U. affiliates share experiences at LGBT Center's 10th anniversary celebration

The University’s LGBT Center celebrated its tenth anniversary on Oct. 14 with storytelling by five alumni, followed by a reception. The Center is the sixth oldest of its kind in the nation and one of only fifty nationwide to have over two full-time staff.

The event began with narratives from the 1970s, when resources for LGBT students on campus were virtually nonexistent.

“I was so excited and so naive,” Abby Rubenfeld ’75 said, regarding her expectations of the queer community at the University, “It was not an atmosphere friendly to LGBT people. The word 'transgender' was not even used.”

Rubenfeld arrived at the University in 1971, the third year of coeducation. As a sophomore, she was elected the first female president of the student body.

“I was validated by winning the election, but there was no validation and acceptance of who I was,” Rubenfeld said.

The Gay Pride Alliance, the University’s first LGBT organization, was founded in September of 1972 by Arthur Eisenbach ’74 and Judith Schaeffer ’74. The Alliance’s primary goal was to provide social opportunities for gay and lesbian students on campus.

“In May 1973, the group held a ‘queer dance’ … it drew a crowd of over 300 people,” LGBT Center Director Judy Jarvis said. “It was covered by The New York Times.”

However, the organization continued to encounter opposition from much of the student body.

“The group’s posters were regularly torn down soon after they went up,” Jarvis said.

According to Jarvis, in 1985 the University refused a donation by Dick Limoges ’60 intended to fund gay and lesbian activities on campus in 1985. In response, Limoges and Shawn Cowls ’87 held an alumni meeting which established the ‘Fund for Reunion,’ a nonprofit separate from the University that aimed to connect gay and lesbian alumni.

“In 1989, GALAP [Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Princeton] held an event called Gay Jeans Day," Jarvis said. “If you supported gays and lesbians, you wore jeans on that day.”

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On a campus where jeans were a clothing staple, the event became extremely divisive. Although student reactions were mixed, the event helped GALAP gain attention and publicity.

“GALAP was no longer a lonely hearts club,” Jarvis added, “but a campus force. Everyone knew who they were.”

The transgender movement, however, was still nonexistent. Many undergraduate students didn’t have the terminology to describe their gender orientation.

“At the time, there was no community to connect with or explore,” Melody Maia Monet ’93 said.

Monet lived in a single dorm her junior and seniors years so she could dress according to her gender orientation when she was alone.

“I was hiding my identity, literally, under my clothes,” she said.

While Suman Chakraborty '97 was attending the University, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, Ellen DeGeneres came out as lesbian, and the AIDS epidemic continued to take lives, he said in his presentation.

“So much was happening outside campus gates and we felt like we experienced it in our own way here,” Chakraborty said.

Chakraborty said he came out his first semester and experienced contradictory reactions to his identity. By his senior year, he served as the president of the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Alliance. The Tory ran a column commenting on his sex life.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or shake my head,” Chakraborty said. “But I’m not angry anymore.”

“Despite my ambivalence about my experience here, I’m grateful for the journey the University started me on,” he added.

Wade Rakes ’02 thanked the Center’s staff for their support throughout his time as an undergraduate.

“I’m beyond grateful, because I know it wasn’t easy,” Rakes said. He also emphasized the potential that the Center holds to help others going forward.

“We have to do the work for the people who are here, but also for the people who aren’t here, for a variety of reasons,” he said.

When Fiona Miller ’09 arrived at the University from Tucson, Ariz., she was unsure about her sexual orientation.

“I recognized [starting college] as an opportunity to reinvent myself,” Miller said. The LGBT Center, which moved to its current location on the third floor of the Frist Campus Center in 2005, helped her to do that.

“There were so many resources,” Fiona Miller ’09 said. “They made it so easy to get involved.”

Debbie Bazarky was hired as the University’s first full-time LGBT student services coordinator in 2001. She founded the LGBT Center in 2005, and its official opening was in October 2006.

Bazarky received an honorary degree from the University in 2013.

“When I started, my goal was to have ten students in each year be out. Then we would have forty out students which, at the time, was an unimaginably large number.” Bazarky said. “Now, about 50 students a year who attend the University were already out of the closet when they applied.”

Throughout her tenure, Bazarky was able to spend about four times the budget for the center through cosponsoring and donations.

“We have been on the cutting edge,” Bazarky said. “We were one of the first universities to support asexuality. We have more LGBT and queer related courses than ever.”

The alumni stories were followed by a group reception at the LGBT Center in Room 246 of the Frist Campus Center.

“I was deeply moved by the personal stories and the real strength of the individuals who forged a path,” Vice President for Student Life W. Rochelle Calhoun said.

“There were really great personal narrative experiences,” LGBT Center Program Coordinator Andy Cofino added. “It was really powerful to hear individual stories, as opposed to the strictly historical.”

Many of the attendees agreed, saying that they found the strength of the storytellers both inspiring and encouraging.

“It showed progress and how they kept trying,” Brandon Ward ’20 said.

“I appreciated the emphasis on today,” Andy Zheng ’20 added. “It encourages us to make progress and make a difference.”

Looking forward to the next ten years, the Center's staff hope to build on the foundation that has been established.

“The alumni who were back were fantastic and shared vulnerable things,” Jarvis said. “[The Center] wants to continue to have programming that challenges and excites students.”

“One of my goals is for the Center to become too large to fit in the Frist 246 space,” she added. “I want to have gender inclusive housing and gender neutral bathrooms throughout campus.”

“We are committed to continuing to focus on intersectionality and to keep building on our foundation,” Cofino added.

“Lots of the big institutions, like Princeton, wait for culture to change and wait for the end of the change to take action,” Miller said. “But the University took a stand first and waited for the culture to catch up.”

The event took place 4:30 p.m. at Princeton University Art Museum.