July 2014
Volume 1 Issue 8
HBCU DIGEST
DISCOVER YOUR TRUE POTENTIAL.
SCIENCE THRIVES AT ALCORN. BUT SOME DISCOVERIES DON’T HAPPEN IN THE LAB. In Alcorn’s dynamic living and learning environment, students develop the skills they need for lasting success in today’s global marketplace. As they do, they often find something more: an inner strength and sense of purpose they never knew they had.
For financial aid and enrollment information, call 1.800.222.6790 or visit www.alcorn.edu.
HBCU
DIGEST Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LBGT) Culture
CONTENTS Publisher Jarrett Carter, Sr. Editor Autumn A. Arnett Assistant Editor Kyle Yeldell Contributors Lois Elfman English Fields Vann Newkirk II Lakin Starling
5 Letter from the Publisher 6 STUDENT DIARY By English Fields 10 I, TOO, SING HBCU Students Navigate Sexual Identity on Campus By Christina Sturdivant 13 CLASH Sexual Identity and Spirituality at HBCUs By Vann R. Newkirk II 17 PRIDE AMONGST PLAYERS HBCU Student Athletes Struggle to Find Their Place in Locker Room Culture By Lois Elfman
Christina Sturdivant Cover Art Carla Whitlock Magazine Design La Keita D. Carter HBCU Digest is published monthly by Carter Media Enterprises, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. HBCU Digest and the HBCU Digest logo are protected through registered trademark. For advertising and subscription information, contact carter@hbcudigest.com.
20 TRANSGENDER HBCU Students Speak Out on Minority Experience By Lakin Starling 22 TEACHING TOLERANCE Education Fosters Inclusivity at Some HBCUs By Jarrett Carter Sr.
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HBCU
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Letter from the Publisher Greetings, If you’ve followed this magazine over the first half of 2014, you’ve grown accustomed to reading perspective in this space from Autumn Arnett, a proud graduate of Clark Atlanta University, and the editor of this publication and its online partner, HBCUDigest.com. While Autumn is no longer working with the HBCU Digest, it is my privilege to use this space to thank her publicly for her partnership and friendship in taking the Digest to tremendous heights in its coverage of the national HBCU community. She is a stellar example of what makes HBCUs great, and the impact they continue to have on culture, industry and society. What you’ll read in the following pages is a fitting exit for Autumn, as this is the strongest edition we’ve ever produced in this magazine’s brief history. This issue provides a glimpse at one of the most hotly discussed topics in the HBCU community today - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender culture at HBCUs. Startling, endearing, and heartfelt are just a few of the descriptors we hope you’ll experience as you journey through the perspectives of LGBT students and allies on matters of spirituality, athletics, leadership and education. Our goal with this issue was to add to intelligent discourse on how to move towards a more inclusive and tolerant community, by giving to you the voices of brothers and sisters who often and unfairly live with feelings of fear, confusion and doubt surrounding their sexuality. We hope that you find these stories to be more compassionate than controversial, and healing more than harmful. Thank you, Autumn. And thank you for reading.
Yours in Advocacy,
! Jarrett Carter, Sr.
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By English Fields
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Student Diary: Just a Count With a Story for Any
try “Kidd” from Mississippi yone Who Will Listen “My name is English, and I prefer the gender pronouns she/her, he/ him, no they/them or ma'am. ‘Kidd’ is my own preferred gender pronoun (PGP). ‘Sir’ makes me feel powerful, while ‘girl’ makes my eyes roll and I won't answer to it. I identify as a dom, along the masculine of centered spectrum.” That's normally stated as part of my introduction when I am in a LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) space. Out of respect, you're asked your PGP (preferred Gender Pronoun) because you want to be sure to identify one by such, and not the wrong one. It took me several years to be comfortable saying those things. My journey through my sexuality is still being unfolded, and I am very unsure where the road shall lead me, but I do hope I can help someone that identifies just as me. I grew up in the conservative town of Corinth, Miss. I do believe this is where I learned how to be private about who I am. I realized I was different in eighth grade, but kept it to myself until I went to college. I remember sitting in accelerated math class in eighth grade, passing a note back and forth to my good friend Kristen, when I said “I just want to end it.”
I left Corinth headed for Alcorn State University in the Fall of 2007. I didn't explore my sexuality there, but I was starting to come to terms with it. After my freshman year, I decided to transfer to Jackson State University to be closer to my family. Once I transferred to Jackson State in 2008, I confirmed to myself that I was indeed a lesbian. In the summer of 2009, my grandmother and I were having a long conversation about life when she busted out, "English, I know you don't like boys. And I want you to be comfortable with who you are. Just don't tell your mother yet." Puzzled, I agreed to grant her that wish.
Pride to me means to EMBRACE YOU for YOU. No matter what your community thinks of you, or what you do in life, you always have to be comfortable in your own body.
That August before I returned to JSU, she passed away from cancer. That semester at JSU, I wanted to explore being openly gay, yet I felt dirty, rejected, and ashamed to be identifying in such an “un-ladylike” manner, as said by church members. My best friend, Jaslynn, assured me that I am who I am because God made me this way. “One day you will help people with your story,” she told me.
