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Out and About at the University
by Elizabeth Beauvais
Jessie Gilliam: You can discriminate against someone if you don't know that they're there. There's sort of this blanket silence at U.Va. that allows people to ignore issues. If people don't know that they're there, it becomes easier not to stand up in front of the BOV for a sexual orientation clause. When we had a meeting about that clause, I think five people came. Had we had straight and gay student allies, more people would have had the safe space to stand up against the BOV in support of sexual orientation rights. Dec: Do you think that's the difference between U.Va. and several other schools that don't have discriminatory clauses and offer health benefits to domestic partners? Heather Trout: I think that even if we had 99 percent of the student body going "rah rah rah let's have domestic partnership," as long as we have the BOV and the politics engendered by the Governor while living in a state like Virginia, then the support of the student body itself isn't going to make the final impact on making these changes. It has to happen on higher levels on the political strata. And it's something that's a function of all of Virginia, not just the U.Va. community. I think that perhaps if we get a more liberal governor at some point with more liberal appointees, then that will be where the real changes are catalyzed. This is not to say that our efforts are completely pointless; we do need to stand out and say, "Hey, we're here." We are partly to blame for being so closeted. But the reason many of us are not wanting to stand up and be counted is because there are very real concerns and fears in standing up and being counted, ranging from discrimination in academia and around grounds to actual physical violence. So, it's very reasonable that people wouldn't want to show up with a giant sign that says, "Hey, I'm gay." Steve Forssell: I just think it's a cultural traditional conservatism at U.Va. that has never died since this school opened. I think we know that, like Heather said, if 99 percent of the student body wanted to make a change in policy, the BOV wouldn't back us up. And I think that a large part of the university functions in spite of the BOV and what they think. But the students deserve to have a Board of Visitors that will back us up, will codify policies, and will give us equal opportunities. TR: This school is the flagship of the Virginia university system. What happens at this school is going to be a very strong political statement in the entire Commonwealth. So I think that's one reason why we have this strong conservative streak in the administration, why we have such a reliance on tradition. This is where the big fight has to be waged. If the Virginia state university system is going to be tolerant, if it's going to be a friendly place for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered faculty, students, and staff, then it's not that the other universities would necessarily follow, but that the shift in perspective would spread well beyond the university community. You can take William and Mary, you can take Virginia Tech, and isolate them somewhat, but the University of Virginia is the state. SF: I think when Don Beyer is elected governor next election, since good ol' George set the BOV precedent, I would hope Don would make as many appointees. It's my understanding that no governor has gone after the Board of Visitors to replace them with political appointees like George Allen. He really politicized it for the first time.
Dec: What do you think will be the biggest catalyst to mobilize change? SF: I think the legal precedence (of the Hawaii same-sex marriage case) will protect us, but I think there will be more capitalistic pressures. Big corporations are finally coming to understand that they want to attract talented, intellectual, successful people -- a lot of whom are gay -- and that's why Disney has stood so firm because, Jesus, if you took all the gay people out of Disney, movies would suck from here on out. I think market pressures are going to have more to do with it than anything. But we still need to be visible. TR: How can you be visible in a state where being visible can cost you your job, where even the University of Virginia claims not to discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation? Because of the laws in the state of Virginia and because the university must exist within the Commonwealth, it is impossible NOT to discriminate. If the university chose to eliminate a professor on grounds of sexual orientation, the closest thing that professor would have to a real legal recourse would be to sue the university on grounds of fraud. HT: There's a difference between sexual orientation and sexual activity. Sexual orientation is not outlawed in Virginia whereas sexual activity and certain forms thereof are. If I'm fired (which I was afraid to be at one point working at a business in town) for being a lesbian, it would not have been because they had direct knowledge of what I did in bed, but rather for being who I was -- which is separate from any kind of sodomy laws. I could walk into a store right now and someone could say, "I am not going to hire you because you are a lesbian." They can say that explicitly, and I would have no recourse, which doesn't have anything to do with the sodomy laws that exist, but with the fact that there is no prohibition on the books for that kind of discrimination. JG: My response to that would be how not to be visible because I don't think I could personally work as a closeted individual. You know, I feel like I'd have to say, "I'm a lesbian." It's going to say on my resumé that I'm a lesbian because of what I've been involved in, so there's no way I could get around it if I wanted to. TR: We've all thought that if more people came out, things would get better. And indeed, that has been the case over the past 15 years, that is to say that no longer are all of us cast out of our homes. HT: The APA doesn't think we're pathological freaks. (In 1973 the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from its Diagnostic Manual as a treatable ill.) TR: We're no longer being treated with electroshock. SF: Well, you can be if you want to. TR: 41 out of 50 states gave no protection against job discrimination to lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered fired for coming out or for being out. SF: Well, we (Virginia) are just not a leader. TR: I don't know, it seems like most of the country is absolutely panicked on this issue. I mean, 71 percent of Americans disapprove of same-sex marriage. SF: Which is about the same margin that approve for job discrimination. TR: Just because the number seem to point towards a very strong popular preference for the status quo doesn't mean the status quo is right. Dec: So if potentially, in the future, Gov. Allen leaves the office and stronger legal precendents are set -- how much support do you think you'd find in the U.Va. community? HT: Dean Mayes has talked about how U.Va. backs into justice on this, how we have always enjoyed a huge amount of support in the Dean of Students office, but it's kind of reactionary, never really substantive pro-active support in a concrete way. And we have a long way before we can actually get that. We're hoping to get our foot in the door with a Dean of Student Relations, something substantive, an office with our name on it. If these things went through, if the political atmosphere of Virginia changed, or if we had a BOV that had more of a leaning towards making these kinds of inclusions, then we would see some more substantive changes -- a Dean of LGBT Affairs, much like there's a Dean for African American Affairs. We need a certain institutional, substantial, pro-active change; there's a continuity there that you can't get solely from the student body, and we're only here for so many years. A lot that could happen to make the university less exclusionary if that kind of climate is set. SF: Yes, but government policy on the family doesn't influence people's behavior and attitudes -- that comes from the culture. The government, however, can influence the quality of life for individuals. I honestly think that the surveys in the CD where 86 percent theoretically support gay rights' protection as far as job discrimination goes are accurate. The problem comes down to voicing that outside of a survey. AIDS did an awful lot to garner a little sympathy for the gay community, and all of a sudden, it's extremely politically incorrect not to fight AIDS. Somewhere along the lines the balance is going to shift just enough, and it will become unacceptable on this campus for some Greek to spray paint some homophobic stuff in the bathroom in Gilmer. JG: I know that a lot of my friends support me being a lesbian, but they don't say they support gay rights openly, even though I know they do. SF: They want to, they really want to. JG: Yeah, but there's this cultural maxim that says "No, you can't say the word gay because then people will think you're gay."
