Inspiring Change

BY TYNAN POWER

PORTRAITS BY SHANA SURECK

When Gary Raymond, M.S.W. ’80, tried to write his personal/professional statement for his application to Smith College School for Social Work in 1978, he was quickly overwhelmed. He had been out for years, but doubted if he would be admitted as an openly gay man. “I was stuck because I had been living and working openly in very progressive environments,” Raymond said. “Now, I was faced with asking for admission to an institution I did not know, and my application would be judged by strangers, who might view me as ‘deviant’ and mentally ill.”

His first drafts left out his sexual orientation, but omitting this part of his identity reduced Raymond to what he called, “a very unremarkable candidate.” After a therapist helped him reframe his approach, Raymond crafted a powerful statement that not only named his gay identity, but championed it as a trait that would inform and enrich his work as a clinician.

“When I got my acceptance letter, I cried,” said Raymond. “Not just because I wanted what Smith could give me, but also because I felt I could begin this journey of the rest of my life as my most empowered self.”

Raymond’s fears of discrimination were not baseless. His application was the first known instance of an openly gay student being accepted to the School. Although the American Psychiatric Association had removed homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) in 1973, many still viewed homosexuality through the lens of pathology. The School’s heavily psychoanalytic focus also contributed a troubling perspective based on popular theories of the day.

“For gay people for whom their gayness was distressing and generally uncomfortable, there was more hope,” explained Bruce Thompson, Ph.D. ’87. “If you were a mess and gay, that indicated a higher state of higher developmental achievement.”

Facing such attitudes, many chose not to reveal their identities in their applications, but some had little choice. Caitlin Ryan, M.S.W. ’82, had worked in the LGBTQ community in the 1970s. She wrote about how her work in LGBTQ health could contribute to the field in her application to social work schools. Ryan had already been rejected by several schools of social work where she had applied as an out lesbian before she applied to Smith. Rutgers professor Hilda Hidalgo, a lesbian who also taught at Smith, introduced Ryan to SSW’s openly lesbian dean Katherine Gabel, A.B. ’59, M.S.W., Ph.D., J.D., in 1979. With the encouragement of Gabel and Associate Dean Dorcas Bowles, Ryan applied and was accepted in 1980.

By then, other changes were taking place at the School.

Unable to find other LGBTQ students, Raymond had placed an ad in a school publication, inviting lesbian, gay and bisexual students to a meeting at his off-campus apartment. Seven other students showed up. At that small gathering, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance—now the Gender and Sexuality Alliance—was born.

David Aronstein, M.S.W. ’80, was one of the men who attended that first Alliance meeting and went on to spearhead an effort to get sexual orientation added to the School’s non-discrimination statement.

“As we talked in the Alliance, I thought, this is something that we could accomplish, something very concrete,” said Aronstein. In the summer of 1979, Aronstein sent a petition with signatures of 15 students to Dean Gabel, who agreed to bring it to the faculty. “Gabel called a few of us into a meeting in her office and said, ‘I cannot lead on this issue. I can lead from behind, but you [students] have to lead,’” Aronstein said. The attention to who should be “out front” with issues of social change was appreciated by Raymond. “Because of the nature of academic institutions, these kinds of changes really have to come from students,” Raymond said.

Despite not wanting to lead the way on this issue, Gabel played a crucial role in the eyes of the students. Ryan cited the fact that Gabel had been recruited by Smith College President Jill Ker Conway, whose acceptance of Gabel as an out lesbian dean helped to change the conversation around

Smith College President Emerita Jill Ker Conway (left), visited campus in 2015 to celebrate Katherine Gabel, A.B. ’59, M.S.W., Ph.D., J.D. (right), when she won the Day-Garrett Award.

Gary Raymond, M.S.W. ’80, walks in the processional during his commencement ceremony.

policy,” said Thompson. “Those two things at the end of the 1970s really created a storm at the school.”

“At that point, there were no schools of social work that had sexual orientation in their statement,” Gabel recalled. “Probably now, almost all of them do. That was a big issue.” It also was a delicate issue, since the College did not have a similar policy. “We had to be very clear about that and keep it within the School for Social Work,” said Gabel.

