Sexual Orientation Is A Very Public Affair

To the editors:



I was disheartened to see the editorial “A Box of Their Own” (Oct. 13). I am a gay alum and I am concerned about your decision to call being gay a “private” matter. Being gay is not a “private” matter in so far as discrimination is concerned. I am not entitled to many of the same rights that heterosexuals are—I cannot serve in the military and still live my life honorably, I cannot marry, and in many states, I am not even entitled to parental rights if my partner were to have a child.

Similarly, the argumentation you have employed in this editorial is akin to much of the dialogue used to deny me equal protection under the law—that gay people, as the court of New York erroneously mentioned, have no “lasting history of discrimination.” Harvard’s own history reveals otherwise.

For those courageous high school students who come out while they are so young, I commend them. In most high schools in America, I can assure you that they face a daily struggle simply to remain safe. To suggest that someone would lie about their sexuality is not an adequate response to deny affirmative action. I’m certain misrepresentation is just as likely to happen in other categories as well. Being gay in this country is not easy. As one famous pamphlet of Queer Nation would respond to an argument like yours, “Go tell them to go away until they have spent a month walking hand and hand in public with someone of the same sex.”



NICOLE B. USHER ’03

Los Angeles, Calif.

October 6, 2006