Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Vol. CLIV, Issue 6
Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

First-years vocal about establishing Whitman ‘queer community’

The move to create a GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning) group on Whitman campus was pushed in the late 1980s. When Robert Tobin, professor of German Studies, arrived on campus for the 1989/90 school year, there was not yet a formal organization. Tobin and Whitman counselor Sharon Kaufman-Osborn were very interested in creating safe place for non-heterosexuals to talk about their experiences.

In discussing how to design a safe place for questioning and non-heterosexual students to talk about and share in each others’ experiences, Tobin and Kaufman-Osborn, among others, decided it would be most beneficial to create two different groups on campus. Tobin, who had been previously employed at Princeton, suggested that Whitman model their GLBTQ and Coalition after support groups at Princeton. Both GLBTQ and Coalition are designed as safe spaces in which to address issues of sexuality, but they have subtle differences that make them separate entities.

GLBTQ is most like a support group for students that are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or questioning, among other sexualities that are not heterosexual. It is confidential in order to make students that attend feel comfortable sharing their experiences and their sexuality with other students who are dealing with some of the same issues. The Coalition is intended as more of an activist group and is made up of the queer community and the allies of the queer community.

“GLBTQ groups came along with other activist groups as a reaction to the nationwide phobia of homosexuals and AIDS that took place during the ’80s,” Tobin said. “Whitman’s GLBTQ group was created when most other colleges founded similar groups. We weren’t in the forefront, but we weren’t lagging behind either.”

Tobin has seen the development of GLBTQ over the last 17 years and says that one of the most surprising things is that there are not many more gay students than when GLBTQ first became a group. One thing Tobin also points out is the constant change within the groups themselves. Some years GLBTQ and Coalition have very strong leadership and are very responsive to issues at large, and other years the groups are quieter.

Junior Joseph Farnes, intern of GLBTQ and secretary of Coalition, said that GLBTQ has changed a lot since he joined his first year at Whitman. Joseph says that in contrast to his first year at Whitman, when GLBTQ was a smaller, quieter group, that “this year there are a bunch of first-years coming into the group who are very vocal about wanting a queer community here at Whitman.”

When asked about individuals that have had a great influence on the growth of GLBTQ, Farnes replied, “Bob [Tobin] and Melissa [Wilcox] have helped a lot. We all love them and respect what they do and that brings us together.” Wilcox, assistant professor of religion, came to Whitman in 2003 and was tenured in 2005 and has strengthened GLBTQ with her enthusiasm and interest in the group.

However, even with the backing of great professors and interest in the groups on campus, the queer community on campus remains a fairly quiet group. When asked why he thought this was so, Farnes said that while Whitman is a campus intellectually comfortable with the idea of people who are homosexual, questioning, transgendered, etc., students don’t often confront issues of sexuality on a personal level. “Here at Whitman, we don’t talk about sex,” Farnes said, “and if we want to open up the conversation of sexuality, it’s something we’re going to have to be okay talking about.”

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