Sexual Disorientation: Dear Georgetown: WTF
Wait. Hold on. Give me a chance.
Yes, this post is about Georgetown University, a phrase that makes many people in this city wince. Say it, and you’ll usually either get a bright smile (from someone who went here, or is a yuppie) or a scowl (from anyone else.) I have realized that in the 3 1/2 years I have spent here in this little corner of the District.
I’m guessing most TNG readers fit into the wince category, because – if you are unfamiliar with it – the gay scene at Georgetown is anything but “New.” Georgetown is infamous, overall, for its lack of diversity. It is largely white, rich, Catholic, and either straight or very cliquey gay. It is also a fairly conservative school when you consider the highly progressive bends of most top-tier and/or urban universities (here I’m using urban in only the most literal of terms). Far from being a gaytopia like GW, Georgetown has a lot of closeted gays, even more closeted homophobes, and a rather limited gay scene. There is a reason that when gay Hoyas come out, the first thing they do is hop on a bus to Foggy Bottom or Dupont.
It’s not easy being gay at Georgetown, where 90% of the student body wants to be a goddamn politician and therefore either (a) waits until they are drunk to express their un-P.C. bigotry or (b) doesn’t want to come out and ruin political ambitions. The administration has only recently started being even close to friendly towards the gay population here, and has more frequently either ignored or ostracized it. It was only after a series of anti-gay hate crimes last year that the university agreed to make a few policy shifts.
Clearly, I do not fit in here. I come from a working-class family, which automatically puts me in a very small minority. Turns out the stereotype about Georgetown being rich has become so prevalent for a good reason – because it’s true. I also own not one pair of plaid shorts; I do not own a single polo from Ralph Lauren or Lacoste; I do not wear flip-flops after the first snow fall; I don’t spend more than $25 on jeans (I KNOW, bargain hunter); I cut my own hair; and I have an eyebrow ring, at least until I have to enter the “real world.” I got told by three people at TNG’s Ban Marriage party last week that I was the least preppy Georgetown student they had ever met. And that was 100% of the people I told I went to Georgetown.
But this is about more than surface-deep issues and about being preppy… Something is weird at Georgetown, and I have decided to try to get to the bottom of it.
Take this story, for example. The office I work for here oversees events on campus. You should also know that because we’re a Catholic school, anything involving birth control or abortion is banned from official discussion. Campus stores can’t sell condoms, no pro-choice student organizations can use the Georgetown name or be officially recognized, etc. So last week when there was a College Democrats job fair, and Planned Parenthood showed up, a random, angry student started screaming at the event’s organizers that they had to go.
My supervisor had to go in and later told me the story, and the crazy pro-life student he described sounded familiar. I asked him a few questions about what the dude looked like, and upon hearing his answers, started laughing. “What you don’t know,” I told my boss, “is that I saw that same guy at a gay club last night at 2am, drinking and hitting on a forty-year-old married guy with a wife and kid.”
Now, I’m not saying that there is a right way and a wrong way to be gay. But there is a Georgetown way. Being a conservative, vehemently pro-life, preppy academic guy by day and a boozing gay by night is pretty Georgetown. Feeling like you’re ENTITLED to have equal rights for yourself, but not giving a shit about other oppressed groups (poor people?! minorities?!?) is also pretty Georgetown.
And so I ask our dear readers: What the fuck is up with Georgetown? If you are a fellow gay Hoya, it’s time to sound off. I’d love to hear what others think.
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I will admit to knowing very, very little about Georgetown. I've been there all of once, and prior to that did not know anyone who went there.
That being said, that one experience was very positive. The Georgetown LGBT group (don't remember what their actual title was) had invited me and a transwoman to do a "Trans 101" Q&A for their group. It was well attended, and people were engaged and participating. I also learned then that Georgetown had hired Shiva Subbaraman to work with the group. I know Shiva from UMD and she is really fantastic.
I'm not saying it doesn't suck, since I wouldn't know, but it seemed like things were getting a little better. CUA doesn't even have an LGBT group.
I’ll bite. While I can’t speak to Georgetown gay culture, not having gone there or spent much time on campus, several of the kindest, most liberal, most thoughtful people I know either A) attended Georgetown or B) teach/taught at Georgetown. It sounds like you haven’t had the best experience at GU, Corey, but there are progressive people on that campus. I can vouch for a decent number.
Why the rant if the school is working to improve relations with the gay community and more support for change continues to come? Keep in mind the history of the institution, it will take a little more time for GU to resemble other more accepting places and a large part of that change will come from attitudes of the students.