The first time the proposed policy was considered, it was not accepted. However, that October, the initiative passed. The backlash was swift. In the spring of 1980, a memo condemning the change in the non-discrimination policy was circulated.

“The memo basically said adding sexual orientation means that we have to accept child molesters, necrophiliacs, pyromaniacs and sadomasochists,” said Aronstein. “It was very indicative of where some of the faculty were. It just riled us up more.”

“It created a storm at Smith and polarized the community into ‘new guard’ and ‘old guard,’” said Thompson. “It revolved around the whole issue of the place of homosexuality within psychoanalytic theory.”

“What it showed was that some of the faculty were viewing same-sex

orientation as a pathological state and they did not make any connection to this as a civil rights issue because they did not see LGBT people as deserving any rights, basically,” said Aronstein. “That was a real eye-opener and made me realize a lot of the psychological theory we were being taught was homophobic.”

Discrimination persisted in other forms, as well. Married students were usually granted field internships in locations near their spouses, but unmarried students—including lesbian and gay students who couldn’t legally marry their partners—did not have access to this benefit.

Changes to the curriculum came gradually. A few years after the non-discrimination policy passed, the school offered its first course on lesbian and gay treatment issues, which was developed by Thompson and Ryan.

As the HIV/AIDS crisis burst into the nation’s consciousness in the 1980s, Smith students and alumni were drawn to working with people affected by the new health crisis, about which little was known. The School responded with one of the first social work courses dealing with HIV/AIDS. “Smith was a refuge from the trauma of the AIDS epidemic,” said Steve Cadwell, Ph.D. ’90. “What I found at Smith in those years was hope and community and intelligence and perspective that I could bring back to the front line of my work with people with HIV and to my peers who were working on that front line.”

sexual orientation for students and faculty at the school.

“Smith was very high energy and intense because of the convergence of Katherine Gabel being hired as an out lesbian and the pressure on the school of social work to include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination

“AIDS hugely shaped me,” said Pat Giulino, M.S.W. ’81, who arrived at Smith as a heterosexually married woman with children but came out as a lesbian later. By 1984, she was a volunteer with AIDS Action in Boston, running a bereavement group under the direction of David Aronstein.

Meanwhile, Ryan had become the director of the AIDS program at Whitman-Walker Health in D.C., and invited Raymond to join the work, where he ran a support group and organized volunteers. Together, they helmed the first AIDS steering committee in D.C.

“I could not foresee this,” Raymond said. “We had such great training and were able to bring that to addressing AIDS, especially in the early years. The population was growing so quickly. No one had any expertise. People who had gone through SSW were well prepared. We were able to adapt and able to handle a lot of the challenges.”

Despite the early obstacles, challenges of acceptance and the devastation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, students increasingly found Smith to be a place that gave them room to explore and define their identities. “It really helped me to explore the possibilities of who I could be and what I could do,” said Giulino.

For Lisette Lahana, M.S.W. ’97, the decision to name her identity in her application was simple. “I felt it would be a strength,” said Lahana, who identifies as bisexual. “At that point, I was identifying as a lesbian. The first time there was an Alliance meeting, I went. There were at least 25 or 30 people there.” Despite that, Lahana recalls a common feeling of isolation. “We would walk into each class and look around wondering ‘How many of us are there? Will we have representation in that class?’” she said. “Having even one identifiably queer teacher was really important.”

Lahana became the co-president of the Alliance at around the time the organization added “transgender” to its name, but felt like bisexuals remained invisible. To counter that, she started a bisexual women’s support group and eventually wrote her thesis about bisexual women in lesbian communities.

Kelly Wise, M.S.W. ’05, Ph.D., who is transgender, began the application process with a sense that SSW was a place where LGBTQ identities were welcomed. “I was not concerned about revealing my identity because of the idea I had of Smith: that it was a safe space for queer folks,” said Wise. “Being around students who were out or fluid about their gender and sexuality was really empowering to me. I was living among people who thought more expansively than I did at the time, and it helped me accept myself.”

Increasingly, LGBTQ-identified faculty members have roles to play in the culture of the school. Where many LGBTQ faculty once felt compelled to keep their identities hidden, today these identities can be seen as an advantage, and their insights into communities they are part of are considered valuable.