I never took that into consideration until she passed away in January. In my mind I knew she, along I was a peer helper, and so this came as a with my grandmother, were the only two people surprise to Kristen. She had no idea why I —English Fields, Ebony Magazine, that would have been there for me. Due to the grief was saying what I was saying, but she 2013 of losing my grandmother and Jaslynn back to comforted me and told me there was more back, I walked away from JSU. Coupled with the to life. grief, I was still struggling with my sexuality— without the only two people who had known and supported me. Although there were talks about my sexuality among peers in high school because of my clothing, I would attempt to hide who I was I felt like I could have ended my life then and there. I can admit that for fear of losing acceptance. I was popular in school, and I thought I wanted to commit suicide because of my sexuality. A lot of broththat I would lose “friends,” or should I say Black friends. I personalers and sisters can't come to the terms of identifying who they are so ly think all of the White friends respected me, and supported me they commit suicide. I had convinced myself that this was the only being a lesbian. I remember talking to my friend Liz one day about way that I could be "free." my sexuality, and she said sometimes she wished that more people An ex-girlfriend forced me “out” with a Facebook status that ancould be like me. nounced we were together. With the issue of my sexuality now I felt like if I came out, I would put my mother to shame. My mother public, I realized that I needed to face the music of who I was. raised my brother and I by herself, and she made sure we had the very That Father's Day, my mother asked me the ultimate question: was best, even if it didn't always seem like it. Sometimes, when I thought I gay? Everyone who knows me knows I joke a lot. So jokingly, I about everything I have that she's sacrificed for me, I felt like if I said “yes,” followed by “well you can get a STD quicker than me.” came out in high school, she'd take it from me as a sort of a punishment. I used to have dreams where I'd say “I am a lesbian,” and we'd There have been mixed reactions to my coming out. My mom be ok. No “well, you raised English wrong,” or anything. I envied thought it was just a phase, and that since I didn't bring anyone others who I watched come out and the relationships they had with "home" for her to meet that I was only joking. Some people just said their parents. I assumed if I came out, my family would disown me, “oh ok, that's cool, you're out,” some wished me well, and others and I'd become homeless. I know that sounds bizarre, but I heard admonish me not to try anything, because they weren’t “like that.” stories about some LGBTQ folk that were put out, and all of that It bothered me the most that the ones saying things like that would stuff.
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Continued from previous page be those with whom I grew up. I respect people's space. I am not the type to over step my boundaries with someone. Just as I respect your space, you should respect mine. In one instance, I told a friend I was a lesbian, and she assured me I was lying, and told me I needed to read the Bible and have sex with a male in the same sentence. For a few months, I didn't speak to her. I think after that I wanted to just not speak on my sexuality anymore. Her comment and other negative comments from people I respected in the community made me feel low. A few parents of some of my childhood friends would say things like, “I hope English isn't ‘turning you out,’ or “well can you tell English not to post anything on your Facebook wall, I don't want people to think you and English date.” I think that's why I stalled on not coming out in high school. I knew then that it was too much for people to handle, and I am all about making sure people are comfortable. After seeing a rise in a lot of negative things among youth in my hometown I ventured to start a nonprofit, Kidd for Kids, which offered mentoring to youth in grades 5-12. Not long after, I decided I wanted to become a Brown Boi. The Brown Boi Project is for a person of color who identifies as gay, straight, trans-man, masculine of centered women, two- spirited being that are doing gender and or racial justice work. I assumed while researching the organization that I would get the voice, and help, I needed to boost my confidence. While at a meeting, a member of my board stated that I should not apply to become a Brown Boi, because funding and support for my nonprofit would be slim-to-none if I did. The board member went on to challenge my sexuality, saying it was a figment of my imagination. She even insisted that I should fast and ask God who I was, but in the same breath she said I should have sex with a man because I didn't know what I'd been missing. At that moment I think my ears turned tomato red in embarrassment. Not because my sexuality was questioned, but because of the actions she told me engage in, along with adding God in the mix. Last time I checked, you're not supposed to have sex before marriage (with anyone) anyway. I'm not saying I am a saint as this woman proclaimed to be, but I didn't think that was an appropriate suggestion. That encounter only fueled my motivation to apply to become a Brown Boi. Becoming a Brown Boi is almost like joining a Black Greek Letter Organization. During a five-day retreat, you're taught skills to enhance your craft in your work. I became a Brown Boi in the 7th cohort, and am the first and only to date Brown Boi from the state of Mississippi. After returning from an intense week, my non-profit dreams fell through just as that board member said. I was crushed, but I knew something bigger would be on the horizon for me. A month later, someone from my hometown asked me to be apart of the NAACP's Easom High School reunion parade the following summer. As someone who had just came out as being gay, he wanted to show the city of Corinth that you should be proud of being yourself. After going back and forth, I accepted. A few months before the parade was to take place, the young man sent
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me a text saying he could no longer be in the parade with me, because his mother was worried someone would hurt him for participating in the parade. Around this time, I started receiving threatening texts from an unidentified number, which forced me to change my number twice. With the help of a fellow Brown Boi and his partner, I participated in the Easom High reunion parade as the first openly gay participant in the summer of 2013. Participating in the Easom reunion parade, going to conferences, being quoted in Ebony's “What Does Pride Mean to You?” feature in June 2013, being interviewed for Christian Hendricks' “South of the Ohio” documentary, being on the panel for Trans Justice Funding Project to help distribute funds to LGBTQ organizations—I can say that they helped build a better me. Some of the slurs still get me upset, especially when they come from people I have a close relationship with—I feel like those are the ones that make it worst for me. How can I respect and love you, yet you're throwing out gay slurs as some joke?— but I think all of these journeys, and stumbling blocks over the last four-and-a-half years has led me to who I am, and not to be afraid of who I am. Despite all that I feel I have accomplished over the last several years, I feel as though I can only do so much with the tools I have, so I’m heading back to JSU this semester to complete my bachelor’s degree. Going back on campus will be weird, because I barely know anyone except two cousins on campus, but I'm ready for the challenge. Hopefully, I can be involved in the changes at JSU, and be a bigger voice on campus. Who knows, I may run for SGA president. I don't think there's been an openly gay person to run for SGA president at any HBCU. Not on the masculine of centered side anyway. I’m curious as to whether the university would allow an openly gay student body president to wear what he/she felt comfortable in, even if it went against traditional gender norms. My ultimate goal is to become a civil rights attorney so I can help LGBTQ folks of color. I’d also like to become a president of an HBCU. I know the odds are against me because of my sexuality, but if people can get past that, I am sure people will see that my work ethic and leadership skills can take any university to new heights. I think adjusting to coming out made me a stronger person. It helped me tolerate those slurs people use. I tolerate them because that's how society is. I do get tired of defending and justifying my sexuality. Someone told me at one point I was too soft to be a dom. My face is too soft to be on the masculine of centered side I was told. Labels are just that: labels.
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I, Too, S
Students Navigate (S By Christina Sturdivant For anyone entering a campus for the first time, the initial experience is wrought with questions about identity and challenges around establishing one’s self as a member of the campus community. Who do I want to be? What organizations will I join? Who will I hang out with? How do I want people to see me? Some drop old nicknames and associations and completely build new identities. Some maintain the lives they had in high school and seek out familiar affiliations. Some are still trying to figure out who they are. For Blacks who identify as queer, already a minority within a minority in society, attending college comes with a litany of confrontations as they navigate the lines of boastful pride and silent confidence in their sexual preferences in addition to all of the other questions new students face.
that they feel like everybody wants to ostracize them and they have to completely slide the rainbow all day, every day in order to really be comfortable,” she says. “Whereas you have some who are gay but that’s not their entire being. They hang with straight people and do straight things but just so happen to go home to a same-sex partner.” While Jenkins did not graduate from Morgan due to personal reasons, she frequents the campus for her business Alternative Union, where she plans events geared toward the LGBT community at the university as well as throughout the city. In 2013, she was asked by the Morgan State administration to lead a panel discussing concerns from the LGBT community after a student claimed he was denied access into a fraternal organization because he was gay. The event’s turnout proved to Jenkins that the university is genuinely concerned about the inclusion of all its students.
On HBCU campuses across the country, LGBT students band together, yet no members’ experiences are exactly alike. For Camille Jenkins, who attended Morgan State University from 2008-2011, simple things like going to the bathroom are a struggle. “I go in and everybody’s looking—little girls are pulling their mothers’ dresses, like ‘are we in the right place?’” she says.
Still, acceptance in a broader sense is a constant struggle, especially from straight men who don’t take kindly to Jenkins’ masculine preferences. “Imitation isn’t always a form of flattery,” she says.
Free to ‘Flourish’ Jenkins has been dating women for about a decade now, since she attended an allgirls public high school in Baltimore, Md. Over the years, she’s learned to adapt to strange looks, jarring comments and apprehensive situations as she moves through life with an androgynous appearance.
Sexuality has never been an issue for Babatunde Fakuade, who has held several student leadership positions at Delaware State University.
“It causes two things to happen—either you suck it up, keep it moving and understand that’s who you are and you can’t make everybody accept you, or you really have to dwell on it and ask yourself is this what I really want to do,” she says. Attending Morgan broadened Jenkins’ perspective on sexuality. Accustomed to finding only small pockets of homosexual peers, at Morgan, she found an environment where queer students populated the campus in droves. Jenkins found navigating social circles on campus challenging as most members of the LGBT community had distinct ways of interacting on campus. “Some gay people can be so focused on the fact that they're gay
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Further, as men are more prideful and territorial, says Jenkins, it can be difficult for them to digest the fact that a member of the opposite gender is not only mirroring them but also choosing mates they themselves may have
found desirable. At Delaware State University, the eccentric, openly gay Babatunde Fakuade has gone against the grain of homosexual men on campus for the good of the institution. As a freshman, Fakuade’s campus involvement was minimal, but as his school pride and passion for change has grown over the years, so has his participation. In 2013, he was voted Mr. Junior in the royal court. In his senior year, while he lost the Mr. Delaware State race, he beat out several competitors and was chosen by a panel of his peers to become vice president of the Men’s Council, a subsidiary group under the student government association.
Sing HBCU
Sexual) Identity on Campus “When I was running for Mr. DSU, somebody told me ‘wow you really made me feel so much more comfortable in myself as an individual being on campus, and I’m thinking about getting involved in things,'” says Fakuade. He hopes to continue to expand his leadership and influence across campus. In preparation for his final year at DSU as VP of the Men’s Council, he is working with his fellow committee members to ensure that all males on campus have an abundance of resources to make the most of their collegiate experience. “If you're not involved, you can't say that you made a difference or you can't have an opinion, because at the end of the day, you didn't put forth any effort to make a change,” he says. Walking in Silence
harder,” says Sutton. I feel like they suffer from more discrimination and violent attacks, especially if they’re more flamboyant in public.” “I'm sure that there were people who held leadership roles that are a part of our community, but I think they felt it would hurt their brand to be exposed as such because it’s such a misunderstood caveat of life,” says Andre Baker who attended Tuskegee University from 2005 – 2007. Like many southern institutions, the Alabama institution is rooted in strong religious beliefs, as are most of its students, says Baker. “And we all know that in those backgrounds, one of the things that [is] taught at the forefront is that homosexuality is the ultimate sin.” While students with varying sexual preferences existed on campus, Baker felt that individuals who strictly engaged in same-sex relationships were seen as the most challenged. Unlike bisexuals who are often given a pass because they are seen as going through a phase in life, gays and lesbians were a lost cause in seeking any kind of redemption.
