she worked on as a member of Vox Crew. Ultimately, she decided to come out so that freshmen women would not be in the same position she was in one year earlier. Bozzuto said that she realized the importance of being a person who "other people can look to."
