Many Gays Struggle at
Black Colleges
By DIONNE WALKER, AP
from washingtonpost.com on the Web, April 8, 2007
HAMPTON, Va. -- So lured was
April Maxwell by the promise of the black college experience, with its distinct
traditions and tight-knit campus life, that she enrolled at Hampton University
in 2001 without even visiting the waterfront campus.
A lesbian who is open about her sexual orientation, she arrived eager to join
the extended Hampton family.
Instead, "I felt like I was the only gay person on campus -- it seemed like
nobody was really out," said the now 24-year-old Maxwell.
She channeled her isolation into organizing a gay support group, but a panel of
students and faculty denied it a charter. The panel recently denied a
second attempt at chartering Students Promoting Equal Action and Knowledge, or
SPEAK, headed by underclassmen after Maxwell graduated.
It's a tug-of-war that's emerging at other black schools, where students say
outdated rules and homophobia block them from forming the gay campus voice
common at majority white institutions.
At Hampton, where rules govern everything from overnight guests to student
dress, officials insist they don't discriminate against gays. They say
they're simply enforcing the regulations on student groups, and there just isn't
space for another one.
But some students here see more than a conservative approach to the regulations.
They, and many others at the nation's more than 100 historically black colleges
and universities, say that a broader suspicion of homosexuality keeps gays in
the shadows at these tradition-heavy schools.
"You've got to recognize the history of HBCUs," said Larry Curtis, vice
president for student affairs at Norfolk State University, where students
recently formed a gay-straight alliance. "Most of them were founded by
religious organizations."
Church leaders are often cited as setting the tone regarding homosexuality
across the black community.
Nationwide, black pastors have opposed gay marriage and shot down comparisons
between the struggles for civil rights and gay rights; others have attacked
"down low" bisexual men for contributing to the rising AIDS rates among black
women, though the topic is a matter of debate in the public health community.
On historically black campuses, those tensions make life uncomfortable for gay
students.
"It's kind of hard to be out on campus and still be successful," said Vincent
Allen Jr., head of Safe Space at Atlanta's Morehouse College. "As an out
gay man, if I wanted to pledge, that door is pretty much shut to me.
That's just the way it is."
But just as gay students can rightfully request campus inclusion, so too can
black college administrators deny it, argued the Rev. William Owens, an HBCU
graduate and head of the Coalition of African-American Pastors in Memphis, Tenn.
Those administrators may cite the Bible, or simply personal beliefs -- and they
don't have to be politically correct, Owens said.
"They can say 'no' and I don't think they have to give a lot of reasons," said
Owens, who joined other black pastors worried that, along with dismal marriage
rates, socially accepted homosexuality "is a threat to the black family."
In 2002, the issue of gays on black campuses grabbed the attention of the Human
Rights Campaign, an advocacy group that organizes annual "coming out" days.
"We would send out information to all the colleges and universities about
getting national coming out packets, and for some reason the only institutions
they were not hearing back from at all were the historically black colleges,"
said the group's diversity manager Brandon Braud, who began calling campuses.
He learned of gay groups at two historically black schools: Washington's
Howard University, and Spelman College, in Atlanta.
Administrators elsewhere denied having gay students, or said that while gays
attended, "they're very underground," Braud said.
He later spoke to students alleging outright hostility. Some were required
to find an adviser to form gay groups -- unrealistic on many small campuses,
Nashville AIDS educator Dwayne Jenkins said.
Through his Brothers United Network, Jenkins mentored upstart groups at
Tennessee State and Fisk universities.
"Finding an adviser was always hard because nobody wanted to be associated with
the gay-straight alliance -- it was the thinking that 'Oh my god, are they going
to think I'm gay?'" he said.
Formed mostly across the segregation-era South, historically black colleges
emerged as academic training grounds and finishing schools for blacks entering
white society.
The most esteemed schools earned a reputation for students with impeccable
manners and clean-cut behavior.
"So much of our campus is focused on this ideal of 'the Hampton man' and 'the
Hampton woman,'" said Michael, a transfer student and SPEAK member who, like the
group's president, is closeted and refused to let his last name be printed.
"Men walk women home -- traditional Southern values."
But students are changing.
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network counts more than 3,000
gay-straight alliances at American high schools. Those youth will apply to
colleges that can ensure their safety and will provide support, said Kevin Rome,
vice president for student services at Morehouse, where a student was beaten in
2002 for an alleged same-sex pass.
"Society is changing," Rome said. "Students aren't coming here
experimenting with their sexuality, they're coming here knowing.
"Our schools have to accommodate. It's inevitable."
Gay students have enjoyed far greater visibility at Virginia's large, majority
white institutions.
Virginia Tech's gay alliance group hosts support meetings and social outings.
The University of Virginia recently hired a coordinator for its gay resource
center, a hub for 2,000 gay students at the Charlottesville campus.
At historically black schools, change is gradual. Braud has nudged along
groups at 20 schools through a special black college-aimed Human Rights Campaign
program.
At state-supported institutions such as Norfolk State, Curtis said it's easier
to prompt change because other state universities in Virginia already have gay
support groups.
At private Hampton, April Maxwell said she knew lots of gays and found support
among pockets of students, regardless of sexuality.
"The people who are in charge, I really don't think they're for it," Maxwell
said.
But school officials say competition is stiff on campus, where a moratorium has
limited the number of student groups to 90 -- and unchartered groups can't meet.
New groups are chartered when other groups become inactive.
Only four spots were available during the 2006-07 school year. Forty-four
organizations have applied for charters over the last two years, and 11 received
them.
"No organization is given any type of special treatment," said Assistant Vice
President for Student Affairs Barbara Inman. "The university doesn't have
a position on gay and lesbian faculty and staff members."
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