We need more LGBT activism

But the momentum doesn’t stop with the military and marriage. Last week the governor of Massachusetts signed an executive order protecting state employees from being discriminated by gender identity and expression, and just this week Newark announced an education reform plan that includes a public school option for gay students. Yet even given this evidence of progress, there remain important empirical gaps in legal standing for LGBT people, including those in our Princeton community.

The idea that Princeton students, capable and informed as we are, would not be at the forefront of such momentous social change seems absurd. It is just in time, then, that the Princeton Equality Project — a movement to engage Princeton students with LGBT issues — has joined the conversation. This new group represents an ideology that is often commonplace at Universities across the country but novel to the Princeton community: undergraduate activism matters.

Princeton students aren’t really enthusiastic about political activism. It’s certainly not a unique assertion to make. It takes quite a bit to get a rise out of us, and even then we seem pretty content talking it through and making sure there’s a whole lot of “awareness” of the issue at hand. Say what you will about Princeton students, we are nothing if not “aware.” I’m not sure if it’s due to our busy schedules, an urge to keep our hands clean before applying to high-profile jobs, or any other number of explanations. Whatever the motivation is, we seem — at least relative to student movements across the country and across time — fairly unmotivated to fight. What exactly this awareness translates into is unclear, but it’s certainly not action.

One area where this is acutely apparent, and not surprisingly so, is on the subject of LGBT rights. Here we are, over two hundred years into this country’s rocky history with equality, with a minority population systematically deprived of legal equality on one issue after the next by virtue of an element of their identity. This community does not have membership exclusively in some far off land, nor does it exist solely within any other discrete community, marginalized or otherwise. The percentage of LGBT individuals on this planet might not be tremendous, but, contrary to the claims of the presidents of Iran and China, for example, we exist in every race, religion, country, gender, income level, business and university.

Princeton is a place of tremendous privilege — something we are simultaneously troubled by and proud of. Yet some of our closeted peers return home for every break in silence, fearing for their physical, emotional or financial security should their families actually know them. This week, the Red Cross truck came to town and asked us to do our part, but gay students were told their very blood is suspect. As brilliant as any of our classmates, we graduate knowing we can legally lose our jobs in 29 states because of our sexuality. For as “aware” as we all are, how are members of the Princeton community degraded so thoroughly by law and society with so little response from the rest of us?

Given our wealth of resources, not least of which are our minds, we have a tremendous opportunity, if not a responsibility, to at least engage these issues. Undergraduate voices at Princeton can call for and work towards greater inclusion of the LGBT movement in academia, the particular needs of transsexual students in University healthcare, the role of sexual and gender identity in examinations of student leadership and much more. From University policy to federal law, there is progress to be made and the means to achieve it at Princeton. We just seem to be missing the will.

Everyday we go to classes, eat, talk and live with people who perpetually interact with injustice — their very identity is political. There is no abstention from a community that permits inequality; opting out of the conversation is being complicit with the status quo. This is why I am thrilled to introduce the Princeton Equality Project — a new student group created to meet awareness with action around LGBT issues. Things don’t just get better — you have to make them that way, and with the support of the Princeton community we intend to.

Andrew Blumenfeld is a sophomore from La Canada, Calif. He can be reached at ablumenf@princeton.edu.