A Year in Review

By now, the stresses of the year have started to fade, the memories of papers, finals and long nights spent in the library receding into the background as summer begins. Some of us are relaxing on the beach, or in the mountains, or back home with our families. Some are back on campus, about to graduate and to bid farewell to Duke - congratulations to all of the Class of 2010. Some are traveling to exotic places with Duke Engage, or a study abroad program, or have an internship or a job. Whatever you’re doing, I hope you’re having a fantastic time and are managing to relax a little.

I thought it was worthwhile at this point to take a little look at the past year, reflect at what our community has experienced and accomplished and to look ahead to next year. Our community is so diverse, vibrant and engaged that I won’t be able to do justice to everything that is happened, but I hope to give a rough overview of the major events that have shaped the experience of our community this past year.

The year got off to a great start with the first Fab Friday and the chocolate fountain social on East campus. The Class of 2013 has really been engaged this year, it’s been fantastic to see so many first-years get involved, step up and take leadership positions within the community. Veronica, Spencer, Andrei and Gordon are definitely people who come to mind when thinking of people who have already had a hugely positive impact already. The number of students attending BDU meetings and visiting the Center has really grown too - often we don’t have enough chairs in the room for everyone at meetings, which really is a great problem to have. The increased number of women-identified students who have gotten involved this year has been fantastic as well. Our community has continued to grow at a rate that would have been unprecedented just a few years ago.

The Fall semester was full of fantastic events that students were involved in. September 26th saw the North Carolina Pride Parade parade here in Durham, starting on East Campus and looping around Ninth and Main streets. Duke’s float was fabulous as always, winning most colorful for the third year in a row.

Fall break saw many students go on the Common Ground retreat, organized by the Council for Race Relations. Many students involved with the LGBT community have either organized or participated in Common Ground over the years and they almost universally report how amazing and enriching an experience it is. The break also saw 11 Duke students travel to New York for the Out for Undergraduate Business Conference, a business conference aimed at attracting more LGBT individuals to careers in consulting and finance.

October was a busy month, starting off with Coming Out Day, the annual celebration of LGBT individuals and allies on Duke’s West Campus Plaza. The day was one of fun, music and festivities, with 1500 of the ever popular Love=Love T-Shirts being given away. The following weekend, a group of Duke students travelled with students from UNC and NC State to take part in the National Equality March on Washington. The march saw over 200,000 protestors converge on the capital to demand full civil rights for LGBT individuals, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the end of workplace discrimination. Some of the headlining speakers included Dan Choi, a US Army veteran being discharged because of his sexuality, Julian Bond, chairperson of the NAACP, Cleve Jones, a famous LGBT-rights activist and Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard. This event was a fantastic example of the activism practiced by our community and of the collaboration between the different institutions in the Triangle area. Thank you so much to Manny and Aliza for all of their hard work in organizing and planning our trip.

October was the start of our successful pride flag campaign. To raise awareness of the LGBT community community on campus, over 100 3’ x 5’ pride flags were ordered, to be distributed all over campus out of dorm room windows. The rapid uptake of these flags, not just by LGBT students, but allies as well, was fantastic to see, it truly was incredible to be walking through the main quad and see a whole bunch of flags fluttering from the window. (Many have noted that some parts of campus became a de-facto LGBT-selective living group!). In fact, the flag campaign was so successful that we ended up ordering even more and definitely intend on continuing the campaign next semester.

November was especially exciting, with the relaunch of this blog, which has just passed its six month anniversary in this current incarnation! (zomg). I think it’s safe to call the blog an unbelievable success, not least thanks to the dedication shown by all of those who contribute toward it. Huge props go to Chris Perry, the editor, who despite his modesty has been absolutely critical in the success of the blog, totally deserving of the first ‘BDU Chris Perry Award’ handed out last semester. The readers (who number many and hail from near and far) also deserve applause, their numbers keep growing and the blog truly would be nothing without them. Within a few weeks of going live, the blog was already featured on Pam’s House Blend, a nationally prominent LGBT news and opinion blog.

November 19th was the night of the annual drag, where ten amazing student performers strutted their stuff at the Duke coffeehouse, along with the ever-impressive Erica Daniels. The event was extremely well attended as always, with the coffeehouse nearly bursting at the seams. The Drag Show is always one of the most popular events each year, with this time being no exception. It was a fantastic opportunity for students to perform and express themselves through the art of drag performance.

The start of the Spring semester saw the first Triangle Collaboration LGBT Retreat, with over 60 students from Duke, UNC and NC State heading to Camp Chestnut Ridge for a weekend-long leadership retreat. It was fantastic getting to know so many students from other universities. The groundwork for a lot of future collaboration has definitely been laid and we hope to continue the retreat again next year.

