by Janna Stone
STAFF WRITER
A Web site with a liquid rainbow background and the occasional, somewhat hushed, reference: this is all most Whitman’s students see of the campus club known as GLBTQ, an acronym for Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transgenders and Questioning.
The club, started in the late eighties, is primarily focused with providing a support system and community for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and people questioning their sexuality on campus. Unlike its partner club, Coalition Against Homophobia, which puts on several campus-wide events each year, its presence is largely silent on campus.
GLTBQ’s quiet nature seems typical of Whitman’s queer community in general who, rather than announcing themselves loudly and conducting large parades, prefer to remain silent and incognito.
“The queer community is pretty damn quiet here,” said Beth Frieden, a member of GLBTQ. “They [are] very welcoming [though]. It’s a really nice community, small but friendly, kinda nerdy, the way other groups at Whitman are.”
Perhaps too friendly, though, like much of Whitman campus.
“The fact that Whitman’s queer community is quiet has to do with Whitman’s quiet ethos,” said Professor Tobin, co-founder of GLBTQ and Coalition. “Many Whitman students come from backgrounds that, despite being intellectually liberal, practice conservative lifestyles.”
This serves, in a large part, to explain Whitman’s friendly atmosphere. Rather than push buttons or create waves, most Whitman students prefer to remain quiet and smile.
“Despite the progress that GLBTQ has made, it is surprising to me how few openly gay people there are on campus,” said Tobin. “If you go on Facebook and search for men attracted to men or women attracted to women over half of the people you’ll find are Whitman Alumni. It takes longer, I think, for Whitman students who grew up in families with conservative lifestyles to fully come out.”
As a campus, Whitman openness to the queer community seems somewhat ambivalent; although embracing the queer community from an intellectual standpoint, Whitman students still seem to express shyness towards seeing it in practice.
As Tobin said, “Gay couples that act like straight couples are perfectly fine, but gay couples who act like gay couples, stereotypically promiscuous, are shocking.”
According to Joseph Farnes, the GLBTQ Intern and the secretary of Coalition, Whitman’s embracement of the queer community, although mostly from an intellectual standpoint, is still a good thing. Many members of the queer community feel accepted and, despite being frustrated by the lack of people available to date, content at Whitman.
“However,” said Farnes, “this means that the Whitman queer community, like the entire campus, doesn’t like to push. We are content to just let sleeping dogs lie, which can be a bad thing.”
One piece of advice, according to Joseph, for improving Whitman’s relationship with its queer community is to “take drag-fest more seriously.”
“It’s important,” said Farnes, “to take a serious look at gender assumptions. At the same time, it’s also important to explore the idea of gender and what it might mean. Whitman students, in general, should be more comfortable about discussing sex. It is only in this way that queer students can feel more open and comfortable about discussing sexuality.”