Not all students in the LGBT community are able to find the social acceptance and ability to “flourish” that Jenkins found at Morgan. For 2011 North Carolina A&T University graduate Kristin Sutton, straight men are her biggest antagonists as well. As a lesbian who doesn’t shy away from skirts, dresses and “girly” apparel, Sutton says she is approached often by males as a romantic conquest. When expressing her disinterest, conversations can turn south quickly. “If a man tries to approach me and I say I'm not interested and they're still being persistent, I say ‘look, I don't mess with men like that’ and I'll get scared because you never know how they'll react,” says Sutton. “I've been cursed out and scared that I would be physically attacked.”
North Carolina A&T Alumna Kristin Sutton says some LGBTQ students choose to disengage from campus culture to avoid confrontation
During her time at North Carolina A&T, she either gathered with a small group of friends or stayed to herself. She disengaged from social clubs and walked throughout campus with headphones on or her head down, trying to avoid communication and unwarranted attention. When looking at the LGBT community as a whole, she fears most for gay men who are more open about their sexuality. “I'm a female and I dress in female clothes, so people will never really know unless I come out and say something about it, but as far as a man, depending on how he looks, how he presents himself and how he dresses, people go off on that and I think they have it
Though confident and certain of his sexuality, he didn’t necessarily display it openly on campus. If it wasn’t directly relevant to day-today business, the topic of his sexuality was not often disclosed.
He could never see himself as a Fakuade, running for an elected student office as an openly gay man. It was more important to respect the brand of the university and the air of “wholesomeness” its students were to maintain. With this expectation, homosexual students would be viewed as impure. “Tuskegee is an Ivy League HBCU so there is a sense of prestige,” he says. “You have a sense of pride and integrity that you must represent at this type of HBCU. And there are certain things that are expected of students, whether that’s right or wrong.”
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Clash: Spirituality and Sexuality at HBCUs By Vann R. Newkirk II Intrinsically tied with the African-American experience in the United States is the Christian experience. Even for many who may not passionately identify as Christian, they may draw a sense of morality, their family values and traditions and overall ideas about the way things should be from Christianity. “The Judeo-Christian ethic pervades much of the African-American experience in the United States,” says Dr. M. Christopher Brown II, president emeritus of Alcorn State University and a licensed minister. Dr. Cynthia Hopson, assistant general secretary of the Black College Fund and Ethics Concerns for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, agrees. “Historically African Americans have depended on God for deliverance from slavery, guidance for career and other life-altering choices and this religiosity has been handed down over generations,” Hopson says. “Almost everybody’s had at least one ‘praying grandmother,’ to intervene on their behalf. If you go to the average older African American’s home, there will be a picture of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Jesus somewhere around—not necessarily in that order, but God is the centerpiece of most homes and is trusted and consulted first and foremost to bring wayward children home, intervene when trouble comes and to “make everything all right.” Similarly, just as the Black Church is intertwined in the overall African-American experience, so too is it evident in the HBCU experience on many campuses across the nation. HBCUs and Black churches by nature have come to represent both a major internal contributor to the development of Black culture and often also serve as microcosms of the whole culture. The symbiotic relationship between church, education and culture was evident from the beginning, when many of the HBCU pioneers entered the crucial vacuum of Black higher education as seminaries and religious institutions. Citing the writings of famed sociologist and HBCU professor W.E.B. DuBois, Brown says, “within the Black community— and not to make that monolithic, but in a historic sense— particularly during segregation and post-segregation, there were three fundamental institutions, sociologically, and that was the family, the schools and the church. Those three entities lodged in our history and therefore become foundational and therefore precursory in our present-day experience.”
the 20th and 21st centuries. Many elements and leaders of the Civil Rights Movement were fostered and developed at HBCUs and churches simultaneously. The two institutions were two intertwining rails of support and action for the movement and proved effective in pushing the national agenda on racial and ethnic inclusion. “Many of our most successful historically Black colleges and universities were extensions of the denominations that birthed and supported them,” Hopson says. “Most were founded under the premise that education was important for mind, body and spirit—being able to read the Bible was often the motivation for many people learning to read.” And extensions the schools have always been, says Brown, who points out that many of the traditional HBCU customs—singing hymns, many founder’s day convocation and graduation traditions, incorporating prayer into many ceremonies and events— draw from church customs. But as the Black community still struggles for inclusion in the national and global environments, another struggle for inclusion bubbled up alongside the Civil Rights Movement and indeed also affects the Black community. And though it has not been so thoroughly and instrumentally addressed among its ranks, the struggle for LGBT rights, especially for Black LGBT citizens, persists across the country and across HBCU campuses. Just how have the two major rails of HBCU history and faith interacted in one of the key fronts in the fight for LGBT inclusion-on campus? Brown says that the geography of many of the HBCUs plays a part in the pervasive attitudes on campus. “By and large, HBCUs are centered in the 19 Southern and border states. You don’t get that same hard press for Judeo-Christianity in the border states,” like Pennsylvania, Ohio or Missouri, he says, “but for the core southern states, which is also the Bible Belt of the country, the Judeo-Christian ethic prevails.” Referencing the notion of “respectability politics,” Brown explains, “Blacks have this constant quest post-slavery to be viewed as “respectable” and/or to be respected by the larger dominant society. Sexual politics, take sexual identity out, becomes problematic,” Brown says. “Even myself being from the South, I just was taught that it was impolite to talk about sex at all, even among married people. It’s just a ginger, ginger theme.”