The week after we were lucky enough to welcome Kyrsten Sinema, an openly bisexual member of the Arizona legislature. In 2006, Sinema lead the country’s only successful campaign to defeat an anti-same sex marriage ballot initiative. It was an honor and an inspiration for her to visit Duke for a lunchtime conversation. Just two days later Jeff Sheng, a photographer/activist brought his Fearless exhibition of out LGBT high school and college athletes to Duke. That week proved to be even more exciting, with the folk rock duo Nervous But Excited returning to Duke for a performance at Fab Friday. Right after spring break was the Lavender Ball, the LGBT semi-formal hosted by BDU each year. This time around it was in the Doris Duke center in the gardens, with record turn out. It was awesome to see so many people there, having a fantastic night in the company of their friends. At the end of March was the LGBT Passover Seder, which Dani Schocken put a huge amount of effort into organizing. The Seder was a wonderful and enlightening opportunity to learn about Judaism and the LGBT community, which I really hope continues in years to come.

April was perhaps the busiest month, with a huge amount going on, especially considering the rapid approach of finals and end-of-term papers. We had the highly visible and successful anti-hate speech campaign, followed by the inspiring Day of Silence poster campaign, culminating in the Day of Silence itself on April 16. Over 60 members of the Duke community participated in the campaigns, which sparked dialog and discussions all over campus relating to hate speech, oppression and the experiences of LGBT individuals. A huge shout out must go to our seniors, Brandy Lynn and Matt Lyons, who showed incredible leadership in helping to organize these campaigns, they worked incredibly hard to make them successes and we’re really going to miss them next year. April was also when Duke’s first undergraduate publication for queer women, WOMYN got started. The goal of WOMYN is to promote a more visible, confident and emboldened queer women’s presence at Duke. It’s a really exciting endeavor and I applaud everyone who’s helped get it off the ground, including the new editorial team of Megan Weinand, Jack Grote and Summer Puente. I can’t wait to see the first issue next semester.

Another awesome initiative headed by students was the report published by the LGBTQ subcommittee of the DSG Gender Committee. The report aimed to be a guide for improving Duke’s undergraduate environment, specifically in terms of the experiences of LGBTQ students. The report identified three main areas of improvement, in student norms, space and support/safety. Each section included concrete recommendations for the administration that could be taken to improve the Duke undergraduate LGBTQ experience. Congrats to Michelle, Aliza, Julia, Andrei, Vivi, Gordon and everyone else who was involved in writing the report.

Of course, along with all of our successes this year, there have been a number of lows and difficult incidents that our community has had to confront to move forward. In the Fall semester, the East Campus bridge, which had been painted for the NC Pride parade was vandalized with homophobic epithets and slurs. Members of our community were quick to respond however, with a glorious unicorn taking the place of the hate speech within hours of it being tagged. Another unfortunate incident of hate speech occurred late in the Spring semester at the NPHC Step-Off during the BSAI recruitment weekend. Thanks to a quick response by students, in particular Chantel Ligget’s fantastic letter, a productive outcome was possible from the incident, with members of the fraternity in question participating in our Day of Silence campaign. The week after, of course, saw the controversy involving the College Republicans erupt. I think the important thing to note with all of these incidents however, is the amazing way that our community responded and supported each other during each episode. I truly think that we emerged stronger as a group after each challenge that we faced and have taken each opportunity to learn from each incident and from each other.

This brief blog post barely scratches the surface of all of the wonderful and important events that have occurred this year - and of course it’s colored by my own experiences. There have been countless other interpretations and experiences over the past few months, each shaded in a unique way through the lens of each individual. I would love to hear your thoughts, comments and impressions of how the year went, as I’m sure there are many diverging opinions out there. Just as importantly, I’d love to hear your ideas and hopes for next year. The fantastic thing about a place like Duke is that there’s always endless opportunity to promote change and to make big things happen. Vocalizing these desires is the first step to making it all happen, so I encourage each and every one of you to describe what you think has worked well, what hasn’t and what you hope to see change or begin next year. We’ve certainly come a long way this year, but there’s definitely still so much more to do. There are still too many students on this campus afraid of coming out or expressing their true identities. Hate speech and oppression continues to be an unfortunate reality, as does the marginalization of certain groups, even within the LGBTQ community itself. The struggle for a more inclusive, affirming and accepting Duke is one that is ongoing and which requires the contributions of everyone.

There’ve been so many amazing and incredible people involved with the community this year that it would be impossible to thank them all, so I truly am sorry if I’ve missed anyone. I also wanted to thank Vivi, for being an inspiring and courageous leader, we’re truly going to miss your beautiful personality and of course, the awkward icebreakers. I want to thank Janie and Chris as well, for being such amazing mentors, guides and friends.

To all of the graduating seniors, congratulations with whatever you choose to pursue and know that you’ll be sorely missed!