What Rears Said About the “Gay Ivy”: Yale Alumni Magaze (Sept/Oct 2009)

Contents:

• WHY THEY LL YALE THE "GAY IVY"
• THE “GAY” IVY? : A QUEER REPUTATN
• WHAT REARS SAID ABOUT THE “GAY IVY”
• FEATURE: GOD AND THE GAY IVY
• IS YALE THE GAY IVY?
• GAY IVY

WHY THEY LL YALE THE "GAY IVY"

Today, Yale's reputatn as the Gay Ivy is faiar to most stunts and younger alumni -- 's even clud Yale's entry on Wikipedia, that eful gui to the mon wisdom.

Yale probably do, however, have a higher proportn of gay stunts than other Ivi; there are no statistics, but many gay Yale stunts thk 's te.

Yale was one of the last Ivi to create an office of LGBTQ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer) rourc. The current admistratn is gay-iendly, but Yale admistrators historilly have not sought to ph the envelope on the issu.

THE “GAY” IVY? : A QUEER REPUTATN

Yale GALA (Gay and Lbian Alumni) jt held s first rnn, and the proment gay alumni who spoke clud Bce Cohen ’83, producer of Milk, and Larry Kramer ’57, thor of The Normal Heart. Margaret Marshall ’76JD, who wrote the Massachetts Supreme Court cisn legalizg gay marriage, is also an alum.

But Yale has many alumni who oppose pro-gay polici, such as Heather Mac Donald ’78, who cricized Yale the Weekly Standard for startg the LGBTQ rourc office; Maggie Gallagher ’82, print of the Natnal Organizatn for Marriage; and the Right Reverend John Guernsey ’75, who joed his flock wh the Anglin Church of Uganda after the U. In an say adapted om his keynote at the GALA rnn, Yale historian Gee Chncey ’77, ’89PhD, sketch that early history of alienatn and trac how s of effort by Yale's gay stunts drove a cultural shift. self-acceptg gay stunts and faculty at Yale, men who, as Fry wrote 1945, “work through quickly to an acceptance of their homosexualy and of sexual.

WHAT REARS SAID ABOUT THE “GAY IVY”

Graduat om earlier years—wh a few notable exceptns—fd the issue of gays at Yale to be anythg om distasteful to a gradatn of Yale’s reputatn. For some reason people seem to have more trouble intifyg unacceptable behavr when is sexist, homophobic, or heterosexist than when is racist. I found your ver story on gay stunts at Yale dly tertg, but I am astound at the letters you received om my fellow alumni about .

FEATURE: GOD AND THE GAY IVY

The strint homophobia profsed, even proudly, some of the letters was more than prsg, was e for reasssg jt what progrs this untry, and Yale, ngratulat themselv for achievg. But so are Jews, and I doubt that any Yale print would sh to reassure alumni that Yale is not a “Jewish” universy, as Benno Schmidt did the face of entirely accurate publicy twenty years ago statg Yale is home to a large homosexual subculture. I ask that you thk more refully about the letters om alumni that you publish, and more refully about how your many gay and lbian rears may unrstandably react to them.

” Like most heterosexuals, I n unrstand his feelgs; ocsnally when I have thought about what homosexuals actually do sexually, which to be sure is not often, I have sometim felt distaste.

” One of several ways which ntemporary Amerin nservatism rembl fascism is that giv voice and thory to primive revulsn at such groups as homosexuals, femists, and tellectuals. My 1960 classmate Pl Loomis wrote of his “disgt” wh the gay liftyle, opg that “most of my former classmat would be … very unfortable beg a Yalie now.

IS YALE THE GAY IVY?

” As a married (44 years) heterosexual wh 3 married children and 7 grandchildren (none gay so far as I know), I’d be even more proud and fortable to be at Yale now than I was the late '50s. How sad is to learn that the Yale Alumni Magaze has received so many letters advotg the ntuance of homophobia. One would hope that graduat of Yale, workg their way through what they have been ma to feel about gays, would e to see the parallel between the stggle for civil rights for homosexuals and that of other opprsed groups, cludg blacks, Irish, Jews, women, and (still the offg) atheists.

Missg om every homophobic letter prted is any reful, clearly reasoned explanatn of why gays should be reprsed. If be argued that their sexual preference is not “natural, ” the wrers might like to to know that there are a few hundred other speci which regularly practice homosexualy.

And that, folks, is why ’s important for gays to e out on mp, so people like my former roommate n have posive role mols and stop takg out their self-loathg on others. While I read and enjoyed the “Gay Ivy” story, I was surprised and distrsed that totally overlooked the role of my roommate, Mart B. His 1991 memoir, Cur: A Gay Man’s Odyssey, als wh his life at Yale (when he was a scholar of the hoe and fe roommate).

GAY IVY

I was stck by the irony of the article “Polics and Maggots” appearg the same issue as the July/Augt 2009 ver story (and acpanyg personal acunts) “Why They Call Yale the ‘Gay Ivy. ’” The featured ver articl predictably give a pletely uncril treatment of the flowerg of open homosexualy and lbianism at Yale. The brief “Polics and Maggots” article, meanwhile, par gay marriage and abortn to “p, maggots, vom, fec, [and] rotten food” terms of human reactns.