A few years ago Metroline published an article about how Yale University was becoming one of the more prominent schools regarding progressive thinking on gay issues.  Even back then the idea of a noticeable percentage of the student body being identified as gay or lesbian was stirring quite the debate among the faculty and alumni.  Most markedly was a distinct divide between progressive and traditional thinkers.  

When an out faculty member was heard making noise of Yale becoming the leading center for Gay and Lesbian studies, well let me tell you there were a lot of shouting matches going on about that one.  But behind the scenes there lurked a silent intellect of not toleration, but one of realization that homosexuality was indeed not a deformation of Gods design but rather and intricate part of it.  Of course these radical ideas had to be kept to oneself for the most part and only discussed in an environment where those present had a feeling of safety.  After all the senior faculty and administration were not all that keen on the idea of one of the worlds best schools being labeled as a gay haven.  

So they took the morally presentable path and kind of did nothing.  But the community much the same as life finds a way.  In this case it was pretty much the student body itself that integrated the gay community into the Yale collective.  How did they do it?  Simply by not rejecting or condemning their fellow students.  And before you knew it Yale was a safe and accepting environment for out gay students and faculty to learn and work.  Today the university has appointed Maria Trumpler as the director of the Office of LGBTQ Resources.  This is an indicator of how intellect can eventually win out over prejudice.  How the human spirit can conquer the most daunting obstacle.  

In the July/Aug 2009 Yale Alumni Magazine, there is an essay written by Yale history professor George Chauncey Ph.D.  He is the author of, among other books, “Gay New York: Gender: Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940,” which won the 1996 Organization of American Historians’ Merle Curti Prize for the best book in social history.  

Last April, Professor Chauncey gave a speech at the Yale Gay and Lesbian Alumni (GALA) reunion from which the essay was written.  It is a fascinating look at the evolution shall we say of the acceptance of gay men and woman as true equals in what can be regarded as an intellectual society.  Among intellects which can be arguably considered above the average Americans view of  GLBTQ issues.

In reading this essay I am again amazed at the more than significant contributions to human kind made by members of the gay community. That while recognized as sometimes monumental contributions, they are still not seen as valuable strides forward fostered by the gay community or a gay person, only by so and so with disregard to the fact that such value can come from a gay man or woman.  And that is a same because the more I look back into history the more and more I see being just that.  The product of vision from a mind that happens to be gay.

The Editors’ note reads as follows: Why they call Yale the “Gay Ivy”

Yale has been known as the Gay Ivy since at least 1987, when Julie V. Lovine declared in the Wall Street Journal, “Suddenly Yale is a gay school.”  She didn’t offer serious evidence, but she had evidently hit on something true, because the concept stuck.  Today, Yale’s reputation as the Gay Ivy is familiar to most students and younger alumni-it’s even included in Yale’s entry on Wikipedia, that useful guide to the common wisdom.  -  How did this happen?  Not through any strategic plan. The current administration is gay friendly, but Yale historically has not sought to push the envelope on these issues.  -  Rather, it was gay students themselves who changed Yale.  

Please don’t get the impression that it was all roses for alumni.  It was not.  The editors point out that for most of the twentieth century Yale was a terrible place to be gay.  But this essay is a wonderful insight as to how decades of Yale’s gay students drove a “cultural shift” into the mainstream of Yale life that is now enjoyed and celebrated by many current students and alumni.  I highly recommend you get a hold of the July/Aug 2009 issue and read the entire essay.  It will be well worth the effort.  And as to the Editorial Staff of the Yale Alumni Magazine and Professor Chauncey, thank you for the great contribution to the community in publishing this piece.