Several graduating seniors spoke yesterday at the Top of the Hop about their experiences as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at Dartmouth as part of the 2000 Senior Symposium.
The talk, entitled: "Out Loud: Reflections of Queer Life at Dartmouth," contributed an aspect of diversity to the Symposium, which typically tends to focus on academic issues, said Andrew Thompson '00, co-chair of the Senior Symposium Planning Committee.
Peter Jacobsen '00, Ezra Cooper '00 and Jane Peachy '99, along with Pam Meisner, LGBT coordinator, all shared their Dartmouth experiences and provided insight into a community outside of the mainstream.
Jacobsen began by referring to the Alma Mater, saying that the "granite of New Hampshire" is restricting, and represents a rigidity and strictness that doesn't fit him. While Jacobsen hails from a family of seven generations of Dartmouth students, he has seen his time here as breaking away from these strict traditions and rigidity, and instead embracing a "fluidity of sexual orientation and mobility of gender," celebrating a lifestyle away from the traditional.
Cooper read an essay by Angelina Stelmach '02, who told a poignant and poetic story of lost love and coming to a realization of her sexual orientation. In an emotional essay that was both sad, funny and uplifting, Stelmach expressed her experiences with homosexuality and the various ways her relationships with her family, friends and lover were affected by this.
Peachy also discussed her personal experiences, but she said that she was not only telling her own story, but that of others who are not usually heard. Peachy said she was speaking for "the voices that have been missing at Dartmouth." She discussed the various aspects of questioning self-identity and the complexity of labels society uses, which are problematic in many aspects, running from "ill-defined to over-defined."
Peachy voiced ideas not greatly represented in society, such as sex-change operations. She discussed the difficulty of fitting homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender desires into society today. Along with self-questioning and discovery, Peachy described the processes of sex changes, shedding light on not just the medical process, but on the emotional process as well.
Meisner also talked about transgender issues, reading aloud excerpts from a book by Riki Anne Wilchins. The book, called "Read My Lips," tells the story of a man who had a sex change to become a woman, and the difficulties she encountered being accepted into society afterwards. The author, though lighthearted and funny, clearly reveals the problems and prejudices she has encountered.
In addition, Meisner related some of her personal experiences and referred to the Drag Ball from Winter term. The Ball celebrated the LGBT community and was such a success that Meisner concluded: "maybe every day should be a drag."
After the prepared talks, Meisner invited the audience to add any thoughts or experiences they had. Ashok Ramasubramanian, a graduate student at the Thayer engineering school who is from India, said that before he came to Dartmouth, he had never encountered homosexuality. He said that previously he had no concept of homosexuality and that it was not talked about. Since coming to Dartmouth, he has encountered homosexuality for the first time. As a result of this, Ramasubramanian concluded that "the good thing about being at Dartmouth is being wiser about the issues."
The theme for the Senior Symposium this year is "A Time to Speak, A time to Act." The Symposium consists of several lectures and presentations encompassing diverse issues that face Dartmouth students today. It began yesterday and will continue through Sunday. The Senior Symposium has been an annual event since it was founded in 1978 by a group of graduating seniors.
