UUUU VOL. LVIII
wnm L0NGWO0D COLLEGE, FARMVILLE, VIRGINIA, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1982
NO. 10
Running Scared By JOEJOHNSON The Gay Community, only recently, in the last decade or so, has as a group come out of the closet in the U. S. Previously a hint of homosexuality could lead to book censorship, banishment from the stage, or a burning at the stake. In the early 70's, however, the sexual revolution, legitimized homosexual activity in such renowned California outposts of free love as San Francisco, or Fire Island in New York. As the sexual liberation spread so did the number of homosexuals coming out of the closet. Depending on the community, reactions to this extrovertness varied. Some took it in stride and welcomed the gay community with open arms (metaphorically speaking). Others, not unsurprisingly, withdrew and remainded citadels of the conservative attitude. I>ongwood, as a community, has never been subject to such a choice. Although longwood in the past as an all female institute has had a reputation for homosexual activity it was kept covert and closeted. This semester, an organization named Longwood's Discreet Gay Society (L.D.G.S.) may well force Ixmgwood to make such a choice. "L.D.G.S. was started in part as a reaction to my own personal experience as a bisexual on longwood's campus," said the organizer of L.D.G.S. who preferring anonymity, will be referred to as Walt. He estimates that such an organization oriented to the gay community could pull in as many as 325 participants or about 13 percent of Longwood's population, a modest estimation of the number of practicing homosexuals currently enrolled at Longwood. As a practicing bisexual, Walt up until very recently was extraordinarily discreet about his sexual preferences and practices. Unfortunately an incident occurred in his dormitory which revealed to a non-sympathetic suitemate his "true" colors. "It happened about a week before fall break. I was partying wi some 'straight' friends (as opposed to homosexual or bisexual friends). At the time I was extremely depressed about the general lack of acceptance and
Longwood's Discreet Gay Society understanding and began to talk intimately of my own problem — about being bi-sexual, here at IiOngwood." Unfortunately, at the same time his suitemate had overheard the conversation and came into the room demanding an explanation, as Walt put it, an explanation that would "let me off the hook." "I said, 'I'm sorry that you heard that, I hope you won't hold it against me . . . because that's the way I am.' " The suitemate, an ROTC cadet, did hold it against him saying, "Look, you're that way, and I can't accept that. I think it's disgusting.' " "He refused to be reasonable, about keeping it quiet, he found it appalling that my parents didn't know, he said he wanted nothing to do with me, didn't want to associate with me and then promptly went ahead and told all his friends about it." What followed was a series of petty annoyances and in some cases incidents which rivaled VMI's "initiation" ceremonies in maliciousness. "At first it was just verbal abuse, people yelling faggot from their window or in the hall. My suitemate wouldn't let me use the phone, which was in my name but in his room. He didn't even pay the bill... I had to pay it. Later they wrote Faggot on the door in red magic marker. They thought my roommate (who is straight) was homosexual and started hassling him with cat calls — faggot, faggot. "I went to visit Dr. Cox (head of Longwood's Counseling Service) because I was worried about a nervous breakdown. He and myself were hoping that incidents would die down after fall break... and they did for half a week. The Wednesday after fall break some people started screaming, 'faggot, I've heard you're a goddamned faggot.' They started kicking on the door to my room. They threatened violence. Later that night, I was in the room alone when I heard my suitemate and apparently some of his friends yelling taunts in the bathroom such as 'gay rights' or 'sexual preference, sexual preference... Oh, let me suck that juicy cock' or 'Oh, bend over and let me drive' and all the while someone was in the
background singing America the Beautiful. I felt like going to Captain Stanford and saying 'Sir, I think you should know that one of your ROTC cadets was participating in a homosexual orgy in my bathroom.' I put up with a lot of crap. Anyway, I left the room because I was worried about them getting violent. "I came back later and found faggot written on the door again — this time misspelled — one 'g' — but then they never accused biggots of being literate. I came into the room and found a puddle of yellowish liquid in front of my door (it was shampoo — not mine, my worst fear and immediate suspicion). They had dumped my shampoo, put graphite lead on my toothbrush and stuck pinholes in my toothpaste — it was pretty childish. "I told the R.A. about the incident and we went to my room, he started writing up the incident report, when my suitemade came in the room. He said something to the effect of 'you goddamned bastard, if you ever do that again I'll kill you.' He never said what he was talking about. He was really mad, his arm was cocked. The R.A. told him to calm down and asked him what happened. He wouldn't answer and started shaking like he was about to explode. The R.A. told him to go into his room and he said, "Yeh, I'll go over there and then I'll kill him.' Later after the R.A. had gotten my story and had gone next door and heard what my suitemate had to say we all got together and tried to work out a solution. My suitemate insisted that I leave. He suggested that I should commit suicide because I had no place in society.
"The upshot of all this was nil. I spoke with the R.S. about pressing charges — it was slow going. I don't know if he's ever written it up even. I liked school, but thought I'd have to move out — with prevailing attitudes like my suitemate's. "Finally, I went to various administrative officials, Thomas Nanzig (director of housing), Dr. Cox, Dean Ogrosky, and Ray Rotherwell. I told them about my problem. The administration was 100 percent supportive. They all helped a lot. Mr. Nanzig gave me possible legal routes to follow, and all of them were on my side — very professional about it. "Things started to happen. My suitemate finally paid the phone bill; he stopped the harassments and was forced (I believe by Captain Stanford) to move out. "L.D.G.S. is a direct result of this experience. I talked to the administration and told them of how such dilemmas may be commonplace and the need for an organizational force of some sort to prevent such incidents in the future. Without it every homosexual on campus would be like me — running scared. Everyone from Dr. Greenwood to Phyliss Maple seemed supportive of the idea. So I decided, why not." Following is an interview describing the organization and some of Walt's feelings on homosexuality. Rotunda — Has there been a good response to the L.D.G.S. salvo? Do you feel there will be a good response on this campus? Walt — I don't know really, it seems that the majority of the pamphlets which I hung at
various places around campus instead of being ripped up and destroyed by indignant, uptight people who can't handle the concept, were being taken down and passed around. I mean I only found one in a garbage can. Rotunda — Do you think there is a real chance of such an organization having members? Walt — I think there is good potential, simply because of the fact that there are a good sized percentage of gays here at Longwood. Rotunda — When did you first realize that you were bisexual? Walt - Well, as far back as I can remember, in fact, the heterosexual tendencies only came out starting at age 19 when I thought I'd go ahead and give heterosexuality a try ... it didn't pan out all that well, though. Rotunda — When was your first homosexual experience? Walt - At age 17. Rotunda — Is it stressful to you, without the added stress of dormitory living and suitemates, is just being in the minority as far as sexual preference is concerned, stressful to you? Walt — No, why should it be, statistics indicate that 10 per cent of the world's population is gay. Do you realize how many t"at is, like 200 million of us running around. A bit less now, Khomeini's marching them in front of the firing squad, but we're used to that, Hitler did the same thing. America's a nice place to be, though, you're able to "get away" with it. Rotunda — Do you have any particular admiration for homosexual writers, homosexual artists, homosexual musicians? Walt — I'm not well versed enough really, I've only just recently begun to get involved in (Continued on Page 8)
Major Minor Elections Dec. 2, Thurs., 9-6 Petitions Due—NOV. 23 (Before Break) Speech Night TIM*., NOV. 30 12:45 afternoon Gold Room