Word: gay
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Last Friday, in a demonstration partially inspired by an alleged assault upon a gay Mather resident, Defeat Homophobia, a campus gay, lesbian and bisexual rights organization, staged a "kiss-in" in the Mather dining hall to "protest violence with love...
Since the demonstration, controversy has erupted--both in news stories and in casual conversation--over whether the kiss-in was an appropriate tactic. Even many proponents of gay rights have criticized the event, claiming that it was a divisive effort that has polarized people by asking them to accept gays and lesbians just a little bit too much...
Presumably, the purpose of the kiss-in was to elicit a response that would demonstrate the depth or shallowness of support for gay rights at Harvard. The Defeat Homophobia effort has been widely successful in challenging the assumptions of those who considered themselves to be tolerant of homosexuality, but were unwilling to pay the cause anything more than lip service...
...enough for someone to merely say that they believe in gay rights. It is necessary that they understand what gay rights really are--and support them...
Although it may be a much larger step than many are willing to take, supporting gay rights means accepting the gay "lifestyle" as equally legitimate as, if slightly different than, the heterosexual "lifestyle." It is the difference between tolerating our existence versus tolerating our equality...