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Western Carolinian Editor's Notebook: "Learning to be Tolerant"

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  • An editorial by Andrew Dawkins, Editor-in-chief, titled "Learning to be tolerant" from the September 18, 1986 issue of the Western Carolinian was inspired by meeting the founder of Lavender Bridges. He asks that we be tolerant of what we may not understand in order to prevent cruelty against those different from ourselves. Lavender Bridges, an anonymously founded student organization open to all individuals, aimed to promote awareness of lesbian and gay lifestyle, provide lesbian and gay resources, and increase communication with all students and community members. The first organizational meeting took place October 10, 1985 and was officially recognized by the office of Student Development on December 13, 1985. The last mention of the group appeared in the October 10, 1991 issue of the Western Carolinian.
  • Editor's Notebook Andrew Dawk ins Editor-in-Chief Learning to be Tolerant Toward the end of last semester (Spring '86) I happened to be asked by someone who I had shared a number of psychology classes and study sessions with, to help with a psych, experiment she was conducting. I did not hesitate to respond positively since this person was someone I felt very warm towards, and admired. During the course of our post- experiment chitchat, I discovered, to my surprise, that my associate was the founder of the very controversial Lavender Bridges. Before her revelation this group meant nothing more to me than a name, and a source of controversy for others. I had no interest in the group, nor its purpose and so did not occupy myself with thoughts of it. What fascinated me, however, was the courage of the woman who sat across from me in the library that afternoon last semester sharing that part of herself with me. I wondered what gave her the guts to dare to stand up and say: "This is what I am. I am different from you in this respect, perhaps. But, I am human despite of, and because of it, and I wantyou to know, and understand and try to accept that part of // Like the black, Jew, and the American Indian (among others) the homosexual has been tormented and murdered because of his "difference." Sometimes what we do not, or choose not to understand can be so frightening, or, conversely, can be so easily and cruelly dealt with. It is so easy to dismiss others who are different from ourselves, to dehumanize them and, in so doing, desensitize ourselves to the pain we inflict on them. I remember watching an NBC movie special a month or two ago titled (The Elephant Man). It was the story (real or fictitious I do not know at this point in time) of a man so disfigured that it was a chore and a half to look at him. He was very intelligent, but, because of his hideous appearance, he was treated like an animal. He was displayed in carnivals asafreak. I can remember his pained cry to a group of people who stood gawking at him in a railroad station, oblivious to his human need for privacy, for respect, to be treated with dignity, for just treatment despite his physical difference. His pained cry of "I am not an animal. I am a Human being!" resounded around the MNIroad station and made me feel genuine pain. How cruelly we sometimes treat those who are different from ourselves. I remember not wanting to look at certain photos in one of my sociology textbooks. One photo that still lingers after two years or so in my memory is that of a man, who shared my skin color (this made him different), hanging by a rope from a tree. The faces of those others around his limp body showed no remorse, no identification with his humanity, no feeling for him. What I couldn't help focusing on was how this human being must have suffered before he died, how frightened and alone he must have felt, how very, very frightened he must have been as cold, uncaring hands slipped a rope around his neck. How cruelly we sometimes treat those who are different from ourselves. Understanding and tolerance is key in preventing such cruelty from occuring again. I'm not advocating embracing the beliefs and/or practices of others, in particular Lavender Bridges. What I'm advocating is an attempt to see others as human beings like you and me. See them despite their differences, as human beings with needs, desires, fears, and hopes like you and me. It is in the interest of promoting such an understanding, and seeing the humanity in those who embrace the philosophy of Lavender Bridges that I decided to put myself out on a limb and interview the founder of Lavender Bridges on this week's people page. Someone once said something to the effect that if we can't accept each other's difference, than we should at least strive to make the world a safer place for diversity.

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LGBTQIA+ Archive of Jackson County

WCU LGBTQIA+ Archive partners with UNC-Asheville and the non-profit organization Blue Ridge Pride to create a regional archive of LGBTQ oral histories and ephemera.  ...

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