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In a year that saw New Jersey legalize gay marriage, Rutgers-Camden experienced a groundswell of events for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. In November, Chancellor Pritchett and the Chancellor’s Committee on Institutional Equity and Diversity hosted a luncheon for the Rutgers-Camden LGBTQ community and their allies. Groups like the Gay/Straight Alliance, Gender Studies Organization, and SafeZone are active campus organizations, bringing those who identify as LGBTQ and their allies together. And, behind the classroom walls, Rutgers-Camden offered its first course on LGBTQ history, called “Queer America.”
Taught by Dawn Walsh, a part-time lecturer for the women’s and gender studies program and Department of English and a recent graduate of Rutgers-Camden’s master of fine arts in creative writing program, the course enrolled 28 undergraduate students, whose majors range from biology to psychology, and whose reasons for taking the course vary. Some identify as LGBTQ and want to learn more about their community’s history. Some have friends and family who are LGBTQ, and are interested in supporting gay rights, and felt this course would be a good starting point. Others’ interest was simply sparked by the topic. The class delves into questions such as “What is LGBTQ history?” “How did we get to where we are today?” “How did the fight for LGBTQ liberation, rights, and equality become the ‘new civil rights movement’ of our time?”
In addition to reading texts like Queer America: A People’s GLBT History of the United States by Vicki L. Eaklor, the class read the poetry of Walt Whitman, viewed documentaries like The Celluloid Closet, and listened to presentations from guest lecturers, such as attorney Becca Levin, a specialist in LGBTQ family law. Students presented on topics such as the Urban Drag Balls of the 1920s, the sit-in for gay rights at Dewey’s Restaurant in Philadelphia in 1965, the 1985 formation of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the 2010 launch of the “It Gets Better Project.”
Walsh also took advantage of the fact that Philadelphia is just minutes away, and took her class out of the classroom and into the city, where they’ve visited the William Way LGBTQ Community Center to view the John J. Wilcox LGBTQ archives, and toured Giovanni’s Room, the nation’s oldest LGBTQ bookstore. There was a clear emphasis on relating the material learned in class to the world beyond the classroom.
Students in “Queer America: An Introduction to LGBTQ History” engage in spirited conversation.For example, Diana Hines, SBC ’15, is one of Walsh’s students who has been doing work outside the classroom. Hines works with Foyer of Philadelphia, a non-profit organization which serves the needs of local homeless LGBTQ youth. Recently, Foyer had to disband their night program because of budget cuts. Hines held a charity drag show at the Philadelphia nightclub Voyeur, in which all proceeds are benefitting Foyer’s new one-year rental assistance program for homeless LGBTQ youth. Marketing major Hines, who serves as the philanthropy coordinator for the campus Marketing Club, is passionate when she speaks about the cause for which she works. “LGBTQ youth is an underserved population. The drag show was a way for people to step outside their comfort zone in order to save a life. We need to identify as one and move forward together,” she says.
Community service is an important part of Walsh’s class, and on a recent Sunday, Walsh and a group of seven students traveled to Triad House in Ewing, New Jersey. Triad House is one of only three 24-hour residential group homes for LGBTQ homeless youth in the nation. Walsh and her class spent the afternoon with the four residents, baking cookies and playing games. “Our objective for that day was simple – we wanted to let them know that they are not alone,” says Walsh.
Recently, the Philadelphia Gay News (PGN) provided another valuable learning opportunity for the class. PGN editor Jen Colletta was intrigued by the class’ subject matter, and told Walsh that PGN, which is the oldest LGBTQ newspaper in the country and the largest on the East Coast, with an average readership of 50,000, would be debuting their first-ever youth supplement in January 2014. This supplement, which will run quarterly, will be entirely written and produced by high school and college students. In addition to news pieces, the youth supplement will publish creative writing and artwork that relate to the supplement’s theme, “New Beginnings.”
After learning about the opportunity, Walsh presented the idea to her class, to see which members would be interested in taking part in this extracurricular activity and writing an 800 – 1,200 word news story about their class, thereby adding a publication credit to their resumes. Two students – Mariah Brown, CCAS ’15, and Mason Hopkins, CCAS ’16, – volunteered for the opportunity, and are currently conducting surveys and interviews, researching the availability of other similar courses in local universities, and beginning to draft their article. Both students are full of praise for the class, calling it “amazing” and “awesome.” “It really opens up your eyes, lets you get different viewpoints,” Brown says. “It shows we’re getting closer to one day without discrimination,” Hopkins adds.
It took a couple of years and the work of many people for this now-successful course to morph from an idea to a reality. Walsh first approached the former director of the women’s and gender studies program, Dr. Laurie Bernstein, Associate Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History, to suggest creating and offering an LBGTQ history class. Bernstein was enthusiastic about the proposal. “This class fills a gap,” said Bernstein, “not only in terms of LGBTQ-themed offerings on campus, but also when it comes to history’s roster. We are indebted to Dawn Walsh, who has a graduate degree in women’s history from Sarah Lawrence College, for proposing the class and to [current] women’s and gender studies director Ellen Malenas Ledoux for supporting it.”
In Fall 2012, Bernstein stepped down as the director of the women’s and gender studies program, and Dr. Ellen Malenas Ledoux, Associate Professor of English, assumed the role. Ledoux began to work with Dr. Tyler Hoffman, Professor of English and former associate dean for the Camden College of Arts and Sciences, about funding the course as a pilot program. “As director of women’s and gender studies, I think it is critical to address the academic, cultural, and political needs of our LGBTQ community. This course [has had an] important impact…in terms of fostering political consciousness about and academic interest in LGBTQ history and civil rights issues,” says Ledoux.
While the Fall 2013 semester is winding down, the impact of Walsh’s course is by no means over. Other LGBTQ-related classes, such as Ledoux’s Spring 2014 course “The Queer Nineteenth Century,” pepper the course roster. “Queer America” will be offered again next year, and Ledoux and Dr. Joseph Schiavo, Associate Dean for FASC Undergraduate Programs and University College, are working to secure long-term, consistent funding for this class so that it may become a permanent part of the curriculum. This was a season of firsts, and there’s no end in sight. “Queer America’s” influence is certain to be felt many years into the future.
Written By Julie Roncinske