College Lesbian Life: The First Night

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I would write in my journal, the night before leaving: “There’s something so deliriously pleasurable in the idea of trusting myself enough to know exactly what I want.” Throughout the trip, Matie and Jamie would have a number of tearful conversations about trans inclusion with some older passengers who refused to accept trans women as their fellow sisters. But they also got many women to reconsider their more middle-of-the-road views on trans inclusion. “Those are the people who matter,” Jamie would later tell me, recalling her latest conversions over coffee in the cafeteria. When I first pitched this story to my editors, I thought I’d be reporting on a lesbian cultural artifact in its twilight years. The women who’ve faithfully gone on dozens of Olivia trips over the decades are getting older, and I didn’t have a lot of faith that younger queer people were going to step in and save companies like this from extinction. Other elements of lesbian culture have been steadily dying; why should Olivia be any different? In the office, nothing changed. Both of us swore not to tell anyone else. I dodged questions from friends about my relationship status like bullets - the lies were worth it for the delirium I felt when I was with her. I felt crazy. I felt like a teenager. I felt guilty and confused, like I had no idea what I was doing. But I also knew that I might not ever do anything quite like this in my life ever again. So I might as well let myself live through this bizarro universe and see where it would take me.

I would worry about which of the many friends my ex-partner and I shared I would lose in the dyke divorce. I’d have to come to terms with the fact that I can’t control how other people feel, can’t hold out for universal approval. Though I would also seek constant reassurance from my closest friends that I wasn’t a bad person for putting myself first, for a change; that, even after blowing up my life, they’d keep on loving me.She plays the drums, loves cars — like, posts-on-car-forums-level loves cars — and follows tech news. She cares about clothes and buys a lot of hers vintage. She just got a tattoo commemorating Liverpool, her beloved football team. I was less confident. But perhaps it wasn’t that I didn’t trust my partner; it was that I didn’t trust myself. For so long, I’d put off the possibility of us opening up our relationship because — try as I might to be cool and aloof and whatever about casual hookups — I typically like sex best when the person matters to me.

Washington State University, located in Pullman, WA, is one of the top 31 LGBT friendly universities. It has the Gender Identity Expression and Sexual Orientation Resource Center (GIESOPRC), which is dedicated to the education, empowerment and engagement for LGBTQ+ students. The Resource Center’s signature initiatives include the UndocuQueer conference to highlight the intersection of undocumented immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community. They host a InQueery Symposium which features a speaker and student presentations related to LGBTQ+. Lavender Graduation is a celebration of the LGBTQ+ graduates and their allies. The Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC)offers resources and support on topics and identities related to the diversity of gender and sexuality, specifically centering resources and support for LGBTQIA+ people at Carleton.”What I didn’t expect was everything else that would happen to me — and is still happening to me — thanks to this one little week in my otherwise pleasantly uneventful life. Part of the reason why is no doubt what anti-trans lesbians (unreasonably) fear: More and more young people are realizing that they identify as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth — and more and more young people are realizing they’re attracted to people of two or more genders. But even though there are plenty of trans and nonbinary lesbians, and plenty of cis lesbians (like me) who don’t think that “lesbian” should be defined exclusively as “cis woman who’s only attracted to cis women,” our identity still hasn’t been able to shake the sexist, classist, and anti-gay stereotypes of lesbians as uncosmopolitan boomer TERFs, sporting Tevas and cargo pants covered in cat hair. An Interview with the Dean – Interim Dean Dr. Kevin Mason, Arkansas Tech University’s College of Business

Wellesley facilitates professional networking through “The Hive” virtual space and encourages alums to provide personal mentorship in LGBTQ+ identity issues as well. An Interview With The Dean – Dean Dr. Robin Sronce, Southern Arkansas University’s Rankin College of Business Once, after I came in her hands, I burst into tears (yeah, I know, big dyke energy), and she held me tightly in her strong, sure arms. “You’re OK,” she said. “I’ve got you.” She kissed my hair. I just don’t understand some of these women,” she said, looking around the room at the joyful group of dancing lesbians. “Why do they insist on making themselves so ugly? I’ve never gotten the whole butch thing.” Queer Student Resources at Stanford rate well in terms of student life, counseling offerings, and housing and residential life.An Interview with the Dean – Dean Dr. Cathy Carey, University of Southern Indiana’s Romain College of Business Gender-inclusive housing, scholarship opportunities, health care, faculty representation, and the availability of student organizations and mentorship opportunities are all important factors to LGBTQ+ student success. What is the most LGBT-friendly place in the U.S.? LGBT friendly colleges are critical for the safety and well-being of gay, lesbian, trans, and nonconforming young people all over the nation. For decades, colleges and universities have been at the vanguard of culture, whether that meant protecting artistic expression or giving young people a forum to voice their political views. But the best colleges for LGBT students can truly be a matter of life or death. Discrimination is still endemic: 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBT; in adult life, unemployment is 13% for LGBTQ workers, and 16% for trans workers. LGBT friendly colleges provide a safe space for queer young people, while helping prepare them for a workforce that is still frequently hostile. Searching Out the Most LGBT Friendly Colleges In partnership with Campus Pride, we are happy to bring you our top 25 most LGBTQ+-friendly colleges in the United States. In addition to the Campus Pride Index rating scale, BestColleges has included its own ranking methodology and the following factors to produce this list: The University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire is located in Eau Claire, WI, and has received a 5 star rating by the Campus Pride Index as the best school in Wisconsin for LGBTQIA+ students. UW-Eau Claire Blugolds have launched meaningful careers upon graduation for a century. They’re a LGBT friendly college believing in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). They created an open, supportive campus focused on ending racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia. They created a certificate in EDI for faculty and staff as part of their professional development.

Lynette is 53 years old, though she looks at least 10 years younger. She was born and raised in London to Jamaican parents. She’d recently separated from her wife, whom she’d been with for 21 years. This cruise was the gift Lynette gave herself in the aftermath. She was starting over. Lehigh University created The Pride Center for Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (The Pride Center), to reach for the objective of an equitable, just campus (and world). Their mission is to create a campust where everyone has a chance to explore who they and who they wish to be. Lehigh has established SafeZones throughout the campus, where staff, students and faculty are trained to professionally handle gender diversity issues. The Pride Center offers access to resources for students, parents, faculty, guardians and Lehigh University’s alumni. The Gender & Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) puts on a number of regular events throughout the year.

‘The Handmaiden’

I was hesitant for a couple reasons. The first was that they’d slept with someone else, just once, when they were on a solo vacation, before we’d agreed to any sort of open-relationship terms; I felt like they’d forced my hand. (It’s hard for me even now to say they cheated on me, though that’s precisely what they did.) The second reason was that I’d watched some of my friends in long-term relationships experiment with nonmonogamy, only for the experiment to end in disaster: Somebody, inevitably, fell for somebody else. It’s like a Rubik’s cube of sexuality, where you turn it a different way, and the factors don’t fit together. It may be that the commonly held wisdom was wrong, that people just liked to imagine women in college having sex together, or it may be that society has changed, and as more people come out publicly, in politics or on television, we are getting a clearer view of the breadth of sexuality.”