Word: queering
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...mannerly silence. The closeted convince themselves that being out is not a necessity or a vital political act and that overt homosexuality, like homophobia, is simply a failure of good breeding. If it is common courtesy that keeps students from homophobic violence, it is also what keeps them from queer expression. To be openly queer, and thus offensively queer, is to call into question the heterosexual noblesse oblige of which Harvard is so bafflingly proud...
...drawing uncharitable distinctions between straight and queer, between the sanctioned and the oppressed, out queer students are seen as rending asunder what was comfortably whole. The display of "common courtesy" is itself a privilege, ostentatiously exhibited by those who would preserve the fantasy of conciliatory homogeneity--the wide-eyed protest that "we're all just people here...
These acts should therefore function as paradoxical blessings to the queer community. They are an occasion for epiphany. Through them we may apprehend the meaning of coming out and staying out. We can understand that coming out is always a political act, always a political and ethical necessity. The craven rationalizations that keep the closeted entombed--the conviction that being out makes no difference--are as groundless as they are deadly. They cripple queer movements at their seminal moment (the avowal of queer identity) even as they strengthen heterosexual privilege by disappearing within...
Harvard's queer community must protest this silence which is, at least in part, self-imposed. It is our responsibility to speak as queer students for those who are still closeted, those still hiding behind a mask of counterfeit heterosexuality and sincere, if disinterested, concern...
BGLTSA Co-chair Michael K. T. Tan '01 emphasizes that today's celebration is one of "queer life and queer visibility...