GALA hopes to find home in MCC

By Kristina Stolebarger

Every day she hears the word "fag." When she walks down the halls of Benson, phrases like "that's so gay" and "what a queer" resonate in her ears. But, the frustration that results from these words, paired with other overt expressions of homophobia, is what fuels her fire.

Junior Claire Riecke is a queer student and spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GALA) at Santa Clara. This year, she and other students are seeking power in numbers. As members of GALA, a support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning students (LGBTQ) would like to join forces with the Multicultural Center (MCC), another organization on campus that acts as an outlet for minorities. However, their fight for sponsorship has elicited only conflict thus far, raising issues of concern among more conservative individuals in the MCC, fear of losing the "safe space" the MCC fought so long for and disbelief that the two organizations can meet on common ground.

GALA held a panel discussion Jan. 23 to create dialogue about a possible alliance between the two groups. The faculty that served on the panel raised many strong arguments to support the inclusion of GALA in the MCC. Professor Briget Cooks from the art history and ethnic studies departments emphasized that there are queer students in the MCC already, that gay people are not all white and that by including GALA, gay MCC members will feel like every aspect of their identity is being respected.

Professor Linda Garber from the English and women's and gender studies departments, discussed how queer students do make up a culture, by giving examples of queer literature, music and poetry to answer the commonly asked question, "The MCC does cultural events, and each club brings food and dance - what would GALA bring?"

Professors Eileen Razzari Elrod and James Lai served on the panel as well. The turn out was better than expected. People representing GALA, MCC, GASPED and SCCAP made up the very diverse audience.

Riecke, backed by the support of many, wants to convince MCC members that the positives of an alliance with GALA outweigh the negatives. In discussing a future alliance between both groups, she hopes to maintain people's consciousness about the issue, so that when the votes are counted every question, concern and misconception will have been clarified.

"We want to ally with other oppressed groups to strengthen all our fights against oppression," she said. "It's extremely powerful when white queers are standing up against racism, and straight multicultural groups are helping us to fight heterosexism."

Even though the merger has the potential to benefit both GALA and the MCC, many people have expressed concern. Raquel Hackley, advisor to the MCC's Programming Board (MCCPB) fears the organization just isn't ready to take on another club.

"The MCC was only founded 10 years ago and they're not supporting themselves enough yet to where they would be comfortable taking on other groups," Hackley said. "They have goals and they have a vision, and they don't think they're even at the point of achieving their goals."

MCC President Kendra Boyd is aware that an alliance with GALA will help encourage students to think more politically, but she fears members of GALA might feel excluded. Currently the eight groups within the MCC are made up of only racially diverse students who in years past haven't interacted with one another a great deal. In order to raise awareness about commonly held stereotypes against minority groups, students must work together, or the alliance with GALA will not work.

"Interaction between clubs within the MCC is something we're working on," Boyd said. "It's a challenge every year because each club programs their own events and everyone has their own agenda. Right now we're trying to encourage co-sponsorship between clubs."

Another potentially problematic issue is that many members of the MCC have conservative viewpoints about homosexuality.

Sophomore Barkada Representative Lance Dwyer is one of those people.

"It doesn't fit into what we're about," Dwyer said. "Personally, I don't consider them [queer students] to have a culture, and [the MCC] is built on sharing culture."

Riecke said that this type of conflict is something of which she is very aware.

"Our hope is that by bringing in GALA, the MCC will generally become a more inclusive place," Riecke said. "The fact that the MCC is resistant to our joining makes it even more important for us to be in there. But I realize that joining the MCC will not be simple and easy."

According to Riecke, the oppressiveness of the Santa Clara campus has forced GALA and the MCC into one small space where they can feel safe and at home. She sees where MCC students opposed to the merger are coming from.

"They've fought hard for this space, and I understand their resistance toward sharing it," Riecke said. "Race is different from sexual identity, but there are similarities like the oppressions we face and the intersections of our identities. We are all oppressed sub-cultures. We are all minorities."

Patty Adams, former president of Gays and Straights Promoting Educational Diversity (GASPED), a group similar to GALA that includes straight allies, stressed her belief that queer people make up a subculture that should be represented by an institution with the name "Multicultural Center." She believes that if the center wants to be only racially specific, then it should change its name.

Adams is keeping her hopes up about the possible alliance between the groups.

"It would be so powerful to see the rainbow flag next to all of the other flags and cultural memorabilia in the MCC next year," Adams said. "We could build a really strong support system of allies in the MCC that would give people a place - a physical place, as well as a communal space to feel really comfortable."

Both Riecke and Adams have debated about whether GASPED should also attempt to join the MCC. But if the MCC rewrites its constitution to be inclusive of all historically oppressed groups, rather than just racially diverse students, the presence of GASPED may pose a problem. Because GASPED is comprised of queer and straight students, it does not fall under the heading "historically oppressed."

"By being a straight ally, you give up straight privilege to some degree because people make assumptions about your sexuality," said Riecke. "But I don't think it should be about who's in the group so much as about what the group's fighting for. You don't want to exclude anyone who wants to help further your cause."

Another point that many students overlook is the fact that white students can be active within the Multicultural Center.

Blair Thedinger, a white junior at Santa Clara, was elected to the MCCPB fall quarter. As director of the Santa Clara Community Action Program (SCCAP), he has the potential to make activism central to the MCC.

Dean for Student Life Jeanne Rosenberger is responsible for making the final decision about GALA joining the MCC. This decision will not be reached until the fall of 2003.

In the meantime, Riecke and MCC representatives are attempting to build a stronger relationship between the two groups.

An open-mic night is in the works where both MCC and GALA members can perform. GALA also has future plans to facilitate discussions about queer issues with the MCC. Riecke is putting together another panel discussion with students identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual and straight allies.

Riecke nearly transferred last quarter in large part because of her frustration with how queer issues are handled on campus, but decided to stay after realizing how her presence at Santa Clara can create change.

"The places where it's hardest for activists and revolutionaries to be, is where they're needed the most," she said. "This university is still going to be oppressive and homophobic when I graduate, but it will be a little less so because of me. I have friends who isolate themselves in their queer communities, but they're not going to change the world that way. I want to change the world."