Contents:
- LETTER TO THE EDOR: A WLEYAN GAY ROMANCE
- UNED METHODIST CHURCH ANNOUNC PROPOSAL TO SPL OVER GAY MARRIAGE
- KEEPG A STR8 FACE: GAY SEX, STRAIGHT MEN, AND HETERO PERFORMATIVY
- WLEYAN LBIAN/GAY SCENE
- GOD AND THE GAY CHRISTIAN: A WLEYAN PERSPECTIVE
LETTER TO THE EDOR: A WLEYAN GAY ROMANCE
The General Board of The Wleyan Church voted on November 17, 2021, to appot a team of Wleyan scholars and mistry practners to rewre posn paper, “A Wleyan View of Homosexualy, ” origally adopted May 2011.
Comg to terms wh gay feelgs is difficult this society, but pecially at Wleyan. Communy who feels that s/he is predomantly or exclively gay are ved to the next meetg. The impet for the formatn of the Wleyan Gay Group advertised here me om an article published the Arg Febary of 1974.
The article was a reprt of an say wrten by Stuart Byron ’63, scribg what was like to be gay at Wleyan durg the pre-Stonewall era. This was the first signifint discsn of homosexualy to be published the Arg.
UNED METHODIST CHURCH ANNOUNC PROPOSAL TO SPL OVER GAY MARRIAGE
Like on any llege mp, homosexualy was nsired a perversn, but a mon one. In 1959 Daniel Webster Cory, a noted “expert on the homosexual, ” gave a talk as part of a seri of lectur about “Amerin Outsts. The John Wley Club, an anizatn for stunts who chose not to jo a aterny, was equently acced of harborg homosexualy; siar accatns were ma of the Alpha Delta Phi and Eclectic Fraterni.
Amilly, the burgeong new field of Film Studi, was an attractn for many gay men. Robert Mart ’63 wrote, a Herm article thirty years later, that “film studi provid a space for gay culture. ” Stuart Byron himself would later bee a screenwrer and film cric for the Village Voice, as well as an early member of the Gay Liberatn movement New York.
KEEPG A STR8 FACE: GAY SEX, STRAIGHT MEN, AND HETERO PERFORMATIVY
By the time of Byron’s Arg article, the Stonewall Rebelln had e and gone, and morn-day gay activism was well on s way.
“…we ought to be able to affirm that homosexuals face enormo and human prsur which are stctive to the human spir…Those who wish to change their sexual orientatn should be helped to do so. The mp-wi discsn of the homosexualy issue gave many closeted stunts the chance to discs issu of sexualy more openly, if still secretly. Slowly the group began to hold more official meetgs, and then March of 1975 began publicy, llg themselv the Wleyan Gay Group.
No full faculty members were volved the Gay Group.
WLEYAN LBIAN/GAY SCENE
The men, who were for the most part openly gay and provid valuable role mols for the stunts who were dog the bulk of the anizg.
The Gay Alliance (the name of the group was changed after the first few meetgs) grew by leaps and bounds s first year. The article discsed homosexualy om a fairly amic viewpot, and sparked much discsn. That same sprg the Gay Alliance, njunctn wh the Woman’s Rource Center, ved famo lbian polician Elae Noble to speak at Wleyan.
GOD AND THE GAY CHRISTIAN: A WLEYAN PERSPECTIVE
At the turn of the , the Gay Alliance began to be large enough to produce smaller splter groups to al wh different aspects of beg queer. This group would later bee known as GBQ - Gay, Bisexual, and Qutng.
In the sprg of 1984, the Commtee on Human Rights and Relatns started work on a report on the experience of gay, lbian, and bisexual stunts. At the time, everyone takg the workshop, regardls of their orientatn, stood up and said “I am a gay man, ” or “I am a lbian.
Soon the vast majory of the Wleyan muny had participated them, and the rctn mp homophobia and heterosexism was readily apparent. Another tradnal queer event at Wleyan, Bisexual, Gay, and Lbian Awarens Days (BGLAD), also began durg the mid-eighti. By 1985 Blue Jeans Day had bee Gay and Lbian Awarens Day, still only nstraed to one day.