---

BY ROSARIO PAZ

In print | November 2, 2006

Last Tuesday, as part of celebrating Swarthmore’s Coming Out Week to raise awareness of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, McCabe Library held a reception featuring a lecture by James Hormel ’55 for “Out at the Library,” a traveling exhibit and extension of the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library.

The reception, which was co-sponsored by the Swarthmore College Libraries, the Intercultural Center, the President’s Office and SQU, was comprised of a lecture by James Hormel ’55 that discussed the value of preserving an archival collection of the history of the GLBT community, followed by a casual reception.

Hormel, a member of the college’s Board of Managers, a former United States ambassador to Luxembourg and the first openly gay man to serve as ambassador for the United States, discussed several issues representative of the moral conflict of the country, including marriage equality, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and even the Coming Out Week’s ever-controversial sexual chalkings.

Hormel evaluated an enduring perspective of the “supposed sanctity of marriage” by asking why, then, hasn’t divorce been banned. He also scrutinized the grounds on which “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are made. “The claim that it’s based on unit cohesion is absurd,” Hormel said.

“My favorite part in [Hormel’s] talk was his response to the question about the chalkings,” Tatiana Cozzarelli ’08, major organizer of the event. Hormel had been asked his opinion on the chalkings of Coming Out Week and whether he believes they succeed in raising awareness or rather, backfire in the attempt of increasing understanding of the GLBT community and sexuality.

Hormel acknowledged the controversy and discomfort that may come with the Coming Out Week tradition, but believed that messages of hatred or disgust that the GLBT community has had to deal with are so hurtful that “the chalkings, to my awareness, could not possibly compare.”

In addition Hormel discussed his “distinct recollections of discomfort” as a gay student at the college.

“In many ways this was a very conventional institution,” Hormel said. According to recollections of his time at the college, women were required to sign in by 10:15 p.m. while men were not subject to the same requirement.

Nevertheless, Hormel acknowledged the evolution of social and moral beliefs since his years at the college through events like “Out at the Library” that have been planned for Coming Out week.

“Times have changed, in honesty,” Hormel said. “I’m inspired that on this campus you’ve chosen to dedicate a whole week to coming out. In a future time, I hope in my lifetime, marriage equality will be a fact.”

“You are constantly coming out to yourself and others. I thought it was really nice making the idea that it’s a never ending process,” Spanish professor Luciano Martinez said about Hormel’s realistic, yet inspiring message for those that belong to the GLBT community who are proceeding with their own “coming out.”

“Coming out is a lifelong process. You just don’t do it. You do it, and you do it again, and you do it again. I want to wish all of you the best in your process of coming out,” Hormel said.

Though the discussion and questions focused around the GLBT community and Hormel’s personal views and experiences as a member of that community, rather than the specific contents of the “Out at the Library” exhibit, Hormel was adamant about the collection and described it as “vast numbers of volumes that are impressing, not only in their content, but in their quality.”

Information about the contents of the traveling exhibit can be viewed in the panels of the display located in the McCabe Library Coffee Bar. Members of the college community were invited to purchase books that were related to the kinds of materials located in the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center during the night of the event.

Other important speakers or guests of the event included Pam Harris, a librarian at McCabe, who introduced the lecture and reception, Patricia White, a professor in the English department, who welcomed James Hormel, Erin Martin and Malcolm Lazin, executive director of the Equality Forum.

Lazin invited the audience to read more about the Equality Forum, a non-profit organization that originally began as PrideFest Philadelphia, and to learn more and find resources about the general history of the GLBT community by going to http://www.GLBThistorymonth.com/.

The exhibit will continue through tomorrow.

---

« RETURN TO NEWS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »