The 1990s saw considerable change for the
campus climate for UNC Greensboro students.[1] For
the first time in newspaper articles, LGBTQ+ students were identifying
themselves by name. Literally a century after the doors of the school first
opened (1892-1992), there is a published interview with a UNC Greensboro sophomore, Keith
Hill, who identified himself as a black, gay male. Hill was a member of the Gay
and Lesbian Student Association (GLSA), the current name of the UNC Greensboro LGBTQ+
student organization of the time. The interview was titled, “Dialogue with a
Homosexual,” appearing in The Carolinian.
Hill’s candid responses provide insight into the lives of LGBTQ+ students on
campus, as well as the intersectionality of race and sexuality.
When asked about how other UNC Greensboro students
reacted to him coming out, Hill responded,
“Surprisingly, my
heterosexual male friends are very supportive… For me, the biggest problem I
get is from black students here on-campus because I think blacks are less..
They have less doings with homosexuals than, say, Anglo-Saxon Americans simply
because in the black community, it’s not something - since the black community
is so steeped in religion and Christianity - and that tradition says
homosexuality is wrong. So it’s not something they’re willing to try and accept
or even come to terms with.”
When asked about if he feared any
discrimination for being openly gay at UNC Greensboro, he says “No, because the way I see
it is that, while I’m in school, it is up to me to set the direction I take
once I graduate. And if I live that direction openly… every advance that I
make, I make it because who I am consists in me being gay.”[3] Additionally, Hill, who was
single and twenty-three at the time of the interview, described the
difficulties he experienced in trying to find steady relationships.
“I will soon be 24.
Based on the average age, this is the time when you meet somebody and start
settling down… But (homosexuals) don’t
have the same means for meeting someone that a heterosexual does. You don’t
have the same comfortable environment for going out and finding meaningful
relationships.”
Not giving up hope, later in the interview,
Hill continues to say he wants “to meet another man, fall in love. I want to
adopt kids, to have a family… I want to have a big wedding one day!” Among the
more thoughtful perspectives Hill offers in the interview is the plight of
young gay men looking for role models.
“You have to
understand also that in being gay, you don’t have any role models to identify
with. The role models you see portrayed are very effeminate in nature or some
creature - unnatural, lustful. And so you have to go against all of that
programming and begin to identify with the things that give you a sense of well
being, of who you are. And most of those things that give you a sense of well
being are very atypical - the perfect bod, the perfect clothes.”
Overall, Keith Hill’s interview was a landmark
event in UNC Greensboro history, as it was the first time a named student spoke
extensively about what it was like to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community on
the record. Not only was 1992 the year of Hill’s article, but five months
later, the city newspaper, the Greensboro News and Record,
covered UNC Greensboro’s National Coming Out Day, interviewing sophomore, Robert Woodard.
At UNC Greensboro, National Coming Out Day, observed October 11th, is celebrated with an
information booth and ceremony in front of the campus dining hall. Pamphlets,
magazines, and buttons relating to LGBTQ+ education are handed out to students,
and there is a "coming out ceremony" in which students can publicly identify as
LGBTQ+ to the campus. The writer of the article, Bill Morris, begins the piece
stating, “He’s a courageous young man, this Robert Woodward.” While the piece
was short and the interview only included very basic questions, the tone was
very positive for the local media.
About a week after the publishing of the
article, Morris was compelled to write a second article describing reader
responses to Woodward’s interview, starting with, “It never fails. Every time I
put forth the unthinkable notion that homosexuals are human beings - as I did
last week while praising students at UNCG for organizing “Coming Out Day” - the
yahoos get riled up.”[7] One
of the letters to Morris accused him of homosexuality for writing such a
positive article, to which Morris replied, “You assume that anyone who supports
the human dignity of homosexuals must be homosexual. Wrong. I support the human
dignity of a number of groups to which I don’t belong…”[8] While more students were
coming out, even though they were still facing attacks, allies to the LGBTQ+ community
were doing so, as well.
Being attacked did not deter Morris’ coverage
in the News and Record. A few months
later in January of 1993, he reported on the creation of a hotline for gay
teens.[9] The
group that developed the hotline was Alternative Resources of the Triad (ART),
founded in 1988. Brian Riggs, graduate student in the counseling program at
UNC Greensboro, wrote the grant to fund the project with the support of Charlie Hawes,
Episcopal priest of St. Mary’s House, adjacent to the campus of UNC Greensboro. The Episcopal
Diocese of North Carolina awarded a small sum to Rigg’s proposal, allowing for
the creation of the support resource that was the first of its kind in
Greensboro area.[10] With more youth coming out, more support was needed. Although the grant was
only for two hundred dollars, funding from a major organization, such as the
Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, was a major victory. Although personal
acceptance of the LGBTQ + community was becoming common in the 1990s,
institutional support, even ceremonial in nature, was lacking. UNC Greensboro would not
confront this dilemma until forced to do so in 1996.
[1] 1992 also was the year the World Health
Organization declassified homosexuality as a mental illness.
[2] Anubha Anand, “Dialogue with a Homosexual,” The
Carolinian, April 16, 1992, UA42.4.01, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special
Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
NC, USA.
[3] Ibid.
[4]Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Bill Morris, “Homosexuals Have Family Values,
Too - UNCG Sophomore: No Rights in Closet,” Greensboro
News and Record (Greensboro, NC), Oct.
13, 1992, p. B1.
[7] Bill Morris, “Defense of Gays Unpopular with
Yahoos - ‘Coming Out Day’ Strikes a Nerve,” Greensboro
News and Record (Greensboro, NC), Oct.
22, 1992.
[8] Ibid.
[9] The article begins with the sentence, “I hope
all you Southern Baptists are paying attention.”
[10] Bill Morris, “Church Grant to Help Gay Teens Will
Create Hot Line,” Greensboro News and
Record (Greensboro, NC), Jan. 4,
1993, p. B1.
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