How appropriate. With reactionary pomp, the White House proclaimed last week "Marriage Protection Week," defining marriage exclusively as a "union between a man and a woman" and calling upon "the people of the United States to observe this week with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies." Appropriately, the Pride Alliance and LGBT Student Services hosted Awareness Week, and the Princeton Queer Radicals sponsored a love-in at Frist. I do not know if the timing was planned or purely coincidental, but regardless, I found it quite appropriate.
With Iraq and the economy still disappointing, Osama bin Laden nowhere to be found except on video, Saddam Hussein nowhere to be heard except on audiotapes, and WMD nowhere to appear except in U.S. mailboxes, the president's poll numbers are weak and the election is looming. Maybe Bush would benefit from a Queer Eye for the Candidate Guy.
The presidential proclamation demonstrates the need to address the entrenched nature of discrimination against the LGBTQA community. The extremists who are self-appointed "protectors" of marriage are not just fringe elements; many occupy the highest government offices in the land. But please do not view the necessary for equality as a republican vs. democrat, left vs. right, issue. Much prejudice crosses party, political, and other lines. It is necessary to challenging Washington, but there is also local work to be done.
Last Friday, I saw "The Laramie Project." The play is constructed from a series of transcribed interviews conducted in the small Wyoming town of Laramie following the horrendous hate-motivated murder of Matthew Shepard, a local young gay male, in 1998. Those interviews convey common societal attitudes, not just local ones, highlighting the obvious truth that anti-gay prejudice is not simply a Wyoming thing. Attempts to distance oneself from the substance of the play through sheer geography are futile. "The Laramie Project" hits home. Like Columbine and many other modern day U.S. tragedies, the events in Laramie pierce the common belief that such-and-such a thing could never happen in Somewhere-Not-So-Special, U.S.A.
Although Princeton is special for many of us, lessons from Laramie do carry weight here. Thankfully, from what I can tell, the University is highly supportive of the LGBTQA community and provides excellent resources intended to further the ideal of gender and sexuality diversity and acceptance. The USG has recently formed a special ad-hoc task force on LGBT concerns. Still, many problems persist, and we must work together to deal with them.
There are, first off, some rather awkward issues. Like Frist, for example. I love the campus center, but what a name. Senator Frist is a leading proponent of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Sigh. Can we change the campus center name? I find that Senator Frist's attitudes — though not necessarily representative of those of his entire family — run contrary to the principles of diversity that the university has espoused (pun completely intended).
Did anyone tell Senator Frist that the building bearing his family name hosted the Queer Radicals love-in last week? Does he know that it houses the Pride Center? If not, we should tell him in a letter . . . a perfumed letter (filled with love you see). I guess the letter idea is a bit childish,—kind of like proclaiming a Marriage Protection Week when what is really intended is Anti Gay Marriage Week — but it does bring me to another awkward issue, that of upperclassmen mailboxes. The very addresses of many students bear the name of a man who might despise them for who they are. Talk about hitting home.
So why not call it the First Campus Center instead? It is, after all, the first one we've ever had, and visitors constantly make the mistake of calling it First. Even if the name-change thing doesn't work out, the hosting of diversity programs in the confines of Frist sends a message that regardless of how much money is poured in, the campus belongs to the present-day students and to the future. There should be a widespread copycat campaign of Princeton activism and awareness at other sites with similarly unfortunate family names. Maybe someone should try to host an exhibit at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Texas A&M on the history of anti-gay discrimination. There are plenty of locations in the U.S. that deserve to have their legacies challenged.
Here on campus, the fight for equality and acceptance for all entails combating bigotry in all forms at all times. Let no slur slip by, and condone no act of insensitivity. To do otherwise is to be complicit, thus sewing the seeds of hate and hate crime. In response to whatever "protection" week comes next, declare your own celebration, perhaps Rights Protection Lifetime. Oh, and make sure you celebrate it everywhere, but especially in Frist.
Fernando Delgado is a Wilson School major from Brasilia, Brazil.
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