Foundation Meets with LGBTQ Groups

Leaders from the undergraduate LGBTQ community met with researchers from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and affiliates from the Born This Way Foundation Tuesday morning to provide their input on the foundation’s initiatives.

The Born This Way Foundation, a charity spearheaded by Lady Gaga and Harvard University, will be launched Wednesday at a Graduate School of Education event in Sanders Theater. Guests joining Lady Gaga include Oprah Winfrey, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen G. Sebelius, and law professor Charles J. Ogletree.

Tuesday’s meeting with student leaders was planned to provide board members of the Born This Way foundation with insight from the Harvard LGBTQ community, according to law professor and Co-director of the Berkman Center John G. Palfrey ’94.

“The foundation is being set up in the right way by doing its homework first and finding out how to intervene,” Palfrey said.

However, some students have expressed concern that undergraduates were not given the opportunity to participate in the foundation and its launch at Harvard. Though the Undergraduate Council and the Graduate School of Education have raffled off a handful of tickets to the event, and the event will be streamed live online, few undergraduates will attend the premiere in Sanders Theater.

In an email to The Crimson, Graduate School of Education spokesperson Michael G. Rodman wrote that though he wishes the school could accommodate more students and faculty, he is proud to include more than 100 high school and middle school students at the launch.

Scott O. Ahlborn ’12, co-director of the peer-counseling organization Contact, said the administration should have made the event more inclusive of undergraduates because bullying, the focus of Born This Way, is an issue pertinent to college students as well as high school and middle school students.

He added that he believed Tuesday’s meeting was a last minute move to placate the tension between students and the administration for not having a role in the Born This Way.

“While I did appreciate [the meeting] and think it was a great opportunity to express our opinion, still in the back of my mind I felt like it was a way for them to say ‘Oopsies, we’re sorry for not including you,’” Ahlborn said.

However, several LGBTQ group leaders said that they were less bothered by the foundation’s failure to include more undergraduates in the launch.

Queer Students and Allies co-chair Trevor N. Coyle ’14 said that though he is personally disappointed that he won’t be able to attend, he does not feel entitled to participate.

“I don’t think I deserve to be there more than anyone else because I am from an LGBTQ group,” Coyle said. “I am just grateful to Gaga because I think the issues will be raised simply because she and Oprah are there.”

Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever (GLOW) co-chair Laura V. Herrera ’13 expressed similar sentiments to Coyle. Herrera said the researchers appeared incredibly open to their ideas and directions for the foundation and thanked Lady Gaga for her role in the charity.

“I think with the influence and visibility she has she could really make an impact,” Herrera said.

­—Elizabeth S. Auritt contributed to the reporting of this story. —Staff writer Melanie A. Guzman can be reached at melanieguzman@college.harvard.edu