Queer Students and Allies Divided On Political Neutrality Policy

After the Harvard College Queer Students and Allies announced a new policy making the group politically neutral, BLGTQ students and allies, including a co-chair of QSA, denounced the decision and circulated a petition expressing opposition.

During a recent meeting of the QSA, the College’s main BGLTQ student organization, attendees elected new club officers and collectively endorsed the policy, according to an email sent over the the group’s listserv.

While “QSA will remain committed to advocating for LGBTQ+ students on campus and LGBTQ+ issues in the world at large,” the new policy reads, the organization will “remain politically neutral on issues that do not affect LGBTQ+ people explicitly because of their queer identity,” according to the email. A “majority” of the board and attendees at the meeting, held Sunday, believed that QSA would best maintain its role as a “blanket LGBTQ+ advocacy group” by eschewing political affiliations. The group “could not unanimously agree on a statement,” the email reads.

The decision has created divisions within QSA. Shortly after the announcement was emailed, the group’s co-chair, Ted Waechter ’18 sent a Google form titled “Petition for an Intersectional QSA” over the same listserv, encouraging members to reject the new policy.

The announcement of the new policy also spurred immediate outcry of the QSA listserv. The group’s new politics co-chair— “responsible for ensuring that awareness about the intersection of LGBT and political issues is maintained on campus,” according to the organization’s constitution—replied to the listserv indicating he was not present at the decision and also did not support the new policy.

According to the petition, 15 members of QSA voted in favor of political neutrality, which the petition characterizes as an “explicitly and intentionally un-intersectional policy.”

The new policy “preemptively ends any conversation about acting in solidarity with other groups,” the petition reads, including the Black Lives Matter movement and HUDS workers, whose union is currently threatening to strike.

“It is impossible to disconnect queerness and its oppressions from other identities or forms of oppression,” the petition continues. “QSA cannot pretend to represent the BGLTQ+ community at Harvard if it does not come through for all of us.”

Waechter, a Crimson editorial editor, and several other members of QSA declined to comment on the decision. In addition, Waechter, who declined to identify the people who voted for the new policy, said QSA had collectively decided not to speak to reporters on the issue. Waechter also did not indicate the number of signatures the petition had garnered.

Several other Harvard affiliates spoke out against the neutrality policy.

Brianna J. Suslovic ’16, formerly an active member of QSA, said she thought the policy constituted an “erasure” of BLGTQ and questioning students who are “processing other parts of their identity simultaneously.”

“For an organization that purports to be for queer people at Harvard to not take into account the ways that other identities affect individual and group politics feels frustrating to me,” Suslovic said.

Carla Troconis ’19, director of the upcoming play “The Submission,” renounced the QSA’s sponsorship of her production. She said the organization’s decision was inconsistent with the message of the play.

“The whole point of the show is to highlight that marginalized groups tend not to support each other, and that’s really problematic,” Troconis said. “How are we supposed to fight against oppression by the majority when you’re being oppressed by fellow minorities?”

Casey R. Goggin ’19, who will play the lead role in “The Submission,” said that political neutrality could make the QSA seem like an “exclusive, unwelcoming, and uncomfortable” environment for many of its members.

“It was a very eerie decision for the QSA to make because the show is very explicitly calling for intersectionality between the queer community and specifically the black community, but also all other marginalized groups,” Goggin said. “We definitely don’t feel like QSA is the most appropriate sponsor for that anymore, which is heartbreaking.”

Gavin Sullivan ’17, a former member of the Queer Advisory Council—an undergraduate group that advises the Office of BGLTQ Student Life—and current vice president of Harvard Republicans, said that he considered the policy QSA’s attempt to be a “Big Tent” group for Harvard’s BLGTQ population.

—Staff writer Marella A. Gayla can be reached at marella.gayla@thecrimson.com. Follow her on twitter @marellagayla.