It sounds to me like you are more frustrated with the people that attend the school more than anything because you don’t fit the “scene” in a number of ways (I understand your frustration to be sure). Your “New Gay” mentality is definitely in the minority around the Hilltop. I say keep focused on your studies and don’t worry about a lot of the idiocy. And if you do worry, try not to internalize it. The good, however indifferent, outnumber the bad and the madras/flip flop uniform was there before you and it will be there after you; don’t get caught up in the stereotypical stuff.
If life on campus becomes unbearable you could always transfer to a different school. Wanting to slap one of those fake “my dad is so and so” fratboy wannabes all the time is too taxing to the mind and causes premature wrinkling–we don’t want that.
Good luck.
Corey I can understand your frustration, while I did not go to Georgetown University for undergraduate studies I did graduate from their law school. I think I have been on the main campus a total of 5 times in the last three years. I do completely agree with your commentary. The law school was fairly conservative in the realm of a law school, but I think a lot more liberal then the main campus. As with all things though, as a wider aray of students call Georgetown their school, progress will come. As to the naughty gay by night and straight laced G-town boy by day, the truth always comes out, maybe not right away, but his lies will find him. So I say just hang in there, and in 50 some odd years they might open their own abortion clinic.
You may have more friends in the g-town administration than you realize.
Hey, you're always welcome to come visit GW's Allied in Pride. We (er…they? I haven't attended much this semester) meet every Monday at 8pm in the Marvin Center (big steel and glass building on H & 21).
re: Mackenzie
That is a great idea. Get Georgetown and GW together as a group. I went to college in Boston and all the schools had a great deal of interaction re: meetings, dances, events, etc. Is there a means for all gay students at DC colleges to organize/interact/socialize?
For the record, many school networks have this same facebook group, some of which are less prestigious than Georgetown and some that are more.
Thank you for this enlightening post… my boyfriend just applied to Georgetown medical school and as an employee a planned parenthood affiliate here in Florida, I found your post most interesting. I knew Georgetown was a Catholic university, but I thought, being in an urban location, it would have been more progressive. I want to get out of the South because I find the culture here so stifling in its conservatism. . . Its definitely something to think about.
There are certainly many bad aspects to Georgetown and some strains of conservatism, but it seems to me that there are a great deal of people here who are at least liberal if not radically liberal. As a poster above commented, there are more progressive people than you think. You just have to seek them out.
And honestly, why would you want to fit in with the madras- and Lacoste-wearing set anyway? If you’re hanging out with those kinds of people, it’s no wonder you’d be unhappy! I’m glad to be part of a different kind of culture at Georgetown. Not being like everyone else is a good thing.
GU Pride has done a lot of work to improve things for the LGBTQ community at Georgetown. It seems to me that you are mostly railing against the society at Georgetown–rather than languishing in the mainstream, why not create an environment of your own? Hang out with people you like, ignore the obnoxious preps. I don’t really encounter them in my day-to-day life. It’s entirely possible to have nothing to do with those people at Georgetown. There are so many complaints I have about this university, but by and large I’m glad I go here. It’s not as hopeless a place as you paint it to be.
I agree with many of the other comments. I am a gay guy at Georgetown and I’ve been here three years. I’ve never worn a polo shirt, and most of my friends are working-class kids too. This side of Georgetown definitely exists, even if you dont see it behind the Lacoste and Abercrombie. The university community, gay or straight, is a lot more diverse than it might first appear.
Corey, I think you’re you’re right on in almost every point on here.
I’m not sure I agree 100% about the number of people coming out and heading down to GW, but, admittedly, having been so involved in Pride, I am most exposed to the ones who stick around here.
Personally, I feel a sense of not belonging at Georgetown first and foremost because of my geekiness. I feel like there is very little sub-cultural diversity in the student body generally and in the LGBTQ population as an extension of that. Plus, everyone is so goal-oriented that very few seem really engaged in academics for academics’ sake; it’s more about where their academic success can get them.
Coming from a mountain community in east Tennessee, I expected Georgetown to be a diverse, gay and academic utopia where there would be a lot of people very much like me and a lot of people very different from me but who wanted to know what I was interested in and what I was thinking about (and certainly I would want to know the same of almost anyone), but, sadly, that is very much not the case.
Luckily, I’m graduating in 22 days…
Jack
While I cannot comment intelligently on the gay community at Georgetown, I can say you are absolutely wrong about people not caring about the poor. Georgetown has one of the most extensive social justice programs of any university in the country. Almost every student I know is involved with helping the poor in some way – from tutoring inner city kids, to going to prisons, to traveling all over the country to do service work during spring break, and even taking many trips around the world, Georgetown students are some of the most compassionate towards the poor. When an employee in our dining hall lost her house, Georgetown students quickly mobilized to raise thousands of dollars for her and her family. This is just one example of how Georgetown students do care about the equality and intrinsic value of all people.
