Protest
ROTC Protests
"The contradiction between the university's principle of non-discrimination against individuals on the basis of sexual orientation, and the presence of an ROTC that does discriminate, cannot exist on the campuses indefinitely."
- John M. Deutch, provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
During the early 1990s, the widespread presence of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) on college campuses became a major point of contention for queer activists. ROTC's policy of excluding from participation openly gay men and women was strongly criticized, and on many campuses, protests and administrative petitioning demanded the cessation of university support for the organization.
Indiana University's Bloomington campus engaged in just such a push during 1990 and 1991.
Early Objections
IU’s protest began with an ambiguous clause in a new Student Code of Ethics, stating that Indiana University “does not condone” discrimination based on sexual orientation. During the summer of 1990, student leaders requested an investigation into the status of ROTC on campus, citing a belief that its discriminatory policies conflicted with the new Ethics Code. Ultimately, the Student Faculty Council voted to support a resolution asking that the University cease to engage with the ROTC program by 1995, unless the ROTC policy was changed. This resolution caught the attention of the Indiana University Board of Trustees.
Student Civil Disobedience
Student protestors of ROTC, angered by the lack of administrative action and bolstered by the furor surrounding the Persian Gulf War, took their demonstrations to the next level in February 1991. On February 22, a group of over 100 students marched towards Rawles Hall--where the ROTC office was located--shouting such slogans as “ROTC Out!” and “Gentler, Kindler, Bush Needs a Reminder!” They entered and occupied the ROTC offices in Rawles Hall. The protest and occupation of the ROTC office was peaceful; however, the following day’s similar demonstration, which had fewer protestors, resulted in the arrest of a 19-year old student.
Administrative Action
Although both the IU Faculty Council and the IU Student Council voted in support of a resolution to ban ROTC on the Bloomington campus pending a change in ROTC policy, and a city-wide petition to the same effect garnered 1700 signatures, the IU Board of Trustees ultimately voted 8-1 to allow ROTC to remain on campus. Perhaps influenced by IU President Thomas Ehrlich, himself a former ROTC student at Harvard, the trustees stated that they believed they had reached an acceptable compromise regarding the ROTC issue: support the organization's commitment to education, while simultaneously making an effort to reach out to the Department of Defense to change the military’s policy on homosexuals. They also cited the $2.5 million dollars in Department of Defense grants the ROTC presence made the college eligible for and the number of students at Indiana University that were on ROTC scholarships.
Conclusion
Regardless of the outcome, the ROTC debate, which lasted for over a year, represented a major showing of public support for the LGBT community in Bloomington’s history. To have collected over 1700 signatures in a petition, and for the issue to reach the Board of Trustees in the first place, indicates the seriousness with which the matter was approached. At the Trustees Student Affairs meeting, OUT President Joseph Clemans stated that the new IU Student Code of Ethics, which prompted the ROTC debate in the first place, had led to “an upsurge of pride and self-confidence in my community.”
Act OUT, the Lesbian Avengers, and the New Queer
Act OUT and Kiss-in: Queer Spectacles
Beginning in 1992, several new activist organizations erupted onto the scene, including Act OUT, the newly-formed action-oriented branch of the previously-existing group OUT. Whereas OUT was rooted in an older style of activism that persistently advanced a gay and lesbian minority agenda by "asking" for inclusion, Act OUT embodied the new sensibility of simply asserting that queer people were already present, and were already "included," albeit in unjust, unequal, and oppressive ways.
On October 12th, 1992, Act OUT organized a "kiss-in" outside Ballantine Hall, a heavily trafficked building on the Indiana University campus. The event proved to be a "surprising wake-up call" for the students walking to class at 9AM, and the individuals involved in the kiss-in worked actively to engage with and confront the assumptions that made the sight as shocking as it was, shouting "We're here! We're queer! Get used to it!", among other proscriptive and accusatory phrases.
This event, and the similar ones that Act OUT engaged in during its brief existence, exemplify the sensibilities that ruled the Queer Moment: an angry, loud, self-assured, (and sometimes self-righteous) rejection of the oppressions that characterized queer life experiences.