These relationships continued as the loci of social movement into
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Continued from previous page Hopson agrees that the conversation is as much about being open about sexuality in general for African-Americans as it is about embracing a non-normative sexuality. “Discussing the broad spectrum of human sexuality rarely happens because it is equally uncomfortable, especially in light of the number of LGBT [individuals] who live in our communities, attend our churches and colleges,” says Hopson. “Until we can have honest and insightful dialogue about the gift of our sexuality, not much is going to change.” For those on the front lines in the fight to create inclusive and truly diverse HBCU campuses, faith and its role in greater Black culture have played a part. For Tanya Tatum, Director of Student Health Services and chair of the LGBT Committee at Florida A&M University, religion has proved a hurdle, even at an institution that does not have historically religious roots. “A lot of what you hear is that [LGBT culture is] ‘a sin against God.’” says Tatum. “That’s the first thing that gets us here to a place of exclusion.” “Many African-American parishioners AND pastors are uncomfortable discussing inclusion and exclusion of persons who are different,” Hopson says. “Heterosexual privilege may offer another reason why many people don’t know or have to think about the stereotypes and myths surrounding LGBT individuals on a given day.” But for Tatum, religion is only one of many hurdles in creating an inclusive environment. “Religion is a factor,” she says. “I work at a public institution, but the sentiments are still here. But there are also issues with accepting Black gay males. They’ve been a real big target for discrimination.” According to Tatum, the work in creating a diverse campus involves filling institutional language deficiencies, addressing hurdles (like faith-based opposition) and truly addressing what diversity means for the campus family. “It took us two years to finish adding language to our discrimination policy. The real work is actually creating that environment and helping people recognize their bias” says Tatum. “Where is the diversity office at an HBCU? HBCUs may be missing out on creating the spirit of diversity for everyone that led to their founding. Institutionally, we have to create pillars that support and promote diversity.” The prevalence of these historical hurdles is present in the relative dearth of outside recognition for LGBT progress among HBCUs. On the Campus Pride Index, a site that tracks campus commitments to LGBT inclusion, only seven of the over 400 listed institutions are HBCUs, discussed the methods of the Index and the landscape of HBCU LGBT inclusion. Regarding Campus Pride’s methods in collecting data on inclusion, Shane Windmeyer, Campus Pride’s executive director, states that “colleges participate in the Index by choice. Those that you can view [on the Index] are those that want to come out as LGBT friendly. Some campuses have received an Index and have worked in private to address issues.” The relative lack of representation of HBCUs in the index could be a sign that there is a particular deficiency among HBCUs. However, Campus Pride sees these issues as opportunities for action. “We don’t want to assume that campuses don’t want to
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improve” Windmeyer says. Addressing needs and sensitive issues like faith is an opportunity to “institutionalize commitment to LGBT students like you have for athletes, women [and] other student groups so that they can achieve academically and graduate." Windmeyer also notes that “youth of color are particularly impacted by sexual identity decisions, so when tracking retention by race, it may pick up interacting sexual and race factors.” This is partially, Brown says, due to a double consciousness African-Americans face. Calling Blacks “a bundle of contradictions,” Brown says, “The Black social construction and identity politics, we live overwhelmingly with severely conservative ideals. We struggle between personal values and public performance, what we believe and what we want people to think we believe.” He notes that even the church itself is full of contradictions. Kimberly Ferguson, the Dean of Students at Spelman College, sees faith-based reticence as an opportunity as well. “If you’re coming from a family with a strong religious background, then obviously when you come to college some things are going to clash. At Spelman, it’s up to us to work through the intersection of beliefs and concern for students and help people understand.” Although Spelman has historical faith-based roots, Ferguson believes that part of the tension between religious groups and students and the LGBT community (as far as it exists) is that both communities feel pressure.
“Taking our religious and spiritual community and [putting] them in the same room as the LGBT community and they both feel they’ve been silenced at some point,” Ferguson says. “You can’t do LGBTQ training for women of color the same way you do elsewhere. You cannot do that in a community as an HBCU or religious experience.” Dr. Darnita Killian, Spelman’s Vice President for Student Affairs, agrees that the real hurdles are those of comfort and building common ground and language between communities, including faith-based communities. “If you were to ask any of our LGBT students ‘is this the ideal environment?’ They’ll probably say no, but they have helped us, as a community of learned women, identify gaps. We have made some strides.” Some HBCU administrators believe that the real difficulties lie in establishing lines of communication and common ground between groups of religious individuals and LGBT groups and creating a real language of mutual understanding. The goal to create an awareness of diversity, even within HBCUs, is a key first aim to LGBT inclusion, although it may prove a difficult one. As Killian notes, “This will probably be an effort like the Civil Rights Movement, something that is really never finished.” --Autumn A. Arnett contributed to this article.
Pride Amongst Players: HBCU Student Athletes Struggle to Find Their Place in Locker Room Culture By Lois Elfman It’s right under the surface—frank discussion, ready to break out, about LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning) issues in intercollegiate athletics at HBCU institutions. Student advocates on campuses are starting conversations and seeking resources. Leaders at some schools are trying to foster inclusive atmospheres. But still finding an out student-athlete on an HBCU campus proves a near-impossible feat. “I was approached by two women’s basketball coaches from HBCUs after speaking at a WBCA (Women’s Basketball Coaches Association) convention. They requested resources for their LGBTQ student-athletes,” says Nevin Caple, a former Division I basketball player and co-founder/executive director of Br{ache the Silence, a campaign for LGBTQ voices, role models and allies in women’s sports. “The coaches said they do what they can to support studentathletes privately, but it’s challenging when athletic administration won’t support or acknowledge the need for LGBTQ programming or put resources behind bringing someone in to train staff and speak with students,” says Caple. So much for the often-propagated notion that coming out is easier for female student-athletes. Shane Windmeyer, co-founder/executive director of Campus Pride, said at many schools, LGBTQ students are creating their own safe spaces, however there needs to be stronger administrative support and action. “With HBCUs in particular, the students are still driving the campuses when it comes to creating the necessary change for safety and inclusion for LGBT lives,” says Windmeyer. Campus Pride works with student leaders and campus organizations in the areas of leadership development, support programs and services to create safer, more inclusive colleges and universities. “We’ve had a handful of athletes over the last five years who we’ve spoken to at HBCUs,” Windmeyer says. “It is an environment where there are not a lot of out athletes. By out, I mean out to the entire campus. They may be out to their coach or one of their friends, but they’re not necessarily out to the entire campus.” “I wouldn’t say that an HBCU locker room is any more or less homophobic or anti-LGBT than a campus in rural America or in the South, but there are definite challenges in the locker rooms
Former college basketball player Nevin Caple is leading a national effort to support LGBTQ equity and support in athletics
of HBCUs that are real.” One student who has participated in Campus Pride training, Brandon Hawkins, who is going into his senior year at North Carolina A&T State University, has witnessed locker room culture first-hand as manager of his school’s men’s basketball team. He says the overall environment for LGBTQ individuals on campus has improved during his time as a student, because administration has become more receptive to creating an inclusive environment. On the other hand, locker room behavior tends to be a bit cliché. “One thing I’ve noticed is that there’s a lack of understanding from the heterosexual student-athletes because they’re always laughing and joking about things that may be homosexual,” Hawkins says. “They may say, ‘You don’t got to act sweet’ or ‘That’s gay’ and stuff like that.” “I really think there’s a lack of opportunities to actually help advise the student-athletes. Not only the student-athletes, but the coaches as well—especially football and basketball coaches, where you’re supposed to be a ‘man’ to play the sport. Everybody needs to go for training. I’ve tried to reach out to the athletic director about it. I’m waiting to hear back from him.” Wade Davis, an openly gay former NFL player who is executive director of You Can Play, opened a conversation when he spoke at Fayetteville State University earlier this year. Davis was
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Continued from previous page.
been particularly challenging to find athletes within HBCUs.”
invited to campus to celebrate the opening of FSU’s Safezone Office, and says his appearance at Fayetteville State was not only his first HBCU audience, but it was the first all-Black audience he’d spoken to, which for him was exciting.
Campus Pride received a $10,000 grant from the David Bohnett Foundation to specifically bring students from HBCU schools to Camp Pride, the organization’s major training event.
“Oftentimes, I think we imagine the African-American community being hyper-homophobic. It was really an opportunity for me to reframe that narrative,” said Davis. You Can Play, which seeks to challenge the culture of locker rooms and spectator areas by focusing only on an athlete’s skills, work ethic and competitive spirit, has received a lot of exposure for the You Can Play videos made by college athletic departments at Division I schools and professional sports teams. Davis said he hopes this article will prompt the first video from an HBCU. Prior to his speech at Fayetteville State, Davis had lunch with a group of about 30 students, professors and administrators, whom he described as welcoming. There were student-athletes in the audience for his speech, several of whom thanked him afterwards.
“It’s hard to have a brushstroke approach to HBCUs because they are so diverse,” says Windmeyer. Warren Radebe, vice president of S.A.F.E. Pride and senator at large of the student governing body at Johnson C. Smith University, is also eager to see what the autumn brings. When he arrived on campus two and a half years ago, he appreciated the freedom of personal expression he saw from many of the students. But as he came out, he learned there weren’t sufficiently organized situations that provided support and information for LGBTQ students and allies. “Our theme for the next three years is to begin with advocating,” said Radebe. “What does it mean to be LGBTQ as well as an ally? What does it mean to be an institution, like a university, that provides programs or engages students and faculty about LGBTQ issues? Also, trying to create a safe environment on this campus before we go out into the community.”
