From the NAWM
An Unequivocal Commitment to Inclusiveness I N OCTOBER 2011 I gave a Chapel Talk to the Wabash community. Once I accepted the invitation from the Sphinx Club, I found myself at a loss, because Wabash has meant so many things to me at so many different times in my life—how could I possibly find an appropriate topic? So I chose a narrow, focused topic and gave my speech a narrow, focused title: “Men.” Of course, I’m joking. Picking the title of “Men” allowed me to pour a little bit of everything about what I think about Wabash College into my Chapel Talk. One paragraph of that talk got quite a bit of attention—all positive attention, I might add. After saying how proud I was of our Wabash brothers who formed the Malcolm X Institute for Black Studies some 40 years ago, and how, when joining in the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the MXI, I had learned that the MXI was a haven for these young men in more turbulent times, I said:
Much the same is true of our gay brothers here on campus and in the alumni body, except that they didn’t have a student organization like the MXI when I was here. The 1980s and before were a very different time. When I graduated from Wabash in May 1987, I assumed that there were probably gay students in my class and on campus, but I had never (to my knowledge) met one. Now, in 2011, some of my very closest friends within the alumni body— and some of the most passionate supporters of this College, in financial terms and otherwise—are gay men and their partners. Let me say this to them while I have the podium: There is now, and has been for some time now, a total and unequivocal commitment to inclusiveness on the part of the College and on the part of the alumni body. So to our gay students, as well as to my gay alumni brothers, I pledge this to you as the President of your Alumni Association: The Wabash tent is wide open, and you and your partners are welcome as a part of the Wabash fraternity, part of the Wabash family. We are too small, and our mission is too important, to exclude even a single Wabash man. We would be a poorer and incomplete College without you.
community for close to 30 years now, I know that Wabash has not always been hospitable to gay or bisexual students or alumni. Of course, that mirrors the experience of society at large. But this has always posed an extra-special challenge at Wabash, an all-male college. I’m not a sociologist, so I don’t have a brilliant explanation for why this might be the case; I’ll leave that to others. But the world has changed, and Wabash has changed. When I was 20, I don’t think I could have comprehended that my wife, Jane, and I would go on a “double date” with another couple, both of whom are men. But it’s a normal and natural part of our lives in 2012.
HAVING BEEN A MEMBER OF THE WABASH COLLEGE
74
| WA BA S H M AGA Z I N E
I work with colleagues, co-counsel, and clients who are gay, and in some cases, where the law allows, married to their same-sex partners. What was once hushed and extraordinary is now daily and ordinary. So, too, at Wabash. There’s a student organization for gay and bisexual men and supporters, sh’OUT. Many of my friends, classmates and near classmates—the same ones I didn’t know about in May 1987— are gay, and the fact that I now know that has only deepened my relationship with them, because now they are living more authentically in my presence. with a networking luncheon with sh’OUT members, our Board, several faculty, and a number of gay and transgender alumni. Deans Phillips, Raters, Runge, and Oprisko were there with us, and President White spoke to the group. Current student members of sh’OUT were able to learn from alumni how things were on campus for gay students 10, 20, 30, and 40 years ago. The alumni present were able to learn WE CONCLUDED OUR JANUARY 2012 NAWM BOARD MEETING