GAY WEDNESDAY

To the Editors of The Crimson:

There was a lot of confusion about Gay Wednesday, and we believe your article may have aggravated it. The stated purpose of the event--to allow gay people to get to know each other--simply could not have been realistic. The prejudices against gayness create an atmosphere in which gay people who were not already open about their preferences would not be especially inclined to become open all of a sudden.

There were two real purposes to Gay Wednesday. First, we wanted to show that anti-gay prejudice and fear of gayness are real at Harvard-Radcliffe. Many people who avoided jeans did so out of this kind of fear. Second, we wanted to bring home to straight people the constraints that we must deal with in our daily lives. Gay people must react to social pressure every day; the straight people who were afraid to wear jeans had to react to a similar pressure for only a single day. Gay people are constantly aware of the reality of this kind of pressure, which should help explain why most of the people interviewed by The Crimson wanted to remain anonymous.

We hope that this has helped to clear up any misunderstandings. Lew Lasher '78   President, Harvard-Radcliffe   Gay Students Association