SF: Jessie, you guys did such a great job of promotion with Day of Silence; all of a sudden we're national, which is such a cool thing. That's the sort of thing that's going to make the guy who's just sort of noncommittal or wants to help out, but is not really encouraged to do so, say, "Yeah, this is something I really need to do, I need to slap a sticker on that says 'I support gay rights' and not talk all day to prove it." JG: We have a lot of people willing to wear a sticker that says "I support gay rights," but there's a lot more who drop it on the floor -- and you don't see art posters and concert fliers dropped on the floor, but you do see that with our stuff. Dec: Is that truly not in support or is it "I don't want to associate myself with this"? TR: There is a very definite bias against LGBU. Heterosexism, homophobia, hatred of lgbt persons is rampant in our human interactions; it affects us like a cancer. It's present in my dealings with the most apparently enlightened men and women -- it affects our lives even more than society and institutions. There's the old saying that's floated around the feminist movement and gay liberations movement as well: the personal is political. Our actions have very definite political repercussions. When we come out, we mean something by it. When we come out, we are making a statement. When we support a friend who is lesbian, gay, or transgender, we are also making a very definite political statement. The problem is translating that political statement into positive action. Your friends support you for being a lesbian, but they are very reluctant to get involved with gay rights. Then the question is -- what's the difference? HT: The difference has a lot to do with identity. From a very young age we're taught that I'm a girl and he's a boy and what each means. I didn't even know what the word gay meant until I was 12. Television -- everything really -- is so soaked in heterosexuality that you can't see anything else. The reason people will support individuals that are friends, but not put on that sticker is they don't want to have that identity placed on them. And the reason they don't want to do that doesn't have much to do with political or ideological or even religious reasons, it goes back to simple fears of "I don't want to be different,"- and at U.Va. being gay is being very different. TR: Then we can flip it around and say the political is the personal. What we do, how we're active defines who we are; that is a truth especially apparent to lesbians, gays, and trangendered persons. HT: I think so much of it to our classmates is "What if somebody thinks I'm gay?" because to see someone walking around wearing a gay rights sticker at U.Va. many think, "Oh, they're probably queer themselves." The reason that fear exists stems from stereotypes we learn as little kids. It's very deeply ingrained -- the way that fear starts to get washed away is by having people being friendly and slowly coming out as people's neighbors and teachers and friends. So then coming out adds this whole new visibility, everyone has different perspectives, and I get people saying, "oh well, I know Heather and she's a really normal human being." It's slow ebb and tide, but that's where we are right now at U.Va. as opposed to at more liberal colleges. The tradition and conservative atmosphere here just makes the ingrained fear all the harder to overcome. TR: Well, but sometimes I get: "yes, we know you, yes, we know you're gay, yes, we think you're a pretty well-adjusted person, but that in no way alters what we think gays, lesbians, and transgenders REALLY are." JG: But it can sometimes. It doesn't happen at first, and it doesn't happen if you're in a casual acquaintance, but if you're really good friends with someone --- a positive change can occur. We were brought up with the prince and the princess, and that 's how it goes for the most part. SF: We should have stickers that say, "I'm straight, but..." HT: The U.Va. community needs education on LGBU issues. I think what absolutely needs to be done, in terms of short term, is getting the Dean of Students involved pro- actively. We need to get programming in residence dorms, because it's in first year dorms that people learn that it's okay to be homophobic at U.Va. You're aware from the very first football game (not gay!) of what is and isn't accepted here. We need active things in the first year living arrangement. We need to have some member of faculty whose main job is to look after this, because students alone can't do it. JG: It's disturbing that I can be walking in front of O-Hill with my girlfriend and some one will say, "that's so gay" and no one will turn around and say, "excuse me -- stop." We need to make people aware that it is not okay to be discriminatory. We need to have education in the classroom about lesbian and gay issues. TR: My message is don't tell "people," tell your friends. You don't have to be publically active to be a force for good. HT: But you can be. The LGBU Help Line is available around the clock at 982-2773.
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