President Urges Effort Against Homophobia

Recent controversy surrounding the alleged harassment of a gay Mather House student indicates that students and house masters need to make a greater effort to address homophobia on campus, President Bok said in an interview yesterday.

"I think an incident ought to cause a certain amount of careful examination," Bok said. "I would guess that probably some added effort to overcome those problems is needed."

Bok said he thinks that a grassroots effort by house masters and house committees to encourage discussion of attitudes toward gay, lesbian and bisexual issues would be more effective than a College-wide program on homophobia.

He added that he believes some houses may havemore of a problem with homophobia than others.

"I think a house-by-house. self-evaluation isprobably the most constructive way to go," Boksaid. "With serious reflection by house committeesand house masters, they can make seriousefforts...to try and talk out the problem inhouses where evidence suggests that greaterawareness and greater attention are needed."

Since the alleged harassment on February19--the details of which still remainunclear--Mather students have been divided on thequestion of homophobia in the house.

A "kiss-in" staged in the Mather dining hall bythe student group Defeat Homophobia and theposting of pink triangles in students' windows asa show of solidarity with the gay community havecaused widespread debate.

But Bok said the discussion about homophobiasince the Mather incident has probably beenproductive.

"My experience tells me that getting theseproblems up on the table and discussing them,trying to verbalize and articulate them, come togrips with them, is in the end the most powerfuleducational device," he said.

Bok said he believes that lack of studentparticipation would likely undermine theeffectiveness of any broad efforts, such asUniversity-sponsored forums on homophobia.

"Any way of approaching this problem that doesnot evolve out of the [house] community inquestion isn't likely to work very well," headded.

On Sunday, the Undergraduate Council passed aresolution asking masters to sponsor housediscussions and workshops on issues of sexualorientation. The resolution's sponsor, Sean J.Bolser '89, said last night that although he isglad Bok favors house discussions, he does notthink grassroots efforts are a wholly adequateresponse to homophobia.

"It's pretty clear that greater attention andawareness are needed all over campus," Bolsersaid. "That's got to be coming from bothdirections--the University does need to take alead.