Sure, Yale may have its own gay co-op on campus now, but remember this is the same university that, when offered $7 million by playwright-activist Larry Kramer to create such a place, as well as pay the salaries for gay professorships, turned down the cash. And then they accepted $1 million from Kramer’s brother Arthur to create the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies — and then they shut that down. Not exactly the gay-loving atmosphere some have come to expect at America’s elite liberal universities. So how does Yale compare to, say, the ivy growing at Harvard?
You decide. While Yale is busy rejecting cash for gay programs, the Cambridge school becomes the first to name an endowed chair for LGBT studies at an American college. Courtesy a $1.5 million gift from the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, reports the Times, Harvard will begin inviting “eminent scholars studying issues related to sexuality or sexual minorities” to teach on campus. (The chair is named after F.O. Matthiessen, who edited the works of folks like T. S. Eliot and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and taught at Harvard in the 40s as an openly gay man.
All the more amusing in the Harvard v. Yale debate? It’s Yale that — based only on anecdotal evidence, of course — seems to deliver more hotties per graduating class, which is how U.S. News should really judge schools.
Alex
Bullshit! I went to Harvard and our boys could hold a very hot candle to those Elis any day.
naprem
You said ‘endowed.’ *giggle*
yale 2010
Umm, hey Queerty, what is this about Yale having the Coop “now”- the Coop’s been around in some form for 40 years now. The queer alumni org, GALA, has been around for 25. We even had our first LGBT reunion last month to celebrate the anniversaries (and charged students way less than Harvard did btw).
Anyways, Yale has had an endowed visiting professorship since the early 90s. We have two this year- Shana Goldin-Perschbacher and Graeme Reid. Also, Yale keeps the professors around for two years, not just one semester. Only difference here is that Harvard is calling it a “chair” and giving it a name. Nice try, Harvard, but you’re still behind when it comes to LGBT Studies.
yale 2010
Also, I dont think you even know what the Coop is- you refer to it as a place. The Coop is the undergraduate organization for LGBT students.
dgz
doesn’t Harvard also ban military recruiters on campus because DADT violates the school’s anti-discrimination policy?
Hal
Yale’s refusal of Kramer’s gift had more to do with Kramer’s requirement that the school spend the money teaching his idea of what gay studies should be, than homophobia. Kramer is not a big fan of queer theory (which is what most gay academic work is concerned with, and that is probably true for the Harvard Gay Studies Program).Instead, he believes that the focus should be on teaching gay history. As one would expect, academic institutions don’t like accepting money that has such tight strings attached to it. Kramer probably thinks most of what is taught by Harvard as “gay studies” is crap.From personal experience, I can say that both Yale and Harvard are both very gay-friendly institutions. Please do more research before making random assertions. This sort of stuff, together with all the tiresome Obama bashing, (and I am saying this as someone who still prefers Hillary) is making it feel increasingly like a chore to read Queerty. I have followed this site daily since its inception, and feel that recently it has become sloppy, tedious and annoying. Pull it together!
Alec
@Hal:
I think it can be attributed to someone’s absence.
TANK
Princeton’s better. Fuck harvard and yale.