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The Dartmouth
July 21, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Don't Know Much (Gay) History

Now that I am at Dartmouth, I have begun to learn what being gay actually means. But I had no idea how my sexual identity was inextricably linked to a wider, ineffaceable context of history, culture, society and politics. In high school, I was out and proud when I began talking about my sexual experiences, but I did not have the intellectual or academic resources available at Dartmouth. I have a radical suggestion: we need more activism in the classroom, and by this I mean speaking what is on your mind and from your own experience among your fellow classmates.

This coming fall, new GLBT students and their allies will arrive on campus with an enormously diverse set of experiences and backgrounds. Some of you will have been participants in the popular post-high school graduation coming-out process and others may have divulged your sexual identities to family and friends long ago. Some of you, no doubt, will continue to explore your sexuality as you finally begin life away from your parents. College will provide you with formerly unfamiliar communities and organizations that may cultivate new attitudes about GLBT people and culture. No matter the terms in which you engage your sexuality, everyone at Dartmouth, GLBT or otherwise, is finally able to consider what has yet gone unremarked, and untaught, in much of your previous education: GLBT history and culture.

Dartmouth is a welcoming and friendly place for GLBT students. There is a wide and growing network of GLBT students you can talk to and befriend. Last year, the Gay-Straight Alliance had its largest number of new members than ever before at its first meeting in the fall. I would not be surprised if your class outnumbers all other years at the first GSA meeting this fall. Many of you may have attended high schools with GSAs and other clubs that organize activities around GLBT issues. Dartmouth will offer much more.

College is different. Much more cultural and political analyses need to be done, more resources are at our disposal and higher demands are placed on GLBT people and our allies. There is a vital imperative for the next generation of GLBT people and our allies -- that includes me and you -- not to be merely visible but to be educated about ourselves and our past.

The only way to know is to learn and the best place to learn is in the classroom. Dartmouth's professors and the courses they offer are unmatched at other top undergraduate institutions. The Women's and Gender Studies program is home to courses that tackle how gender, sex and sexuality are at play in literature, science, philosophy, art history, anthropology, sociology, education, religion and yes, even the monolith that is American history. Many specifically GLBT related courses are available at Dartmouth.

Upon graduation, many students usually recall taking a women's and gender studies class as their favorite, most effectual classroom experience at Dartmouth. The reason for this is because these classes push students to think in ways they have never thought before. For GLBT people, this is especially important. Our campus needs more informed GLBT students who -- after you have discussed your radical ideas in the classroom -- can apply them directly to the missions of GLBT groups on campus.

No GLBT student, no matter how accommodating Dartmouth is of your lifestyle and how many attractive members of your sex you can invite back to your room, should be content with the world, or even the Dartmouth bubble, as it is now. So much more needs to be done. But we, as a GLBT community, must agree that knowledge is more than half the battle. Successful campaigns for GLBT activism must be coupled with innovative, challenging and logical dialogue so people and groups on and off campus are continually held accountable for their thoughts and actions.

We cannot end discrimination, further oppression, and cultural ignorance by only engaging others on their own terms. Being GLBT is not solely a biological or social notion; it is a broader cultural one that implicates all people, regardless of whether they identify as GLBT. Do not let anyone tell you that you cannot be radical in the classroom. If you are not, activism on campus is devoid of meaning and fundamentally ineffective. We must be armed with powerful voices of contention that ultimately just make more educated sense than those of the uninformed.