Examining Orientation

Each year, the Opening Days program gives freshmen a feel for the flavor of Harvard. One taste comes in an email sent out to all freshmen informing them of a separate workshop on sexual assault issues affecting LGBTQ individuals—and it’s a bitter one. Although it’s admirable that the administration has worked to become more sensitive to the needs of Harvard’s LGBTQ community, in the interest of true equality the segregated assault workshops require an overhaul.

As of now, students are required to attend at least one sexual assault workshop, but they may attend both the workshop aimed at straight and at the one aimed at LGBTQ individuals. This allows students who are still questioning or uncomfortable to learn about the risks they might face, without necessarily “outing” themselves. It also allows any student to explore the issue from multiple perspectives. But in the past several years, according to former Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response director Sarah Rankin, attendance numbers have hovered around 20 people in the LGBTQ workshop. Such low turnouts may indicate that students feel the LGBTQ workshop still carries a stigma. It is statistically unlikely that so few freshmen are members of a sexual- or gender-minority, which suggests that many who could have benefited from the workshop chose to avoid it instead.

Requiring both workshops for all students would ensure that all closeted or questioning students have access to information that could significantly affect their time at Harvard, both on and off campus. In an interview, Dr. Kyle Gobrogge, who attended last year’s LGBTQ workshop in his capacity as a freshman proctor, told me he would like to see more focus on sexual harassment situations outside the University. Although this criticism could be applied to the heterosexual workshop as well, LGBTQ students are in an especially vulnerable situation because, due to their minority status, they often attend bars or dating sites that cater to the LGBTQ community outside of Harvard. This may be especially true for closeted students—exactly the kind of freshmen who might shy away from attending the LGBTQ workshop.

Even straight students would benefit from learning about the issues that face their transgendered or queer peers: Doing so would enable them to reach out properly and effectively in the event of a sexual assault. A 2011 report by the Harvard College Women’s group noted that administrators do not seem to focus on bringing LGBTQ-centric information to the college as a whole. Harvard works to make students of all backgrounds aware of specific difficulties that face students of racial minorities; there is not a separate Community Conversations event during Opening Days for white students and black students. Likewise, issues of LGBTQ-discrimination affect the entire community, and therefore the entire community should be made aware of them.

Under-attendance also leads to other problems in the LGTBQ workshop. As a student identifying as pansexual, I may be in situations involving both male and female partners. Therefore, the types of assault that I may have to deal with will be essentially different from students who are lesbian, or who are transgendered. Although we often see it as a homogenous group, the LGBTQ community consists of numerous identities and orientations. But not all of these were represented in the workshop, and so the issues affecting some groups received less airtime than others.

The primary focus last year was on gay men. This demographic was also the most represented at the workshop—by a considerable margin. It can be crushing as a member of a sexual minority to be sidelined even in parts of campus specifically set aside for your benefit. We must seek diversity within diversity, and be aware of where we fall short. For example, the 2011 study found that biphobia—the lack of acceptance of identifying bisexuals, even in LGBTQ communities—was still prevalent on campus, noting reports of “pervasive bisexual discrimination across campus.” There may be pragmatic concerns to continuously diversifying the workshop, but a meaningful step would be to extend the workshop so that all sexual minorities—and their specific concerns—get attention.

We must not be complacent regarding LGBTQ rights. Especially after the recent advances we have seen in gay rights, it might be easy to say that we no longer have to consider these issues a priority. And yet there are many people in the country—and probably some on campus—who disagree, sometimes vehemently, with this kind of progressivism. It is particularly important during this time that we be aware of any implicit biases we have. Those starting their careers at Harvard deserve access to specific information that will ensure their safety. True equality will only be achieved when LGBTQ students can become fully integrated, so they are not queer students, but simply students.

Tez M. Clark ’17 is a Crimson editorial writer in Adams House.