There was a lot of good conversation. I love the Audrey Lorde piece, but we didn’t talk about it as deeply as I would have liked to. I’m kind of ambivalent about the Loutzenheiser pieces.The two videos we watched were good, but again we really didn’t do enough with them.

What was interesting was to hear various students’ experiences with homophobia and gender construction. For some students it was almost a nonissue because they had been raised in an open accepting environment, others admitted to play “smear the queer” and others said it was in conflict with their religious beliefs.

The issue of religon really complicates matters of homosexuality. More than any other issue within diversity studies, homosexuality runs smack against fundamental religious values. Then again, people were using the Bible 100 years ago to support racism and miscegenation. And we talked about that a bit.

What really came out though is that people are afraid to take action and stand up for marginalized groups because of fear for their jobs. And I think that fear is only going to get worse in this economic climate, which could lead to backsliding in our movement toward a more humane society. That fear is a tool of the intolerant. More than anything, I think we have to fight against that fear.