This is my first semester as a grad student at Georgetown, and I’m still trying to find a place a as member of the queer community on campus. The main thing is, I feel that there are completely different cultures between the undergrad and grad community. The undergrad community strikes me in many of the same ways as the first poster on this topic. And the grad community often keeps to socializing within their programs, lives off campus (who can afford to live at in Georgetown as a grad student??) and goes out in parts of the city that are actually metro accessible.
So I imagine being a queer undergrad might be frustrating, but I do see a lot of potential there. I’ve seen a consistent GU Pride presence on campus from day one, and I’m not even on campus that much. I once even saw a poster advertising a TNG event on campus! I must say I was surprised; I looked left and right to see who on earth posted it. TNG took over the Tombs a few months ago. And I occasionally even see someone (besides me) who looks queer!
And then, to my utmost surprise, there was gender awareness week last week! Unable to resist, I went to “The T Party” to see how Georgetown undergrads handled gender in the context of performance. Man were the results interesting. But that is an entirely different post – which I would love to start. Anyone else see “The T Party” at Georgetown???
So, in terms of “what’s up with Georgetown?” I would say that GU has a very, very long way to go and it needs the queer community to continue to stay motivated and visible. But it’s not without hope. And Georgetown, of course, is not with D.C. – so sometimes you just might want to make like a grad student and get off campus.
I am, like Jack, someone that has been very involved with Pride, almost since my very first semester here, so I also know mostly only the kids that do stick around at Georgetown and don’t go elsewhere when they come out.
I will admit that there is a lot that I don’t like about Georgetown — the general apathy, the prevalent latent bigotry, overly ambitious yet directionless students). At the same time, you cannot dismiss all Georgetown students and all of Georgetown’s gay community with a few abrasive words. I have met some of the nicest people I have ever known at Georgetown. And you know what, sometimes it’s even the people that wear the Lacoste polos and plaid shorts. While I used to feel the way you do about the preppiness, I have realized that someone’s outward appearance is a really inadequate measure for determining their worth as a person.
Georgetown may not have many radically liberal students (though there are definitely some), but it does have a lot of progressive students, that actually think for themselves and DO things.
As you yourself admitted, even the administration is doing a lot to try and reach out to the LGBTQ students (and faculty/staff) here. Even the campus newspapers (including the Hoya) have become a lot less hostile.
I’ll grant you that Georgetown IS a place where you need to make an effort to find people you will gt along with, but they almost certainly exist.
Honestly, though, if you dislike it so much, why did you not transfer out?
(As for the heterogeneity of Georgetown’s gay community: I, as an Indian (from India, so international undergrad student), middle class queer female, am one of the two co-chairs of the main LGBT student group. And I’m definitely not someone that really stands out on the Pride board as being unusual or not fitting in. So you are obviously missing pieces of the picture when you make those sweeping statements about Georgetown).
P.S. In response to the last commenter, I thought the T Party was really good.
And I am so glad that Pride events are actually visible to people beyond the regular undergrad set we are familiar with.
I graduated from Georgetown (undergrad) over 10 years ago, so maybe things have changed, but I remember a much more diverse and accepting campus. It was only after a year on campus that I came accept my own sexuality – and I had a much harder time thinking about telling my working-class, immigrant family than any of the snobs at Georgetown.
I can definitely recognize some of the stereotypes you described in your post, and one didn’t have to look hard to find them, but in my experience a little honesty and a little opening of the eyes made a huge cadre of tolerant people available.
Look every school has it issues with homophobia, and gtown is no different. We have know the intolerance out there to gay, but I would not say that its an institution problem. Things are getting better-not only with homophobia, but with gender, class and other discrimination issues.
Broad condemnation doesn’t make things better.
Just for the record…..he’s NOT gay!
You lie!
Your equation, of being pro-life with being, somehow, anti-gay is specious… many gay people are pro-life, witnessed by the commendable initiative of many gay couples to adopt and raise families.
Furthermore, I am certain that you are also aware of many straight people who support abortion without conditions. Finally, Georgetown was one of the first schools to provide access to university space to gay groups for organizational meetings.
So, you’ve made up a story that something is weird about Georgetown, and now you are asking us to supply the evidence.
You can interpret the world any way you want.
How about an interpretation that empowers you ?
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