Gays at Yale

Sometimes markers of social change arrive in unanticipated ways. I found that out when I received the mail recently. The Yale Alumni Magazine’s front cover story is “Why they call Yale the Gay Ivy: How student activists opened up the campus culture.”

The twelve-page article by a professor of history who also attended Yale as an undergraduate documents what he calls the “rich and revelatory queer history” of the university. It was adapted from his remarks at the Yale Gay and Lesbian Alumni reunion in April.

My reaction is not so much to the article as to the decision by the alumni association to print it and feature it as a cover story. This month is the 40th anniversary of Stonewall (an incident that sparked the gay rights movement). So you would expect various newspapers and newsmagazines to publish stories about the history of homosexuality in America. And these stories might even be provocative in treating the issue.

But the goal of an alumni magazine is not to provoke but to promote. Its primary goal is to make alumni feel good about their university so that they will provide financial support. An alumni association is not going to put a controversial article in its magazine if it fears it will drive away donations. When you have so many positive stories about the university and its graduates, there is no need to place this cover story in your magazine unless you are convinced that it will be well received. Apparently, the editors of the alumni magazine believed that those of us who graduated from this university will be encouraged by the story about gay history at Yale.

The goal of the gay agenda has been to mainstream the movement. This latest issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine is further evidence that gay has become mainstream. Expect to see more examples of this in the future. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.