Radebe said he applauds university “The power of narratives [is] president, Dr. Ronald L. Carter, for benot just what others believe ing open to such discussions. about certain communities, During the spring semester there was a but also about what certain campaign by S.A.F.E. Pride to register communities start to believe LGBTQ students and allies. Radebe about themselves,” says said there were student-athletes among Davis. “As an athlete, I often the 250 students who registered, but he heard that athletes are neanwon’t know until the fall semester what derthals. We’re homophoJohnson C. Smith's Stephen Joyner Sr. believes athletics can be a people’s level of interest is. catalyst for campus change bic. There is a part of you that As that unfolds, the university’s athletic actually starts to believe that and director, Stephen Joyner Sr., said any student-athletes or coaches starts to exhibit the same types of ideas that are presented about you who comes out will be met with an open and inclusive environ—whether they’re true or false. ment, but the reality is that has yet to be tested. “The old adage someone once told me and I think it’s very true— “We haven’t had anyone come out and make an announcement like it’s very hard to become what you don’t see,” he adds. “The sports what you see going on today,” says Joyner, referencing athletes world as a whole is struggling. We’re trying to figure out how you like Jason Collins, Michael Sam and Brittney Griner. “In the last reach LGBT youth of color. I’m currently working on a couple of 10 years there’s more of an acceptance to the culture. There’s more different initiatives to combat that.” acceptance of the value of diversity—what different backgrounds Works in progress seems to be the mode. bring to the table, to the mission, to the initiative, to the process.” In the fall, Campus Pride, which in 2012 published the LGBTQ Neither Joyner nor any of the coaches have taken part in training National College Athlete Report, will launch its Sports Index. programs specific to LGBTQ issues, but they have informed Modeled after its Campus Pride Index, a tool for assisting campusthemselves of NCAA guidelines. es in learning ways to create welcoming environments for LGBTQ “We talk to our coaches, staff and student-athletes about diversity students and allies, the Sports Index will become a similar resource and inclusion,” said Joyner. “The environment here is going to for college sports. change with time. In fact, in many cases this type of environment “We see more youth of color who are athletes who are coming out is going to be influencing change. That is very unique about being in the space of intercollegiate athletics,” Windmeyer says. “Our on a college campus. We’re agents of change.” hope is that visibility will prompt more HBCU student-athletes to also come out. We’re really trying to provide some focus there. It’s
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Transgender: HBCU Students S By Lakin Starling Historically Black colleges and universities are known for their deep roots in traditions that mold the academic standards and social cultures of each individual institution. HBCUs are now faced with the challenges of moving with the times and remaining relevant. And this includes progressively creating proactive spaces for members of the LGBT community, more specifically, those with transgender identity experiences. The gender binary refers to a strict spectrum that only gives individuals two options to choose for gender identification: male or female. Those who identify as transgender fit outside of this limiting concept, resulting in the absence of spaces for students of this population at strongly gendered historically Black institutions. L'lerrét Ailith, a rising senior at Xavier University identifies “as a transwoman, a queer woman of color.” Ailith was awarded a full tuition scholarship to Xavier upon acceptance, making her college enrollment decision much easier. As selfaffirming as she is, she admits that as a freshman, adjusting to college was trying due to the separation between herself and many colleagues due to their gender identity differences. “Xavier is a very small Black Catholic university, so while transitioning, a lot of times I was treated or looked at like some outlandish creature. Freshman year was hard, I wanted to get involved but no one would allow me to. There were tensions that created separation between me and everyone else,” she says.
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This type of tension is a common experience for students who identify outside of a gender or sexuality status quo group at HBCUs. On small campuses with identifiable social cliques, a heightened focus on gender norms and existing phobia towards LGBT life, existing in these settings can be stifling, unsafe and unproductive in fostering growth and awareness in and towards the LGBT community. Jamal Lewis is a Morehouse College graduate, who vivaciously speaks out about queerness and the constant strive to boldly bare his truths. He gives his perspective on the hostility around the LGBT community at his alma mater, “HBCUs don’t trust students’ capacity to love across differences. Morehouse definitely places how we socialize in a box and it’s not fair. We’re so much more than that.” Morehouse is a cornerstone for cultivating Black male excellence, which is why Lewis always wanted to attend the institution, but its structure leaves many of its students out while the college continues the perpetuation of the “Renaissance Man” ideal that is instilled as soon as a class of young men set foot onto campus for the first time. The school’s emphasis on masculinity and male gender roles does not speak to students who identify outside of the rigid binary of gender classification. “I love queerness because it’s complicated, messy and inclusive of all identities,” Lewis says. “I present myself in various ways. I don’t associate with masculine or feminine, it’s up to how I’m feeling. At Morehouse, I couldn’t explain my identity in that space."
Speak Out on Minority Experience Making the decision to emanate his rejection of gender standards and the boundaries in his collegiate setting through his aesthetic also allows for Lewis to not be put into a box. Shaan Wade, a transfer student at Howard University, identifies as a “femme boi with transexperience,” a distinctiveness that also calls for the freedom to exist with out label confinement. “It’s a semantic thing that goes on in the community,” Wade explains. “Trans-experience notes that the person did transition but doesn’t put emphasis on the transition itself.” Wade does not identify completely as male but has experienced the transition to male. Wade explains Howard as “one huge Black sociology experiment,” full of multi-faceted dynamics and observations. “Howard is very gendered in a lot of ways,” Wade says. “The gendering at HBCUs transfers over into the prejudice of Greek life, which is a huge part of Howard’s culture, but impossible for me to be a part of, if I was interested. I also can’t play sports. Being trans, you really can’t do many extra-curricular activities at HBCUs because they are so specifically gendered in that way.” It is this same immobility that inspires Ailith to continue to be a voice for the trans community at Xavier. There, the LGBT population does not have much visibility, because of the conservative and ultra traditional nature of the school. Ailith explains that many students do not feel comfortable or safe coming out about their sexual/gender identi-
ties due to the sameness that has been a factor in Xavier’s lead administration and overall campus feel. She is the president of an organization called Gender Equity, but initially Ailith’s strong will and confidence pushed her and other students to ask the institution for a, LGBT Club, which they were denied because the administration feared for the safety of students in the LGBT community. “Gender Equity encompasses everything but the biggest problem is that members are mostly allies and sympathizers,” Ailith says. “LGBT people don’t really publicly identify because of the fear of being ostracized.” The lack of protective spaces speaks to the strides necessary for historically Black colleges and universities to progressively adapt to trans-identity. Lewis, Ailith and Wade are all unapologetically open about their queer and/or trans identities, but this level of confidence is not overtly common at HBCUs. There are a few factors, however, that make the world of a difference in creating conducive spaces for students. “Accepting teachers really help,” Wade says. “Being able to speak about my transition in front of my class and having that encouraged and appreciated by my professor is really cool.” Pictured from left to right: Xavier University of Louisiana's L'lerrét Ailith, Morehouse College's Jamal Lewis, and Howard University's Shaan Wade
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Teaching T
Education Fosters Inclusiv By Jarrett Carter, Sr. In 2013, North Carolina Central University Student Life Assessment Director Tia Marie Doxey and a group of LGBT students formed the NCCU LGBT Resource Center, the second of its kind on an historically Black campus and the first in the State of North Carolina. It was a radical leap from the days of the student group C.O.L.O.R.S. (Creating Open Lives For Real Success) meeting in small, obscure places on campus to a full center of resources and space for dialog and outreach. With an expansive collection of LGBT literature and learning resources, the NCCU Center is an example of a growing effort on HBCU campuses to do more than embrace, but to educate on LGBT culture. Several public and private HBCUs now offer courses, training and forums on gay and lesbian culture within campus and national contexts, resources that Doxey says have worked to change campus perceptions at NCCU and beyond. “We started off with safe zone training for faculty and staff. We now have students who want to be safe zone trained. We have
empowered students…the students’ attitudinal shift has happened faster than faculty and staff,” Doxey says.
