Conference tnpubs::tnpubs_vod

15.0. "Gay issues" by TNPUBS::FORTEN (I have enough bridges!) Thu Apr 09 1992 16:59

                           THE PROBLEM WITH BEING GAY
 
                      Even Multiculturalists Discriminate

                                by Jim Patterson

                         Reprinted without persmission, 
               NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, Volume 17, No. 3
                                  March, 1992
                   Copyright C 1992 by Northeastern University
   

NOTE:  Jim Patterson, a senior business major from Cohasset, Massachusetts,
       is president of Northeastern's Student Government Association


When I was young my parents told me I'd have to fight for my education, but 
they didn't know exactly what that meant.  My professors at Exeter, where 
they're supposed to "prepare" you, never discussed how to deal with it.  
Even my friends couldn't really help, because they didn't have this problem.  
So what's a person like me -- or the other couple thousand Northeastern 
students who are gay -- to do in the face of continual harassment?
                
I am not a pervert.  I was not defectively raised.  I am not misguided or 
confused.  I am as WASP as they come.  So why is it that when I need help 
dealing with my relationships, or when I feel that someone has a problem with 
me, or when I want to go out to a bar with friends after class, it becomes a 
civil rights issue?  Being gay at Northeastern -- and elsewhere -- is hard 
and often impossible.  And that's not right.
                
I didn't ask to go public with my affectional preference; I was outed.  
Someone -- who was at the time a friend -- decided the world should know 
about what I choose to do at home.  So when I was about to be elected 
president of the Student Government Association, people were calling each 
other and talking about my "problem."  Being gay isn't a problem, and it 
had never been an issue with those who were suddenly talking about it.  The 
awkward looks, the embarrassing revelation, the wondering what people were 
thinking because they weren't speaking to me anymore ... that was the problem.
                
I would have to be crazy to ask for the discrimination I have encountered.  
I'm an honors student.  I went to the right schools.  I have a loving and 
supportive family.  I never asked to have friends of mine stop talking to me, 
or professors handle me like a specimen studied under a microscope.  Gay 
friends of mine never asked to have toothpicks broken off in their dorm-room 
locks, or to be called "faggot" and "queer" as they left the residence halls.  
Even covert discrimination stings, like when my professor said, "Well, when 
most of you get married and have kids ...."  It's not right to say that, not 
when four of your students in the front row are openly gay and not going home 
to a partner of the opposite sex.
                
For many students Northeastern offers a supportive atmosphere.  But 
African-Americans or Jews, for example, who participate in activities at the 
African-American Institute or Hillel would be hard pressed to find such 
sevices if they were in "the silent minority."  The minority student office, 
it seems, doesn't count being gay as important.  The gay community on campus 
needs to work twice as hard to get half the support.  There should be no 
difference in calling someone on a racially-biased or sexist remark as on a 
homophobic comment.  Yet, while it is in vogue to be multiculturally aware, 
gays, lesbians, and bisexuals often aren't included in that awareness.
                 
Having been outed, I understand that raising these issues is important.  I'm 
not interested in forcing anyone to agree with me or to condone what I do.  
I would just like to be a college student, who like everyone else on campus 
has problems dating or difficulty with classwork.  I'm tired of explaining 
why friends and I choose to go off campus to socialize; tired of explaining 
why I'm scared to walk home alone;  tired of explaining why I'm usually by 
myself at campus "couples" events.  Being gay at Northeastern is hard and 
often impossible, and that's a problem.