Dear friends,
Maybe some of you have already heard the story that has been reported today in the elsewhere about Historically Black College Morehouse College and their new dress code, which bans crossdressing. The new dress code is part of a trend to go back to the old days of “respectability,” which I translate as “go back to a time when Blacks were supposed to follow white people’s lead in what it meant to look professional.” At Hampton University, for example, business school students are encouraged to cut their dreads and braids because African hair, apparently, is still not good hair.
And now, gaywear and transwear is a poor lifestyle choice. To quote: William Bynum, Vice President for student services at Morehouse College, explained, “We are talking about five students who are living a gay lifestyle that is leading them to dress a way we do not expect in Morehouse men.”
It’s hard enough to be a Black man in America, much less a gay Black man in a small community. Why is an institution that is supposed to promote the well-being of these bright young men trying to suppress who they are?
The tradition of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the US is fraught with problems, but it is also a glorious one. Martin Luther King (a Morehouse Man) and Rosa Parks are both a product of that tradition. Today, HBCUs produce the majority of the world’s Black scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. Let’s help them keep the tradition of doing positive things for the Black community by standing up for Morehouse’s queer community when Morehouse’s administration won’t.
Today, I am asking you PLEASE WRITE TO WILLIAM BYNUM AND TELL HIM WHAT YOU THINK OF THEIR NEW POLICY. He can be reached at wbynum@morehouse.edu. Please tell him what you think about his comments about the “gay lifestyle,” and what you think it should mean to be a Morehouse man. I’ve included a sample letter below if you want to cut and paste.
Stand up for your queer and trans brothers and sisters. They are your mothers, your sisters, your fathers, your friends, your cousins. They teach your classes and provide your essential civil services. They deserve our solidarity.
Forward far and wide.
Thanks,
Chanda
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Dr. Bynum,
I am writing to tell you how disappointed I am to hear about the new dress code that you have implemented at Morehouse and particularly about the way it targets cross dressers. Morehouse College is an institution that seeks to promote the interests of Black men, an important effort. This is why I have to wonder why you would think that the road to promoting the interests of young Black men includes oppressing its queer minority. As you say on your website:
Although times change, Morehouse’s mission remains steadfast: to produce academically superior, morally conscious leaders for the conditions and issues of today, whether “today” is post-Civil War or turn of the new millennium.
Morally conscious leaders of today should recognize the central importance of civil rights for all, just as one Morehouse man did many years ago. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
One of the great contributions of HBCUs was supposed to be that within their halls and corridors, students could live that dream and develop the skills to make it a reality in the larger world. Our queer brothers and sisters, our transsexual, cross-dressing, transgender and genderqueer family need our support. They deserve that dream too.
Much as Black is not a lifestyle, gay is not a lifestyle. It is an existence and an experience. We’re here, we’re queer, and our brothers at Morehouse are there to stay and become 21st Century leaders, in the grand tradition of Morehouse men.
Thank you for your time,
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