Harvard's queer community must protest this silence which is, at least in part, self-imposed. It is our responsibility to speak as queer students for those who are still closeted, those still hiding behind a mask of counterfeit heterosexuality and sincere, if disinterested, concern.
It is our responsibility to challenge and push the limits of what has heretofore been held as "acceptable," "courteous" behavior, and to thereby expose that courtesy for the garrote that it is. In short, we must come together in protest, under a threat that is perhaps more immediate and closer to home than we had heretofore been willing to admit.
Coming out is the first, indeed, the most critical step in a vital project of resistance to those who would coerce us into silence and invisibility, a soul-killing courteousness.
Nicole Carbellano '02 is a literature concentrator living off-campus. She is an active member of the BGLTSA.