|
By
Todd
Heustess When I
started writing about tailgating at different college
football venues for Outsports, I knew it would be tremendous
fun. I wish I could make a living writing these types of
stories, traveling around the country meeting other college
football fans. I hoped that my excitement and passion for
the social atmosphere at college football games would
interest sports fans and non-sports fans alike and if I was
able to find a gay angle to the stories, so much the better.
What has really surprised and
captivated me is a sense of change at campuses across the
country. Whether it’s active and open gay alumni blending in
seamlessly to the tailgate scenes, or gay and straight
students tailgating together completely unburdened by labels
and preconceived notions of sexuality, a gay fraternity
totally integrated into their school’s social structure or
students fighting discrimination and homophobia at their
school, I’m realizing that there are small but significant
changes happening on campuses across the country, positive
changes for the GLBT community.
The setting at Boston College
for football is picture-perfect, a tailgate postcard. On
this cool, October evening in suburban Boston, excitement
reigned on the idyllic BC campus, awash in the first colors
of autumn, a dramatic contract with the stone buildings that
made up so much of the campus architecture.
Cozy Alumni Stadium (seating
capacity of 45,000) is situated in the middle of campus,
surrounded by dorms and classroom buildings. There was
excitement in the air for this Thursday night, nationally
televised ACC showdown between Boston College and Virginia
Tech on Oct. I was sitting in shared common “backyard” area
of the Mods (short for Modular Housing) talking with gay and
straight BC students about student life at BC. The lights of
Alumni Stadium were easily visible from the picnic table I
was sitting on, a five-minute walk from the Mods, the center
of student tailgating at BC.
I was so intrigued and
impressed by what the students were telling me and how
easily the students who were members of the GLBT Leadership
Council (GLS) were mixing with the throngs of other students
who were hanging out and partying before the game. As with
many of my recent on-campus experiences, I was struck by how
old labels and perceptions of gay and straight seem so
outdated, so irrelevant to the lives of today’s students who
have consistently expressed surprise at my surprise at how
easily openly gay students mix with non-gay students.
I was thinking about this
when John Hellman, a Senior from Dallas and VP of GLS
repeated what he had just said to me for emphasis. He was
asking me, “Did know that Boston College was one of the most
homophobic universities in the country according to the
Princeton Review? We’ve consistently been in the Top 10
since I was here, though we did drop off last year.” John’s
statement jolted me back to reality.
I looked around at the
students from the GLS who had invited my friend Jay and me
to join the tailgate party at the Mods, cooking out on their
grills, dressed in their bright yellow “Boston College Super
Fan” T-shirts, easily blending in to the raucous,
high-spirited scene of hundreds of students partying before
the big game. From my standpoint, nothing could be further
from the reality I was seeing at the Mods. Gay and straight
students (and some parents) were mingling together with no
problems, no issues. Every time I expressed surprise at how
uneventful it seemed to be to have all the students
tailgating together, the students I was talking to expressed
surprise at my surprise.
In my mind this was close to
tailgate utopia, at least from a student perspective,
because the tailgate scene at the Mods was pretty unique. On
game days, entrance to the Mods is restricted to students,
fans, family who are over 21 (you have to be a senior to
live at the Mods because open containers are allowed within
the Mods.) When John started talking about homophobia at BC
all of a sudden there were many students joining our
discussion, gay and straight students giving me anecdotes
about how gay students at BC are made to feel like second
class citizens. Apparently what I thought was “tailgate
utopia” for students was a little more complicated.
The students from the GLS at
BC that invited Jay and I to join their tailgate were
instrumental in getting Boston College to add sexual
orientation to the University nondiscrimination policy, a
three-year battle with the school’s administration. Nick
Salter, a senior, Truman Scholar, and member of the Student
Senate was one of the leaders in the fight and was referred
to consistently as a “hero” by the students I was chatting
with at the Mods. Nick a soft-spoken, humble, and intense
young man, stopped by for the tailgate party, responded very
simply when I asked him about his role in advocating change
at BC. He said, “It was the right thing to do. GLBT students
should not feel like second-class citizens at their own
school.”
Amanda Denes, a senior
Communications major and the director of programming for GLS
said that the fight for change was not over. She
acknowledged that the students had won a major victory by
getting the school to add sexual orientation to the official
nondiscrimination policy but that the school countered by
adding the following clause to the Policy: “Moreover it
is the policy of Boston College, while reserving its lawful
rights where appropriate to take actions designed to promote
the Jesuit, Catholic principles that sustain its mission and
heritage, to comply with all state and federal laws
prohibiting discrimination in employment and in its
educational programs on the basis of a person’s race,
religion, color, national origin, age, sex, marital or
parental status, veteran status, or disability, and to
comply with state law prohibiting discrimination on the
basis of a person’s sexual orientation.”
