Wesleyan gay
Queer
The community that constitutes Wesleyan is diverse and unique. Students’ sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression are as diverse as the larger people at Wesleyan. Students, faculty, administrators, and staff aspire to create a sound space for lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex (LGBTQQI…) students at Wesleyan. Many homosexual faculty, staff, and administrators also make themselves accessible to serve as resources to LGBTQQI… students.
Many people in the Wesleyan group use the word “queer”, a non-gender specific and anti-normative word, in place of other terms that do not fully encompass the variety of sexual and gender identities of our community members. While this term was used as a derogatory epithet against LGBTQQI… people in the past, many possess sought to reclaim it. Radical activists in the 1990s especially deployed “queer” to signify empowerment and a sense of cohesion against the oppressive heteronormative sex/gender system in America. There is, however, cosmos at Wesleyan to self-identify with any words that best validate one’
Is Wes Queer Enough?: Exploring the Lack of Queer Unity on Campus
On Friday, Oct. 25, Property hosted HalloQween, the first drag display of the season, hosted at The Workshop in Hewitt. The show was a great triumph, with fiery performances by queens such as Miznomer (Ariel Munczek Edelman ’20), Princess Vi (Hillel Friedland ’22), and Kitsch Enade (Michael Montoya ’20). It was an especially exciting night for me as I made my queenly debut as Benzo Diazequeen, lip-syncing to “Cornflake Girl” by Tori Amos in perhaps one of the most on-brand turns of the century. Pervading The Workshop, however, was a feeling of collective anxiety, as the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) tried to shut down the festivities on several occasions due to the size of the crowd, which was hardly a safety relate to . Whether or not their intentions were homophobic, ResLife’s offensive policing of the event opened my eyes to a much larger issue at Wesleyan: the profound lack of queer spaces on campus.
When I first visited Wes, I was immediately struck by a forceful sense of group that I hadn’t felt anywhere else I toured. More than anything else, this feeling of intense belonging is what made me fall in
Queer
Wesleyan University has traditionally been viewed as a liberal institution, both politically and socially. Although remaining solidly within the context of a small, elite, Recent England college, the University has also managed to maintain a character that is decidedly radical in many aspects. For the last thirty-five years, the large, well-organized, and vibrant queer community at Wesleyan has played a immense role in maintaining this character. Queer students at Wesleyan have fought, protested, and subverted their way into the mainstream of the school, in the process revolutionizing both themselves and the institution they gained entry to. The struggle was simultaneously reflective of two different trends: the development of the “Wesleyan character” over the years, and the progress of the national homosexual liberation movement. A glance at the history of organized queer life at Wesleyan provides insight into both.
The Beginnings
The Eighties
The Nineties
The Beginnings
The first advertisement for a queer group at Wesleyan in the Argus came in March 1975:
Coming to terms with same-sex attracted feelings is difficult in this society, but especially at Wesleyan. About 15 W I am an openly gay scholar on campus. Wesleyan was the first non-religious institution I have ever attended in my animation. Growing up, I went to a catholic elementary college and an all-boys catholic high institution. I came to Wes because of its environment that was branded as somewhere where people were unique and open and accepting. I couldn’t linger to attend a non-catholic school for the first moment. I thought I would be greater off here as a queer learner. I was erroneous. While yes, most of the society fits the description that was told by admissions, I was shocked when in my first semester here, I experienced homophobia for the first second in my life. I started to perceive another student who lived on my floor around me more often, and I noticed he tried to discuss to me a few times. In one of the conversations we had, he asked me flat out if I was homosexual. I responded truthfully. A few weeks later, I was walking back from the bathroom and was stopped in the hallway by him. He began talking about his and his friends’ usage of the f slur and repeatedly tried to convince me that it’s fine to say in a joking way. I eventually agreed because I saw no othe When I read Matthew Vines' new book, God and the Gay Christian, I wished my younger self had had this publication. I was a closeted gay guy who attended the very conservative, evangelical Church of the Nazarene, which for all intents and purposes is the little brother to the United Methodist Church, both of which are under the Wesleyan-Arminianism faith tradition. Whenever there is a situation that is difficult to reconcile the first place a Wesleyan gets help is from the Bible. But we Wesleyans don't use the Bible alone. We approach the situation using the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, a four-pronged evaluate that helps us produce sense of it. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral views the situation in the context of scripture, experience, reason and tradition. Vines' novel has put the issue of being a male lover Christian perfectly into the framework of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. In my many years as a closeted gay, I would secretly read articles about Christianity's view of homosexuality and faith and feel hopeless. The pro-gay texts would negate the importance of scripture and emphasize exposure. Which made me sense good because I wasn't being told I was going to hell, but also made me perceive heretical
Wes Is Far From Perfect, We Earn Better