Non-Discrimination Clause

One of the major organizing efforts of LGBTQ students in the 1980s was to get “sexual orientation” added to Brown’s non-discrimination clause. Having their identity protected under the discrimination clause meant that LGBTQ identifying students and staff at Brown would be able to freely share their identity without fear of being unfairly targeted on campus.

Members of the LGSA led the charge in gathering student signatures and petitioning the administration for change. After years of protest from the LGSA and other community members, Brown finally adopted “sexual orientation” as a protected category under their non-discrimination clause in 1988, the last among the Ivies to do so.

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Derek Journal Entry - "We Have a Clause"

We Have a Clause!!!

Derek, Journal 2, c. 1988

Transcription:

23 Feb 1988

2:50 PM

E’thing seems calm now.

I can’t believe what has happened in the last two wks. The magazine came out and p’ple have responded so positively. P’ple like my poem! I can’t b’lieve it. S’one even called to tell me he liked it.

We have a clause!!! How amazing - perhaps in the next ‘Not Guilty’ I’ll write an article publishing the letter the president sent me last fall saying that we weren’t the only Ivy w/o one and how Brown was shamed into, b/c once again the straight press dn’t tell it like it is. My god it was wonderful making that announcement at Convocation, I just wish more p’ple had been there to hear it. I had the most amazing feeling/chills/goose bumps waiting to tell s’one.

Then after Convocation Bxi and I went to the gate to celebrate and we saw a heterosexual couple snuggling and reading the “Not Guilty,” my favorite image of the week. And the repeated images of straights wearing pink triangles - what an amazing site. One of my other favorite things was Stepgen Kopp in the P.O. handing out pins and saying “You can at least look at me even if you don’t take a button.” Good for you Stephen. And then there was a feeling of hurt when my Freshman year roomate (are there two ‘m’s) looked at Stephen but didn;t take one.

My favorite event of Awareness week was Gil Gerald. I’ve wanted for so long to do something that wd represent my communities simultaneously - I was thrilled to death the BDH was particularly funny :

“The event was largely organized by Derek Livingston ‘89 who is black and gay”

(Heavy sigh…)

After all this excitement I may disappear back into rehearsal as I may be directing a show. Hopefully this time I’ll try to put s’thing back into the organization at the same time; hard knowing there’s nothing else to occupy my time (can we say start of a ‘I want a relationships’ sentence?) Time to go…

♡ & λ [“Love” & “Lambda” symbols]

Derek

Oral History Quotes

The President of the university at the time was a guy named Howard Swearer. He was adamantly opposed to adding sexual orientation to the list of protected classes in the non discrimination clause because, in his words, he used the red head thing. He said, “You know, if we do this, we're gonna have to have protections for redheads.” So that was his stance for the duration of both of our times there.

-Ellen LaPointe remembering the response of University President Howard Swearer towards including “sexual orientation” as a protected identity category under Brown University’s Non-Discrimination Clause. It wouldn’t be until after she graduated that it passed into action at Brown.

So, I guess in a February ‘88 entry, I wrote about revealing that Brown now had sexual orientation in their non discrimination clause. (...) And that was a big push, for a number of years, to happen. And Howard Swearer, the president of the university (...) The rumor was that, for a long time, he didn't want Brown to be the first one, or one of the few in the country [to include sexual orientation in the non-discrimination clause]. And then it was we were the only Ivy League that didn't have it. Princeton, I think it was, adopted sexual orientation, and I wrote a letter and said, “Now we are the only ones.” And I don't know why I was the person who was told the information [that the clause passed.] But I was the person who was told the information, and nobody else was. I remember it felt very important to me that I not be the person to disclose, but that it was Martha Gardner. So, I remember handing her something. And when she read that sexual orientation was found part of the nondiscrimination clause it felt like such an important moment, and such a victory. And the fact that Martha got the chance to make that announcement seemed so important. And I remember the room just erupting into applause. And it was just this great moment. And I'd forgotten that I had journaled about that. So it was really exciting to read that again. And I do remember very clearly going to the gate with Rebecca Hensler, and watching this heterosexual couple snuggled together as they read “Not Guilty.” And so it's interesting. I think part of why these things stick in my mind so strongly is because I did journal about them. I forgot about the journaling [itself], but the act of writing things down, it reinforces memory.

-Derek Livingston remembering the day that “sexual orientation” was added to Brown University’s Non-Discrimination Clause

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