News
Amid Boston Overdose Crisis, a Pair of Harvard Students Are Bringing Narcan to the Red Line
News
At First Cambridge City Council Election Forum, Candidates Clash Over Building Emissions
News
Harvard’s Updated Sustainability Plan Garners Optimistic Responses from Student Climate Activists
News
‘Sunroof’ Singer Nicky Youre Lights Up Harvard Yard at Crimson Jam
News
‘The Architect of the Whole Plan’: Harvard Law Graduate Ken Chesebro’s Path to Jan. 6
BGLTSA criticized for offensive National Coming Out Day postersLast week, in the midst of the National Coming Out Day festivities, a new student group emerged on campus, offering an alternative to the so-called "sensationalist" tactics of the long-standing Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA). The new group launched its efforts with a postering campaign inviting students to join "a new straight-gay alliance." We welcome this new organization to the campus landscape.
The BGLTSA has long been a largely positive force on campus. It has sponsored programming essential to the cause of gay rights and has surely been an indispensable support network for countless students. However, like any student group, it has not escaped its share of problems. Last year, the stability of its leadership was marred by an election scandal. More seriously, it has increasingly been criticized for its failure to represent the full-breadth of its constituency in its use of aggressive and explicit advertising which has made some members feel excluded from the organization.
This approach was best captured by the Coming Out Day posters graphically celebrating various sexual practices. While we do not favor censoring postering on campus, we feel that these sexually explicit posters were inappropriate for an open campus that families and children wander through, and may have been counterproductive to causes the BGLTSA wishes to advance. It is clear that the strategy leaves many gay students feeling alienated from the BGLTSA and we are glad that a new group has stepped up to fill those students' needs.
Of course, we hope that recent events do not represent the beginnings of an internecine war within factions of the gay community. Hopefully, the BGLTSA and this new "straight-gay alliance" can work together cooperatively, or at least arrive at some modus vivendi. In the meantime, we welcome this new addition to the family of student groups and look forward to its work on campus. And, perhaps more urgently, we look forward to some announcement of its name.
DISSENT Freedom of Expression
Freedom of Expression
--Lauren E. Baer '02,
Meredith B. Osborn '02,
Alan E. Wirzbicki '01
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.