Compiled by Howard Israel
S/he Said
"I was so incredibly frustrated with the lack of positive images of black gay couples in committed relationships in the mainstream and LGBT press. There's a persistent myth that black gay men are incapable of maintaining healthy relationships. I knew this wasn't true, and I wanted to challenge this idea that has crept into the consciousness of black men. So I started interviewing black gay couples in committed relationships, highlighting how they met, fell in love, and continued to maintain their relationship."
-Darian Aaron, in an interview titled "Someone You Must Know: Darian Aaron," about his life, his blog titled "Living Out Loud with Darian," and his new book titled "When Love Takes Over: A Celebration of SGL Couples of Color," http://www.10thousandcouples.com, Aug. 1.
"He absolutely didn't hide it. He'd never heard there was a closet."
-Rachelle Horowitz, a longtime friend and co-worker of Bayard Rustin, about openly gay Rustin, a key adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the chief organizer of the historic August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in an article titled "Bayard Rustin, organizer of the March on Washington, was crucial to the movement," http://www.washingtonpost.com, Aug. 21. Rustin was widely viewed as the only civil rights activist capable of pulling off a protest of such unprecedented scale.
"In the next 10 years, we'll look back and ask why colleges didn't make this change much sooner. (The question) sends an important message to LGBT students: you are welcome here. The admissions form is one of the very first messages from a college about what's important. By standardizing this question, we can match students up with resources and start to communicate with them. We've got students going to proms who are openly gay. Those youth want to be out."
-Shane L. Windmeyer, founder/executive director of Campus Pride, a national organization working to make colleges safer for LGBT students, about an optional question, appearing on Elmhurst College's 2012-13 application, which makes Elmhurst the first institution to include a question about sexual orientation and gender identity on its undergraduate admissions application, The Chronicle of Higher Education, http://www.chronicle.com, Aug. 23. Admissions officers at the Illinois college plan to use the question to connect students with campus programs and services.
"We can hope that the fact that a player stepped forward to challenge what she perceived as anti-lesbian discrimination by her coach and the failure of the university athletic department to properly investigate her allegations will serve as a warning to other coaches and schools: Athletes and their parents these days are more likely to object to and challenge what they experience as discrimination in sport based on sexual orientation. Schools and coaches that hope to avoid discrimination lawsuits should educate athletic staff, adopt policy that protects athletes and coaches from discrimination based on sexual orientation and then follow through to make sure these policies are followed by everyone in the athletic department."
-Pat Griffin, in her blog titled "SMU Settles Lawsuit with Former Women's Basketball Player," about Jennifer Colli ,a former Southern Methodist University women's basketball player who sued the university and head women's basketball coach for revoking her scholarship in retaliation for her complaints that the coach was questioning her sexual orientation and the sexual orientation of other players on the team, http://www.ittakesateam.blogspot.com, Aug. 7. Colli was awarded $19,213, the equivalent of one semester of financial aid.