For Assistant Professor Hannah Karpman, M.S.W., Ph.D., her own visibility is intrinsically connected to her teaching. “Part of my decision to be out in an academic environment was wanting students to know that you could be a queer woman in an academic setting, or in social work or in research. Historically, clinical practice has been seen as attainable by folks who are female-identified, but not necessarily research. It’s important to me to challenge that piece and make research feel accessible and relevant.”

From left, Assistant Professor Hannah Karpman, M.S.W., Ph.D.; Assistant Professor Ben Capistrant, Sc.D.; and Assistant Professor Rory Crath, M.A., Ph.D. discuss how their insights into the communities they are part of are considered valuable.

LGBTQ faculty members are careful about how they frame what they offer to students.

“Teaching the methods—whether those are clinical methods, research methods, policy analysis methods, social theorizing methods—are skills that we are able to offer,” said Assistant Professor Ben Capistrant, Sc.D.

“People are then able to take those forward and be in leadership positions in the decades to come with a strong skill set, because the content will always be changing. For instance, 20 years ago, we wouldn’t have been talking about marriage equality at the same scale, nor were issues of trans youth transitioning physically in youth and adolescence as common as they are today. If we can equip our students with strong methodological tools, they will be able to adapt and respond to the needs of LGBTQIA populations whatever they will be in 20 years from now.”

“We’re paying attention to the questions that this current set of generations are asking about their own LBGTQ communities,” added Assistant Professor Rory Crath, M.A., Ph.D., “And providing a type of mentorship around the different methodological tools and theoretical techniques for being able to probe those questions in really interesting, thoughtful ways— and ethically sound ways, as well.”

Crath noted that little is known about the sexual orientation and gender identities of students of color early in the School’s history. The tremendous changes that occurred for LGBTQ students took place before the development of the School’s Anti- Racism Commitment and without a robust conversation about intersectionality. Today, that is an ongoing conversation that takes place among students, faculty and administrators.

“For all of us, how we identify racially intersects very specifically with how we embody gender and sexuality,” said Crath. “These intersecting social forces shape our experiences in the classroom, our teaching and our comprehension of—and investment in—what a liberatory social work practice may be. For students and faculty of color, queerness and gender identity can never be stand-alone experiences.” Each year, the story of LGBTQ history at the School continues to unfold.

“Today, it’s visible in the fierce work of QTPOC students and faculty, who are queering approaches to our curriculum and approaches to clinical practice that center race, racism and its intersections with other social identities and forces,” said Crath. ◆

Continued Support

Smith SSW announces new endowed fund for advancement of LGBTQ studies.

During the 2018 centennial celebration Steven Cadwell, Ph.D. ’90, and Bruce Thompson, Ph.D. ’87, were inspired by the many stories of self-discovery, empowerment and growth shared after the screening of Cadwell’s documentary film “Wild and Precious”.

“I felt such pride in that legacy that we all have. This comes from the important education we all had at Smith,” said Cadwell.

Cadwell and Thompson were moved to create an endowed fund that recognized the School’s deep commitment to the LGBTQ community as well as an understanding of the unique challenges that members of the LGBTQ community often face.

“We wanted to establish a fund that would not have our names on it, but be an inviting place for people who are in our age cohort and maybe others to leave money to Smith and to have it designated to be used for either LGBTQ students who might need scholarship assistance or for inviting guest lecturers—or even holding a small conference to focus on treatment of the LGBTQ community and policy issues,” said Thompson.

Thus, the Endowed Fund for the Advancement of LGBTQ Studies in Clinical Social Work was created. Annual income from the fund may be used to provide financial assistance to students who demonstrate financial need consistent with the financial aid policies of the college and who are dedicated to working with the LGBTQ community. Up to 50 percent of the annual income from this fund may also be used to sponsor one or more guest lecturers and/or programming for a conference(s) that address clinical or policy issues related to the LGBTQ community.

“Bruce and I felt that we had rich and important careers because of the education we received. We wanted to give back, to ensure that there’s a new generation coming forward. There’s still a frontier and we need social workers who are educated, affirmed, empowered and aware—who can go out into these zones that need more activism and are equipped and resilient,” said Cadwell.

If you would like to make a gift to the fund, please contact Director of Alumni Relations and Development, Dawn Faucher, at dfaucher@smith.edu.