The following letter to the editor appeared in the University of
Rochester Campus TImes and the first edition of the Empty Closet (January, 1971). It was written by Patricia Evers, a student at the
University of Rochester. This was a pseudonym. Typically in 1971, many
men and women used different names in public to maintain their
anonymity. In the early minutes of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay
Alliance, only first names and last initials were used to identify
members.
On Norms and Nature (reprinted with permission from the UR CAMPUS-TIMES)
What happened in the MDC lounge Saturday, December 5th? I was there: let me tell you a little about it.
There were male homosexuals, female homosexuals, heterosexual women, heterosexual men, black and whites. What was such an unusual conglomeration of people doing in the lounge? They were participating in the most progressive and beautiful activity I’ve ever seen on this campus.
It was the Liberation Dance sponsored by the UR Gay Liberation Front and the UR Women’s Liberation.
But more than a dance, it was a unique experience in human interaction, free from the rules and regulations of a society that dictates to its people what is and is not natural for them. I believe the people in attendance found out more about human nature than they ever could from one of our current textbooks.What’s more, perhaps for the first time in their lives, these people found out what homosexuals are: a group of people who are in no other way but their sexual orientation different from any other group of people; people who enjoy each other’s company and who interact with each other with warmth and sincerity.
I hope to see activities like this dance continue because they are essential for the realization of liberation. Only by giving people of different backgrounds opportunities to interact with each other in settings that they mutually find natural can they see that their differences are not so great after all.