Inside the Claremont Closet Is being gay at CMC as difficult as the QRC says?
By Kimberly Ngai Sta f f Writer, CM C ‘ 1 4
The LGBT “invisible minority” usually copes with the difficulties of coming out by establishing and joining studentrun clubs or groups on campus. The Alliance for Queer Understanding and Acceptance (AQUA), CMC’s LGBT group, recently disbanded due to poor membership. Now, CMC is the only campus without an LGBT group.
what she had to say were valid points, but they very much overstated the situation.” According to QRC statistics of the 5Cs, CMC has the least number of students publicly out and the most still trapped “in the closet.” Zahner thinks that, because CMC has a high concentration of students from conservative upbringings, parents are responsible for these numbers. “Conservative parents are more likely to have negative views on homosexuality and would therefore make it harder for their kids to come out,” he says. Di Bartolo, however, attributes this phenomenon to a mentality stemming from the college’s men-only founding: the development of an unjust prejudice, which continues to pressure students into traditional gender roles.
Greg Zahner, an openly gay CMC junior, defends the school’s attitude toward LGBT students: “You don’t have to stay closeted or hide in a South Quad tower in order to get a lot out of your CMC experience.” He says his two years of living in North Quad and his having a football player as a best friend tend “to shock my friends at the other 5Cs, because they think homophobia runs rampant across our campus.”
But Zahner disagrees, citing instead CMC’s “focus on leadership, management, and pragmatism in fields like business, finance, economics, or politics.” Though these are traditionally more masculine qualities and professional pursuits, “gay people can be very successful,” he says. “They definitely fit into CMC’s hyper-masculine culture.”
A recent CMC graduate, who wishes to remain anonymous, agrees. “As an ‘out’ CMCer, I certainly had a different experience vis-à-vis my sexuality than others at the rest of the 5Cs.” It was not, however, as extreme as di Bartolo claims. This alum, who knew di Bartolo through the QRC, saw “a major anti-CMC bias with her. A lot of
While Zahner does believe that the QRC may exaggerate its claim that the recent suicides may lead to an epidemic in the Claremont community, he still takes the dialogue seriously. “Those at CMC are especially aware that suicide is a rare choice and always a wrong choice,” he says. “For every gay person I know, open or closeted, it gets better.”
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According to di Bartolo, “No one wants to be gay when they first understand they are. When you realize you’re different, it’s a mourning process.” After coping with internalized homophobia, students must accept their orientation, adjust to it, and move on. While di Bartolo thinks the process is universal, she concedes that “there’s something noticeably different at Claremont McKenna.”
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The Claremont Colleges’ Queer Resource Center (QRC) believes that 5C students face a similar problem. Emphasizing “the unprecedented number of deaths nationally and those who have come close to committing suicide within the 5Cs,” QRC Coordinator Adriana di Bartolo contends that this “epidemic is caused by unrealistic expectations of the community.” And Claremont McKenna students, she believes, are most vulnerable.
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From the beginning of the school year through October, six closeted students between the ages of 8 and 18 committed suicide nationwide. Each fell victim not to academic stress but to social ostracism, because they either identified as part of the LGBT community or “seemed gay” to taunting classmates. Far too many students continue to struggle to come to terms with their sexuality and to deal with it in the face of their parents and peers.