LGBT prepares talks, Jeans Day in support of Awareness Week

The Princeton Pride Alliance, in conjunction with LGBT Student Services, is subsidizing and organizing a series of activities starting tonight for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Awareness Week to build awareness of and support for the gay, bisexual and transgender community.

A number of other student organizations, including the USG and the Program in African-American Studies, are also co-sponsoring events, which will run through next Thursday.

LGBT Student Service, Pride Alliance and the Frist Campus Center will be kicking off the events tonight with a speech by James Dale, the Boy Scout leader who was expelled because of his homosexuality.

Other activities range from more social, bonding events, such as "First Fridays at Frist" and a BBQ Picnic on Sunday, to academic panels like Monday's discussion on African-American sexuality and Saturday's trip to New York city to return to the roots of the gay pride movement.

Pride Alliance Publicity Chair Kevin Simmons '03 said, "The activities allow for different levels of involvement and center around providing a comfortable atmosphere for people to talk about homosexuality in their lives and the community."

Awareness Week will be celebrated Tuesday with "Gay Jeans Day." All members of the University are invited to wear jeans to show their support and awareness of the gay community.

"Being gay shouldn't be anything strange or unusual. It should be as open as wearing jeans," said Pride Alliance president Anne-Marie Barrett '02. "This day forces people to wake up and make the decision to either support the group or choose to ignore it."

Awareness Week will culminate with National Coming Out Day next Thursday. On that day there will be a rally in front of Frist to allow students, faculty and staff to publicly voice their support for the LGBT community on campus.

"National Coming Out Day is a day of celebration for people who already came out," Barrett said. "This day also acts as an impetus for coming out."

LGBT concerns coordinator Debbie Bazarsky added, "The goals of the week-long list of activities are to educate people and raise awareness of LGBT issues in the larger public sphere."

In 1985, Princeton was only the second national academy to adopt a sexuality nondiscrimination policy, making it one of the most progressive universities on the subject in the country at the time. Since then, Barrett and Simmons agreed, the University has slowly moved to the back of the pack in dealing with the concerns of the gay and bisexual community.

"Compared to other Ivy League universities, resources here at Princeton lag behind. However, it has not reached the point where members of LGBT feel slighted," Simmons said.

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The Pride Alliance and its former branch groups recently have had to fight for office space on campus. For a time they were pushed to the Armory, far from the center of campus.

"For a group that had been marginalized in the past it was a slap in the face," Simmons said.

Since that time, the University has made more substantial attempts to satisfy the needs of the Pride Alliance. This summer the full-time position of LGBT concerns coordinator was created under the office of the dean of undergraduate students. Bazarsky was the first person to hold that position.

Prior to 1994, the Department of Religious Life advised all groups pertaining to sexuality. From 1994-2000 the position of LGBT adviser was a full-time internship position with a high rate of turnover.

Pride Alliance members are now hoping to reach out to the Princeton community. Leaders expressed concern that the gay community in Princeton is hard to see. They also said they strive toward a more socially acceptable environment for gays.

"We can always do more," Barrett said.