More Funds for Gay Studies

By Darren Thomas | Monday, January 15, 2001

Dartmouth alumnus Roger Klorese '77 and his partner David Haney donated one million dollars to the College at a November 4 ceremony in the Collis Student Center. The purpose of the gift, according to Dartmouth's announcement, is to enhance 'Dartmouth's programming and support for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students.'

Klorese, a software strategist from San Francisco, is the founder of QueerNet, which touts itself as the only provider of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Internet communities. Haney is a professional cellist and composer.

Klorese's gift represents 'an important step forward in the history of the College,' said Dean of the College James Larimore. 'I have a special appreciation for what it will mean for our students in their day to day lives.' The donation is the second Dartmouth has received in the last year for GLBT activities. On February 21, 2000, the College adopted the $250,000 Carpenter Fund for both academic and extra-curricular activities for homosexual students (see TDR, 3/13/00).

Pam Misener, Dartmouth's 'Coordinator of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Advocacy and Programming' and newly appointed full-time advisor for GLBT students, opened the ceremony. Misener explained that, when she first came to the College, she thought that Dartmouth life would be 'a quest to survive' for those 'outside the establishment.' Now, however, she is confident that change is underway. 'Social change is not possible without visionary leadership,' she said, lauding Dartmouth for new programs for gay students and, especially, the Student Life Initiative, in which Misener herself has been involved. 'When we work to improve our campus for a particular group of students,' she said, 'we improve it for everyone.'

President Wright, who also spoke at the ceremony, said that the gift would, in fact, benefit all students. Some gifts, said Wright, should be praised for 'the principles they affirm,' and he included the Klorese donation in this group. Wright did not identify the particular principles, though he did remark, 'None of us would learn deeply or well if all were heterogeneous.' Yes, he did say 'heterogeneous'; he probably meant some combination of 'homogeneous' and 'heterosexual.'

In presenting the gift, Klorese recounted his founding of Students for Social Alternative, a gay rights organization, when he was at the College. He likened SSA to an early SLI. 'The SLI,' Klorese said, 'is an important statement for correcting the oversteers of the D-Plan and creating an atmosphere for academic alliance.' Wright also linked the Klorese gift to the SLI, noting it among the changes that would be happening during the implementation of the SLI.

Klorese intends the gift to welcome gay students fully into the Dartmouth
community, and to combat homophobia. But he has reason to be suspicious. The Carpenter Fund, for example, is financing the residency of Visiting Professor Michael Bronski, who taught 'Introduction to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies' last fall. 'Homophobia,' Bronski has written, is not senseless bigotry, but a 'completely rational fear.' Says Bronski, 'Homosexuality in fact does represent a very decisive threat to how the world is organized.' In an ideal gay world 'the biological family becomes superfluous,' for homosexuality adopts 'a sexuality that is justified by pleasure alone.' As such, he writes, homosexuality 'strikes at the heart of the organization of Western culture and
societies.'
Bronski advances a bleak vision of peaceful coexistence between the GLBT community and the heterosexual community. For him, integration isn't possible; a sort of transformation needs to occur. All of which may be why campus identity politics is usually adversarial.
Sure sounds like the SLI.

More Funds for Gay Studies

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