SPECTRUM organizers emphasized that multiple minority status is an issue which the group will address.
"One does sometimes feel a need to choose [between minority identities]," April L. James, a second-year student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and co-chair of the Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Graduate Student group who was present at the meeting, said she believes it may be more difficult to be "visible" as a gay person if one is a member of a racial minority. "When you hear people of color talking about gay people it's as if they are not in their community," she said. Sulmers said he has also experienced a conflict of identities within the black community although "it's hard to explain why that is." "There's a disacknowledgment of your own multiplicity," he said. SPECTRUM will host its first discussion meeting on November 6. On December 1, World AIDS Day, the organization will open an art exhibit titled "The Changing Face of HIV" at the Adams House Squash Courts. The group is also sponsoring a film series at the end of next month and hopes to organize a conference on race and sexuality in April. SPECTRUM is advised by Professor of Afro-American Studies and of Philosophy Anthony K. Appiah, Kenan Professor of English Marjorie Garber and Assistant Professor of English and American Literature and Language Ann Pellegrini '86