The Lesbian Avengers
In October of 1994, an IU grad student, Carol Guess, organized a Lesbian Avengers chapter in Bloomington. The group engaged in activism along with OUT and the campus group QUEST (Queers United for Equal Social Treatment); along with Act OUT and QUEST, the Lesbian Avengers took a confrontational approach to activism in line with most of the organization's other chapters. When protesting the administrative decision to use private rather than university funds for the soon-to-be-established GLB student services office, one Lesbian Avenger member carried a sign declaring "Hey Myles [Brand, then-president of the University], wake up and smell the queers".
Queer and Post-Queer AIDS Activism
We’re Here! We’re Queer!
As the Queer Revolution of the 90’s got underway, the face of AIDS activism began a major thematic shift. As people settled in for the long haul towards the development of a vaccine for HIV (a newspaper article in 1984 predicted a “cure in two to three years”; by 1988 the prediction was ten, and increasing) it became clearer and clearer that it would take research symposiums and massive amounts of lab hours to fabricate a solution to the crisis. This shift took the form of a move from consciousness-raising panels and speakers to fund-raising drag shows and consciousness-raising spectacles.
Performance and AIDS Activism
On February 4th, 1991, Bullwinkle’s, a local gay bar, hosted a drag show/auction fund raiser to benefit the Bloomington AIDS Task Force. The coverage criticized past events for “aimlessly preaching about AIDS”. A March 26th, 1997 an Indiana Daily Student front-page article discussed the campus presence of HAVOC, the HIV/AIDS Volunteer Outreach Coalition. A student officer with the title “Special Events Diva” spoke of explosive ways to disseminate information, including demonstrating the way that oil-based lubricants erode latex condoms by smearing a blown-up condom in chocolate sauce and watching it pop, splattering observers with syrup. A few days later, on April 3rd, another newspaper article covered a concert benefit for Children AIDS Network National, billed as the “CANN Music Festival”. Local funk and “post-post-grunge” bands played to raise money and awareness about the negative impacts AIDS has on children.
Institutional Efforts
In 1994, Indiana University joined with the University of Colorado and the University of Kentucky to found the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention in part to specifically address the needs of seropositive individuals in rural areas—such as the ones found in southern Indiana. RCAP is headquartered at Indiana University’s Bloomington Campus; in 2003, the IU campus hosted RCAP’s third annual National Conference for HIV and STD Prevention in Rural Communities, from April 4th to 6th.
Post-Queer Activism
In even more recent years, the out-and-visibly-queer trend of ‘90s AIDS activism has continued. In 2006, the IU Sexual Health Behavior Center sponsored the first Bloomington “Latexhibition”, a consciousness-raising event held on World AIDS Day, December 1st. The event included a “latex fashion show”, featuring clothing made entirely out of condoms. In 2007, Bloomington area resident Vicci Laine began working locally to promote various AIDS service organizations. Laine, a trans woman, does work organizing drag shows primarily to benefit organizations focusing on providing services to local seropositive individuals.
Sources
Egherman, Dara Joy. “Avengers focus on lesbian issues”. Indiana Daily Student, October 7, 1994, p. 2
Klassen, Teri. “IU Student Leaders Protest ROTC's Exclusion of Gays.” Herald Times, May 5, 1990. http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/1990/05/05/archive.19900505.4920170.sto. (Link no longer active or available on Internet Archive.)
Klassen, Teri. “IU Trustees Find ROTC Compromise.” Herald Times, May 4, 1991. http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/1991/05/04/archive.19910504.89f6939.sto. (Link no longer active or available on Internet Archive.)
Klassen, Teri. “Students Want ROTC Banned.” Herald Times, September 20, 1990. http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/1990/09/20/archive.19900920.8801380.sto. (Link no longer active or available on Internet Archive.)
Maxwell, Tonya, “HAVOC Brings HIV/AIDS Education to Campus,” Indiana Daily Student, March 26th, 1997, front page.
Rowland, Marijke. “GLB groups protest Brand’s decision”. Indiana Daily Student, October 18, 1994, p. 1.
Shapiro, Daniel M. 1991. Bullwinkle’s AIDS benefit to feature goods auction. Indiana Daily Student, February 4, Arts/Lifestyles section.
Thompson, David. “Campus ‘Kiss-In’ draws a reaction”. Herald-Times, October 13, 1992, Sec. A, p.2.
Welsh-Huggins, Andrew. “Protestors Occupy ROTC Offices.” Herald Times, February 22, 1991. http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/1991/02/22/archive.19910222.5c0f1e1.sto. (Link no longer active or available on Internet Archive.)