Journal of Women's History

Review Essays Being Lesbian/Gay/Queer in the University: An E-mail Conversation Toni A. H. McNaron. Poisoned Ivy: Lesbian and Gay Academics Confronting Homophobia. PJiiladelphia: Temple University Press, 1997.234 pp. ISBN 15-6639-488-0 (pb). Steeve O. Buckridge, CJ, Kimberlynne M. Darby, Susan Freeman, Marilyn E. Hegarty, C André Mizell, Nicole C Raeburn, and RN When Poisoned Ivy came into the Journal office, !grabbed it, took it home for the weekend, and read it in one sitting. I immediately wondered what graduate students would think—whether the experiences of established faculty members would ring true to them, whether they would find the stories depressing, how they would think about their future lives in the university. So I decided, rather than send the book out for a normal review, to set up a roundtable conversation on e-mail among a diverse group of graduate students: women and men, of different racial and ethnic groups, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and straight, born in the United States and elsewhere, from their twenties to their fifties. All are graduate students at Ohio State University, some from the Department of History and others from the Department of Sociology. Some have chosen to use pseudonyms, others to identify themselves. These conversations began in April 1997 and concluded in June; the final comment came in September. We print the messages here as written, without any editing, in order to preserve the flavor of the discussion.------Leila J. Rupp I'll begin the roundtable. I received my B.A. and M.A. from a school in the South. When I came to OSU and discovered professors who were out on campus, I couldn't believe it. At my old school, professors who had written on queer subjects refused to display their work for fear of retaliation . In 1990,1 wrote about a lesbian short story for an EngUsh class and, for the next four years that I was attending this school, this particular English professor would literally run down the halls away from me or put a big object like a bicycle between us if she inadvertently allowed me to get within range. (I did find it all rather amusing and, of course, took every opportunity to say hello.) I thought and hoped that my old school was © 1998 Journal of Women's History, Vol. 10 No. 1 (Spring) 158 Journal of Women's History Spring an exception and that OSU was typical of U.S. schools. But now that I read McNaron, I'm scared to death. Are the bad old days gone? What do you think?------CJ Hello roundtable, hope everyone's doing well. One of the issues that I opened the book looking to find was the degree to which gays and lesbians have become sensitized to other issues related to race, sex etc. McNaron included some information, but I'd like the opinion of some of you. Being an African American woman, despite my sexual orientation, certainly informed my opinions, empathy and understanding of the issues that homosexuals face. Thus, hating someone because of their sexual preference seems as absurd to me as hating someone because they're black. But I don't think it's a stretch to guess that there are racist gays and lesbians . What do you all think?------Kim Darby Hi everyone. My name is Steeve Buckridge, and I am happy to be a part of this roundtable discussion on Poisoned Ivy. I also did my B.A. and M.A. at private religious schools down south, Florida to be specific, and at these institutions there were no gay/lesbian/queer activities on campus, and the few faculty members I knew were gay (I had heard from friends) were totally in the closet. At the time I remember being very angry because there were several students who were struggling with their sexual identity and had nowhere to turn for advice. Nor did they have a role model (i.e., faculty member) to look up! I guess part of the problem was that many of the faculty members were themselves very religious or were nuns who would not have encouraged any such discussions on sexuality. As I look back...