The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

A Rainbow with no end

In the early morning of June 28, 1969, New York City police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a Mafia-run bar catering to gay clientele. Four police officers were injured by miscellaneous objects thrown at them and 13 arrests were made.

In response to "Stonewall," gay liberation protest riots broke out, sparking conflicts across the country, with college campuses as rallying points.

A far cry from the Big Apple, the homosexual community in Carbondale found ways to free itself from the shackles of intolerance two years after the raid. At SIUC, seven students and one faculty member founded the Gay Liberation Organization on April 14, 1971.

Paulette Curkin, student development coordinator, said SIUC was very progressive at the time the Gay Liberation Organization was chartered. Curkin, originally from Connecticut, said she had assumed the Midwest would be more conservative.

"When I came out here as a graduate student and discovered a gay student organization, I was just absolutely flabbergasted," Curkin said.

The fledgling support group has since morphed itself into one of the oldest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender student groups in the nation-The Saluki Rainbow Network.

The original mission statement presented three goals for the organization: personal liberation, awareness of the gay community and reformation. The current group retains the main goals but is more inclusive.

In 1975, the Gay Liberation Organization changed its name to the Gay People's Union. In that year, women's activism increased in the group, and another name change was pursued. The Gay Lesbian People's Union represented the membership more accurately, and the 1970s proved to be a time of exponential growth for the campus group.

Social activities for the gay community in the 1980s proved plentiful, and the Gay Lesbian People's Union was one of the original sponsors of "Take Back the Night," a march to protest violence against women. The Underground, which was the first post-Stonewall gay bar, and similar bars in Carbondale gave the gay community a place to congregate. In 1987, Curkin took on the role of faculty adviser.

The beginning of 1990s was a stagnate time for the newly named student group Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals & Friends. All of the women of the group dropped out, and only male members remained, so Curkin resigned her position. The group's status as a registered student organization was on the brink of extinction, but in 1993 it fought back and won. Women began joining the group again, and Curkin resumed her former role as adviser.

In 1995, the Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian & Gay College Conference was held at SIUC. More than 300 college students from 30 states were drawn to the University to participate in the event. The conference was a huge success and brought considerable exposure to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexuals & Friends. Curkin said the conference was visible in years before, but the year it was held at SIUC was when it really exploded onto the scene.

"This was the first time they made the conference into a big deal," Curkin said.

In 1999, the organization changed its name to the Saluki Rainbow Network in an effort to include everyone. This April, the student group will celebrate 33 years of continued activism.

Curkin said the reason this or any RSO succeeds is because of the student leadership.

"We're very fortunate right now to have strong student leadership," she said. "These students that we have right now are particularly effective. They've been around for a few years."

This year, for the first time, the University has supported the month of October as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month through the Office of Multicultural Services and Programming. Curkin said she believes the longevity of the program is because of the need it fulfills.

"There is a fair number of gay students and gay faculty on our campus," she said.

After the "Coming Out" stories sponsored by the Saluki Rainbow Network was held earlier this month to let gay students speak about how they told friends and families about their sexual orientation, Curkin said she felt strongly for the students who had to deal with adverse reactions.

"That just ripped my heart out," Curkin said about a female student who had to contend with religious figures and friends. "No child should have to deal with that.

"This is what happens to these kids because their families are just so blown away by it."

Bradley Wilkins, the Saluki Rainbow Network co-director, said when he first came to Carbondale three years ago, he wanted to drop out of school because he had not made any friends. Wilkins was sent to Curkin, where he found out about the Saluki Rainbow Network.

"I owe staying in college to SRN and Curkin. If it were not for them, I wouldn't have had the bravery and ability to tough it out and stay here. I would've left," Wilkins said.

Curkin described her emotion for the students by wanting to "gather them up" and take them away from their problems.

Curkin said a few years back, a female student, who was the director of the Saluki Rainbow Network, was disowned by her parents. She was a junior, and when they found out she was a lesbian, they cut her off financially.

Curkin said the student group helped her find a way to finish college, and the student's parents eventually came to terms with their daughter's sexual orientation. Curkin said she was happy to say that the woman is now an attorney on the West Coast who runs one of the largest gay youth camps in the country.

"When you put a face on something, it's a lot harder to hate people," Curkin said. "That's a success story, but how many kids get cut off and end up sinking into depression, alcoholism, drug use or just dropping out of school?"

The Saluki Rainbow Network's Prideline is a hotline for students to call if they need to talk or have questions. The operators are no qualified in crisis intervention, but they can provide general information or referrals to professionals in the area, that could help students who have issues about their sexuality.

"Being a leader means running the organization, but on occasion it means going out and meeting that person who is just coming out and is afraid to come to the meeting but wants to talk to someone." she said. "They do that kind of stuff all the time."

Regarding the controversy with Chancellor Walter Wendler's comments to the Southern Illinoisan about homosexuality being "sinful," Curkin said she believes positive steps were taken afterward, including the installation of the campus Gay Task Force.

"I think initially it had a very negative impact because it made students feel unwanted and unsafe," she said. "In the end, what it did was open the door for this dialogue that we're having now, and that's a good thing."

Curkin said she believes homosexuality is not a choice because no one would choose to lead such a life.

"We're just like everyone else, living our lives as according to the way we were intended," she said. "We're in everyone's families. We're everywhere."

The SRN office is located on the third floor of the Student Center. Visit their website at www.siu.edu/~glbf/

 

 

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