by Grace Tran, Class of 2022, Art History and the College Scholar Program
The images below provide a short excerpt from the Cornell University LGBT Coalition office logbook, which was kept from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The author of this particular entry, Roya Hamadani, was an upperclassman at the time and writes about her role within the LGBT Coalition, her sexuality, and her hopes and dreams for the future of the organization. She especially highlights the intersectionality of her identity from being multiracial to bisexual to being a neurobiology major on the pre-medical track. It is especially important to note that Hamadani strove to become a medical professional because of the lack of LGBT representation in the field that often leads to the discrimination, misdiagnosing, and undermining of queer patients.
It is in these three short pages that we are able to catch a glimpse into this active student organization and see what causes they championed. On the third page, Hamadani names several younger members from the LGBT Coalition who she believes will be strong leaders at Cornell and beyond. They include Julia Watts, now Julia Watts Belser, who teaches Jewish Studies focusing on LGBT, feminist, and disability studies at Georgetown University and Hugh Ryan, who is now an author and curator of queer history. Did either of them know what a difference even their simple everyday actions made at the time? As Hamadani wrote, this was a civil rights movement and whether or not people realized it, they were going to be remembered whichever side they were on. As we read her words, many of us may be spurred to action. How can we begin our own work in advocacy?
Hamadani also outlines several goals for her time in the LGBT Coalition, which she thought could serve as jumping off points for the beginner activist. One goal was to present the movie Fear of Disclosure at Cornell. Fear of Disclosure was a 1989 short video created by David Wojnarowicz and Phil Zwickler that showed what it was like to navigate one’s love life after an HIV+ diagnosis. Both men were artists passionate about gay issues such as HIV and AIDS – tragically the cause of both of their early deaths. The presentation of such a film on campus would have educated many people, and caused a stir among the conservative community, which was perhaps the reaction the LGBT Coalition hoped for.
Another goal Hamadani had was to plan more dances – including the 1998 Gaypril Formal, advertised with the poster featured to the left. The whimsical illustration, crafted by Hamadani and a classmate named Molly, features flowers, a heeled shoe, a pair of music notes, and the upper half of a person wearing a bowtie. While Gaypril – a portmanteau of gay and April – is not a nationally-recognized holiday, the month is unofficially set aside on many college campuses to celebrate queer individuals. Although LGBT History Month takes place in October and Pride parades typically occur in June, the constraints of the academic calendar pushed students to find another month when people were still all on campus. While the equivalent “May Gay” was conceptualized first, the same issue persisted when Cornell changed its calendar in the 1980s and “Gaypril” eventually came into being.
The colorful background of the poster expresses a joyful and welcoming experience, and of course speaks to the rainbow Pride flag which came into use around the 1970s. The poster’s simplicity, and its lack of details such as time, date, or location, also implies either that this event was already very well-known around campus or only those who were part of the clubs who had planned the dance were expected to attend. The documentation of such events as the Gaypril Formal is incredibly important; it shows that despite the homophobia and discrimination many members of the LGBT community faced at the time, they were still dedicated to the education and celebration of queer lives.
Sources
Barrett, Kelsey. “A Month to Raise Awareness for LGBT: Gaypril: Her Campus.” Her Campus, September 25, 2020.
“Cornell Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Coalition.” Social Networks and Archival Context.
Swanson, Ana. “How the Rainbow Became the Symbol of Gay Pride.” The Washington Post. April 26, 2019.