In print | Published April 3, 2008

To the Editor:

Last weekend’s Sager Symposium was a great success: our events were well attended and our speakers were brilliant, unique and thought provoking. But, despite the efforts of the planning committee, the spirit of the party still does not reflect the spirit of the symposium. The party was not only not queer friendly, it was actively homophobic.

Queer people were pushed around the dance floor in DU and Olde Club. Everywhere we turned, heterosexual couples (who did not attend the symposium) were making out. Many presumably straight men made a mockery of genuine transgendered expression by wearing tutus while uttering homophobic comments.

There were many homophobic incidents at the party. We noticed men pointing and whispering at queer couples dancing together. Another one of our friends was asked why all the men were in dresses. When we left, some guys were climbing trees yelling “Don’t go in there! There are guys making out!” They most certainly did not attend any of the events in the Sager Symposium.

The issue at question is not a heterosexual presence at Sager — heterosexual activity has a clear place within the spectrum of human sexual and gender expression. The issue is that this is a party organized by the queer community, for the queer community. The specific people in the straight community robbed that space again this year, with little signs of support for the many amazing events of the symposium. We were annoyed by the tone of the party as one that was not only completely divorced from the Symposium, but made queer people, at best, exceptions and at worst, disgusting aberrations.

The Sager Party is not a hetero, grind-up-on-each-other, have-bad-drunken-sex party. We all know such alternative lifestyle choices are tolerated at Swarthmore College. Nor is the Sager Party intended to be an excuse to further silence, reject and marginalize the queer community. Sager is a party to celebrate a weekend of LGBTQ related speakers.

We deeply encourage all attendees of the party to participate in the events. If you can spend months belaboring your outfit, you can go to an hour-long lecture, and your self-realizations will be more than worth it.

Marshall Morales ’08
Shane Breitenstein ’08
Tatiana Cozzarelli ’08

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