LGBTQ+ History at Eastern
Welcome to the News Desk! This week, we're talking LGBTQ+ history at Eastern. Our campus currently has a lot of support for the community, but how did we get here? Old articles from the Daily Eastern News provide some insight.
Make sure to check out the podcast this week! We're experimenting with a new production process by having people from the News record and talk about their sections without my help- I'll just handle the technical aspects. This week, assistant photo editor Rob Le Cates discussed this semester's success on the News' Instagram page as well as some of his personal experiences.
On the Hunt for History
In the spirit of transparency in journalism, I must admit some level of defeat on this topic. I've written before about my love for The Keep, Eastern's database of everything from masters theses to full PDFs of every issue of the News. I turned to this database with excitement for everything I was going to learn about LGBTQ+ people through the years on our campus.
I forgot about the basic functions of search engines. Using the keyword "gay" pulls up results including every single person with the names Gaye or Gayle, advertisements about "gay colors" and any mention of the nearby town of Gay, IL. Here's part of an ad from the Will Rogers Theater in the June 28, 1950 issue of the News.
"I'll just search 'LGBT' instead," I thought... but I did a quick bit of research first.
Our modern understanding of sexuality and gender has taken many years to form. According to this article from National Geographic, lesbians were the first to put a term to their identities; they got their name from the works of Sappho, a poet who lived on the island of Lesbos and wrote about her feelings for other women. "Lesbian" started being used in writing in the 1890s. The terms "homosexual" (attracted to the same gender) and "bisexual" (attracted to both men and women) were coined in 1869.
Side note: with the modern understanding of nonbinary gender identities, the definition of bisexuality has shifted. In the 1990 "Bisexual Manifesto" says "Do not assume that bisexuality is binary or dougamous in nature" and "In fact, don't assume that there are only two genders." Many cite this as one of the first records of bisexuality being open beyond binary genders. Still, some prefer terms like pansexual or omnisexual to describe their attraction to all genders. Anyway, I digress.
The term "gay" originated as a slur, but around the 1980s became the accepted term for homosexual men. It has also been used to describe anyone who is attracted to the same gender and even gender-nonconforming people. LGB became LGBT in the late 90s/early 00s as transgender people became part of the movement.
All this to say: Where do you start looking through files to find historical records? Since "gay" brought in such a high volume of results, I've decided to search some other relevant terms and pick out the most interesting results though the years.
LGBTQ+ in the DEN
"Homosexual"
The earliest few mentions of this term in the News are in sections about national news- interesting, but not as relevant to campus. One of the first things actually related to Eastern seems to be more connected to the wrestling team, when a coach in 1971 asserted that long hair made men more feminine. At least one student disagreed.
Sound familiar? A Texas school made national news late last year when six male and one nonbinary student were punished for having long hair.
I found a story from 1973 about an early example of the kind of panels we still have today: opportunities for students to talk to members of the LGBTQ+ community and learn about their experiences. I'd like to think that today's panels are a bit more experience-based and less clinical-sounding, though. Even so, in contrast with an excerpt from a religious publication which the News shared in 1974, the panel article sounds progressive.
"Lesbian"
Like "homosexual," "lesbian" is referenced a few times in correlation to national news before it reached the local level. The first organic mentions come on a page full of letters to the editor. Every single one appears to be in response to a 1983 editorial called "Gay rights are unalienable rights, too." This editorial upset some members of the campus community and made others happy and both sides felt extremely strongly about it.
"Transgender"
I decided not to search outdated terms like "transsexual." For the purposes of this newsletter and in recognition of the current political climate surrounding transgender people, I'm choosing to focus on articles which are more likely to have positive news.
Throughout the latter half of the 90s, there are several mentions of members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Allies Union (the precursor to EIU Pride) attending conferences and workshops with the word "transgender" in the title. Still, most news is more focused on opinions of homosexuality, specifically the debate over gay marriage. The conversation was definitely beginning on campus, though. This workshop in 1999, while mostly about gender stereotypes, definitely touched on gender identity, if maybe not in the same way we might talk about it now.
I also noticed that during that year, the News started using "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community" as a term, perhaps signifying that the LGBAU was doing the same or that this term was being accepted in journalistic circles.
The first article I found which is solely focused on transgender people is surprisingly positive. A trans woman named Sandy Stone visited campus to discuss her experiences in 2006 and seems to have been received well by her student audience. Today, we would never use the term "transgendered," but that knowledge was less widespread at the time.
Why didn't you include ____?
I wish I could've gone through every term related to the LGBTQ+ community and found the most extensive possible history- in fact, I may make this a longer-term project. However, the process of combing through entire newspaper issues and reading articles to determine subject matter is both draining and time-consuming. However, I found a lot of interesting information about the formation of LGBAU and backlash on campus. If I receive positive feedback on this week's newsletter, I may turn that into another weekly News Desk or even a special mid-week edition.
Catch up with the news!
Our focus for the print edition this week was the LGBTQ+ community since here on campus, we celebrate Pride in April. Stories include professors' takes on anti-transgender legislation and a look at all the events planned for the month.
Pride-related columns include Katja Benz's letter to the LGBTQ+ community and Ellen Dooley's suggestions for acceptance in schools. Partly related but maybe more connected to national news, Ian Palacios unpacked the question "what is a woman?"
Check out the podcast!
Psst... I'm working on new cover art for the podcast. Keep an eye out!