While basking in my usual haven--The Coffeehouse--and dismissing the ignorance and hostility of a traditionally intolerant Duke community, a fellow black gay brother, Trinity junior Anthony Bell, and I were discussing the politics of the Duke Gay and Lesbian Association's "Blue Jeans Day." Last week, a few members of DGLA made the decision to broaden the scope of Blue Jeans Day, inviting so-called "sympathetic straights" to wear blue jeans in support of "human civil rights," rather than reserving it exclusively for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals whose identification as such is continually met with intolerance.
This delicate, accommodating language warms the heart but misses the point. Blue Jeans Day is not just about the broader issue of civil rights. Blue Jeans Day is about the affirmation and celebration of personal triumph and courage.
In the effort to get lots of warm bodies out onto the quad today, DGLA has undermined the significance of what lesbians, bisexuals and gays--those who are out--go through every day. DGLA's mispromotion and misrepresentation of Blue Jeans Day will allow straights and closeted queers to show off their supposed lack of bigotry. Yet these "supporters" place themselves in no danger of being cut off from their families, of being ostracized by their frat brothers and sorority sisters, of being thoroughly dissed by those they once relied on for support and encouragement.
Witness this week's events at the East Campus Bridge. Campus bigots painted over the advertisement of Duke's Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Awareness Week, then added a few choice epithets like: I HATE FAGS. I KILL DYKES. AIDS KILLS HOMOS.
Blatant anti-queer violence should be met with queer solidarity. Yet DGLA has practically begged the straights for their participation in Blue Jeans Day. Such an invitation allows straights to call themselves queer-positive without having to deeply challenge their own heterosexism and homophobia. This appeasement of the straight conscience only destroys the cohesiveness of the queer community and squanders the impact of its most visible and colorful event.
The whole point of Blue Jeans Day is to force everyone to question a simple act like donning a pair of blue jeans just as queers must question how visible, how out, how gay or lesbian or bisexual we will be each day. Blue Jeans Day is not an outreach mission to straights. Instead, it is a challenge to them: We challenge straights to shed their misconceptions, to get over their prejudices, to live queer for just one day.
Let's assume the hatemongering vandals were straights--safe enough, right? Why would any self-respecting queer want the "support" of anyone who describes herself with the same adjective as they on Blue Jeans Day? The concept of the "straight supporter" is inherently homophobic. It reinforces a patronizing way of thinking which leaves heterosexuality as the norm and queerdom as aberrant. The struggle for queer rights and queer self-identification becomes, therefore, dependent upon straight people's acknowledgment and approval. Funk dat!
In 1990, half the DGLA advertised BJD as one which would include straights, and half billed it as an exclusively queer event. The former group failed to realize this vital fact: many lesbians, gays, and bisexuals use BJD as a mechanism for coming out of the closet. After that fine October afternoon, confusion and speculation about people's personal business reigned all day and into the next week and beyond: "Is so-and-so [spotted walking down the quad in blue jeans] really gay?" "I thought he was dating a girl." "I saw her sporting jeans Friday. Maybe she just didn't know." Consequently, those who intended to come out that day could not do so decisively. The come-one-come-all attitude currently espoused by some members of DGLA belittles courageous acts by amazing individuals and robs newly self-identified queers of support from their own.
If straights were truly supportive of the queer struggle, then they wouldn't give a damn whether they were tagged as "queer" for a day. Why do so many straights in the gay movement make their fight for queer rights contingent upon their being perceived as heterosexual? Why do so many "hets" conveniently come to gay marches and rallies clinging to a member of the opposite sex? Could it be that their "activism" is informed by the very homophobia they claim to oppose?
We unequivocally think "yes." We would rather see a display of a few folks who are truly committed to fighting hatred and heterosexism wearing blue jeans than see half the campus wearing blue jeans in a subtle display of homophobia. DGLA needs to get over its fear of staging an event which may be confrontational or appear "radical." Poorly channeled rage won't solve anything, but well-targeted shows of solidarity will.
This year Blue Jeans Day has been promoted throughout the Duke community to ill effect, providing the faint of heart with conveniently false sense of empathy. Therefore, we devote this column to those Absolute Queers who fight the battle against fear and oppression rigorously, daily. You are the genuine and most profound catalysts for change.
Tim'm West is a Trinity senior.
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