“We need another party on campus,” states the description for “Kissing Girls,” a Facebook group which is geared towards bringing together lesbian, bisexual and questioning persons on campus. One might consider this an invitation to a community that might otherwise be hard to find.
“I feel like there’s enough of a [lesbian] scene here, but I know it’s not very accessible until you find it,” said junior Brittany Scott, one of the co-founders of Kissing Girls.
“I think Kissing Girls helped me when I was first coming out to figure out who else was a lesbian on campus, that there were other lesbians on campus,” she said. “There’s a lot of GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender] groups too and I think that not everybody is involved, but there are a handful [who are involved].”
Sophomore Betsy Rubinstein, a member of the Kissing Girls group, reported that the lesbian community on campus is small and close and that members of Kissing Girls are at its helm.
“I feel like a lot of the lesbians who are out about it pretty much know each other personally or through other people because there aren’t that many,” said Rubinstein. “I’d say there are about 50, but that could be a little high or low. I meet a lot of people through other people. There’s sort of like a main group that’s sort of like the leaders of Kissing Girls.I feel like if you wanted to meet people, you could just come to one of our parties.”
Most of Rubinstein’s experiences have been positive when it comes to others being comfortable with her lesbian identity, although she recounted one incident which she found offensive. It was at a party where she was wearing clothing that a fellow party-goer felt looked masculine.
“This guy comes up to me, he’s drunk and laughing, and he says, ‘So, you’re going for a transition.’ And I go, ‘A transition? What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘With your gender?’ And I go, ‘With my gender?’ And he’s like, ‘I guess I just think things like that when I see girls in drag,'” recounted Rubinstein. “That’s probably the only negative experience I’ve had.”
Rubinstein reported that for the most part, however, she is comfortable being out at the University.
“I have a girlfriend right now and I could ultimately hold her hand on campus,” said Rubinstein. “No one has ever made any remarks to me, but on the same level, you don’t know what people are saying behind your back. For me, I don’t really care, I mean, people are respectful and I think if people are staring at us, it’s more out of curiosity rather than hate or disgust because you don’t really see any openly gay people on campus and openly displaying that they’re together on this campus.”
Although the gay and lesbian communities on campus might be mistakenly lumped into a single category, the two communities are independent of one another.
“In my experience, I think that the lesbian community is a lot different from the gay male community,” said Rubinstein.
“I’ve noticed that gay men don’t really hang out with lesbian women,” said junior Dan Covich, who is currently engaged in a gay male relationship.
Scott partially echoed this sentiment, adding that there is some camaraderie
“On a campus level, I feel like gays and lesbians are more separated, especially on the political level, but when it comes to a more personal level, I don’t feel separated from the gay community,” said Scott.