The GLS students see the
mention of “Jesuit, Catholic principles” as a potential
loophole and are still working to change it. Amanda did say
that things were getting better at BC for GLBT students and
that the administration was not overtly or outwardly
homophobic. It’s just that they didn’t appear to be
concerned with GLBT issues on campus and were not supportive
of GLBT student initiatives and organizations.
She said that the faculty was
very supportive and that the student body, with the
exception of a few isolated incidents, did not appear to her
to be that homophobic. She pointed out that when the policy
was put to a student vote, more than 84% of the students
voted to add sexual orientation to the policy. Amanda said
that she felt that there was a lot of pressure on BC to be a
“model Catholic University” and that makes it awkward for
the school to be too supportive of GLBT issues at the
school. I asked Amanda what she does when she’s not out
changing the world. She laughed and said that in addition to
her work with GLS, she loves sports (she played volleyball
in high school) and tutors athletes in communications as
part of a work-study program. Her tutoring of athletes at BC
has made her even more of a fan of BC athletics since many
of the football and basketball players are friends of hers.
She said that football was her favorite sport at BC because
she loves how it brings everyone together.
Tyler Thompson, a senior
majoring in English and chief of staff of the GLS is a
straight ally of the group and got involved after attending
a student rally against the Policy in 2003. Tyler is a big
football fan and loves the energy of BC games. He’s just as
passionate about fighting for the rights of the gay students
at BC. When I asked him what motivates him regarding gay
rights he said, “I want to see my friends and people at BC
happy. I have a lot of gay friends and the policies and
attitude of the administration towards gay students felt
like blatant injustice.”
I asked Tyler if his friends
or family give him grief for being so involved in gay causes
and fighting for the rights of gay students at BC. Tyler
said his friends at BC don’t but that some of his buddies
back home in New Jersey give him a hard time and ask a lot
of questions but that he didn’t care, that it was the right
thing to do, that it was exciting to be part of change at
BC. He said that things were getting better at BC, that if
the Princeton Review ranking of the most homophobic schools
was held again today, that BC would improve. Tyler said it
would probably still be in the top 15 or 20 based on what he
perceived as lack of concern with GLBT issues by the
administration and Board of Trustees but that things were
better than when he and his friends were freshmen, for sure.
Talking about the climate of
homophobia at BC and how these students were fighting it
made the actual game seems somewhat irrelevant. I was way
more interested in talking to them about how they are
affecting change at BC than going to the game, but the game
beckoned and I agreed to follow up with them later. BC won
the game against the Hokies, 22-3. The Super Fan student
section was especially energetic this night as one of their
own, kicker Steve Aponavicius, who last year was cheering
with his buddies in the stands, kicked for the first time in
a football game, making two extra points and two field
goals. I was stuck in a very quite Tech section with my
friend Jay (a Hokie fan and grad) and after the game we
rejoined the kids at the Mods for the post-game
celebrations. The mix at the Mods after the game was pretty
much the same, equal parts guys and girls, the 15-20 GLS
students mixing easily with all their straight counterparts.
None of the non-GLS students I talked to seemed to care that
I was writing a story for gay sports site. They just thought
it was cool that a freelance writer from LA was there to
write about the game and the tailgate scene.
In the days after my visit to
BC I kept thinking how the bright, motivated personable GLS
students we were interacting with were destined for great
things. John McDargh, a professor of theology at BC and the
faculty advisor to the GLS said I was lucky to have met
them, that I interacted with the “best and brightest” at BC.
He said that the GLS students I met had made significant
changes at BC that they had really made the climate at BC
less homophobic and more accepting.
I asked John why they weren’t
satisfied, why they still are still fighting for change. He
said that the students have a different perspective because
they want to be proud of their school and this brings out
emotions. He also acknowledged that to their generation
instances of homophobia and discrimination were in
contradiction to how they see the world, that it surprised
them because they were used to it and they believe strongly
that it is not right that they can affect change. I agreed
with John that these students are changing things more than
they realize and that they all have exceptionally bright
futures. They are definitely Boston College Super Fans
whether it's cheering for their Eagles or fighting social
injustice at their school.
Author's note:
Boston
College appeared on the Princeton Review’s annual
“Alternative Lifestyle’s Not an Alternative List” each year
from 2000-2004 with a ranking ranging from No. 2 to No. 15.
In 2005 the school did not appear on the list. In 2006 the
school returned to the list with a No. 5 ranking. The 2007
list does not include BC.
Related:
--Steers
and Queers at the Red River Shootout
--Tailgating
at the University of Arizona
--Tailgating
at Ohio State
--Outsports
tailgate tour set for 2006
Oct. 23, 2006 |