Since establishing the center, Doxey says NCCU has given ful support to a number of campus LGBT outreach efforts, including an awareness week which drew speakers like National Black Justice Coalition CEO Sharon Lettman-Hicks, and forums dedicated to LGBT health and sexual health. This fall, the resource center will be included in the parent orientation itinerary for the first time.
“You must recognize how important it is to create a community,” Doxey says. “Human connection is important. The resource center becomes that space. We have social events and activities, and while you are there, we slip in issues revolving around LGBT students and ally students. For some, it may be the first time tha they may learn about poly-amorous relationships or transgender communities.”
Jafari Allen is an associate professor of Anthropology and African American Studies at Yale University. In 2012, he joined Morehouse student advocate Marcus Lee to develop a course on LGBT culture. The result was “A Genealogy of Black LGBT Culture and Politics,” first offered during the Spring 2013 semester.
Allen, optimistic at the new ground being broken by the course initially underestimated its impact.
“When I agreed, I thought I was agreeing to an informal sort of collective reading,” he says. “That he would pull together a few students. Because that’s the limit to what I thought was possible a Morehouse, based on my own experience as a student there.”
“What I found was that my expectations were very limited,” Allen says. The students and faculty had changed since my time. Of course, my experience was more than 20 years ago. When I was there, it was almost complete silence. It was almost impossible for us to try to charter an LGBT organization on campus.”
Allen attended Morehouse for four years before completing his degree at New York University. Shortly after the 2013 Morehouse commencement address delivered by President Barack Obama, he wrote for the Huffington Post on his ‘re-enchantment’ with the college and its steps to greater inclusivity. Jafari Allen, a former Morehouse student, launched the college's first LGBT course in spring 2013.
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“I left Morehouse College in 1990 with the painful understanding that my identity as a gay man was an affront to the conservative
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institution's notions of respectability. To stay, I would have had to be complicit in a time-honored American tradition: Don't give us a reason to ask, and certainly don't tell. Still, I took with me important values that are stressed at the institution: Black selfreference, an awareness of history, a drive for achievement and the expectation that much is required of him to whom much is given. As it turned out, what was required of me was to return to teach the course that would have compelled me to stay in school years earlier.” At Spelman College, professor and advocate Beverly Guy Sheftall led the establishment of the 2011 Audre Lorde HBCU Summit, a day-long event aimed at raising awareness of LGBT culture and issues on historically Black colleges campuses. The summit, which drew more than 100 faculty, administrators, students and advocates, was a far cry from the narrative created four years prior by the explosive 2010 VIBE Magazine feature on the ‘Mean Girls of Morehouse,’ an inside look at then-current and former students of Morehouse College who earned attention and criticism for cross-dressing and exposing alleged anti-gay policy and perceptions. At Fayetteville State University, resources have been dedicated to creating allies among faculty, staff and students for LGBT students. The FSU Safezone Ally Program was created in 2013 to identify people and places where LGBT students could feel comfortable in confidential discussion with other campus community members, according to Emily Lenning, an associate criminal justice professor and co-founder of the program. “The safezone office does a few things. We provide a safe place for students to come. We provide LGBT-focused events on campus,” says Lenning. Lenning says that the program was created following a campuswide survey indicating a growing need for LGBT resources. While the campus community has not 100 percent embraced the center, she has conducted safe space training for a majority of FSU’s administrative departments, and in total, more than 300 staff members and students. “It was a survey of faculty, staff and students, and we found two things: One that there was a lot of animosity. And [second] that there was a desire for education,” she says. Established with support from the Human Rights Campaign and
Latosha Williams trains Fayetteville State staff to be LGBT allies.
the National Black Justice Coalition, the FSU Safezone Program is currently managed by volunteers in part-time service. But what the program lacks in resources, it has gained in overwhelming support from the campus community. “One thing we believe at Fayetteville is that retaining students is not merely an academic concern. It means addressing their needs as full people,” Lenning says. Doxey says inclusion is an essential part of interpersonal development, and while change may be incremental at HBCUs, the culture at large is improving. “It’s important that we are thinking what are the best educational opportunities,” she says. “Sometimes that plan is not an overnight process, and there is a sense of urgency now because students who don’t identify as LGBT are also looking for environments that are inclusive.” “One of the things I often talk about is imagine a space where you can enter a classroom as a whole person,” Doxey continues. “If you are not able to bring your full self, you are not successful. We have to work to avoid having that type of environment.”
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