Johns Hopkins Gazette: March 17, 1997

"Voices Of Queer
America" Plans
Something For
Everyone

Leslie Rice
Homewood
News and Information

Best-selling author Urvashi Vaid and Evan Wolfson, the winning attorney in Hawaii's landmark same-sex marriage case, are among the speakers featured in "Voices of Queer America '97: A Celebration of Sexual Diversity."

The annual monthlong series of speakers, films and events at the Homewood campus celebrates sexual diversity and offers an examination of a variety of compelling issues presented by people on the front lines of the fight for gay and lesbian rights. The program is organized and sponsored by the university's undergraduate group Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance.

"We tried very hard to have a broad appeal for this year's events," said DSAGA's co-chair, sophomore Gloria Guzman. "I think in the recent past we've focused on queer issues that were geared pretty much specifically for queer people. Our goal this year is to be more inclusive, to attract people from many walks of life, from more campuses and from a larger part of Baltimore city and county. "

Admission to all events is free unless otherwise noted. For event information, call DSAGA at (410)516-4088.


Monday, March 24, 5 p.m.
Lecture--Glass Pavilion, Levering Hall

Urvashi Vaid will open the series with a talk that examines the evolution of the gay and lesbian movement. Vaid is a community organizer and attorney whose involvement in the queer movement spans 15 years. He was recently named one of Time magazine's "Fifty for the Future."

Wednesday, March 26, 8 p.m.
Film--Mudd Hall Auditorium

Celluloid Closet. Hollywood's outtakes from movies like Spartacus. A phantas-magorical picture of the film industry.

Thursday, March 27, 4 p.m.
Lecture--Mudd Hall Auditorium

Evan Wolfson, senior staff attorney at Lambda Legal Defense and co-counsel for Hawaii's landmark same-sex marriage trial, will address sexual orientation and HIV/AIDS legal and public policy issues. As co-counsel in Baehr vs. Miike, the Hawaii same-sex marriage case, Wolfson's winning arguments led to a ruling that civil marriage laws cannot discriminate against same-sex marriages.

Monday, March 31, 9 p.m.
Drag queen show--E-Level, Levering Union

"Vanity6??"--drag queen show starring several of Baltimore's most well-known professional and amateur drag queens including Vanity Starr, Champagne Douglas and Alexis Foxx.

Tuesday, April 1, 7 p.m.
Workshop--Great Hall, Levering Union

Eve Cohen, of the Chase-Brexton Clinic in downtown Baltimore, will talk about safe-sex practices.

Wednesday, April 2, 8 p.m.
Film--Mudd Hall Auditorium

Paris Is Burning.

Thursday, April 3, 4 p.m.
Lecture--Arellano Theater, Levering Hall

Author Richard Mohr will examine the popular notion that gay rights are somehow "special rights" and will discuss his theory that "gayness" should be viewed as an important property, rather than an irrelevant property of people who are gay. His books include Gays/Justice: A Study of Ethics, Society and Law; A More Perfect Union: Why Straight America Must Stand Up for Gay Rights; and Gay Ideas: Outing and Other Controversies, which won the Lambda Literary Awards' "Editors' Choice" Award for best book of 1992.

Monday, April 7, 7 p.m.
Lecture--3 Shaffer Hall

Theologian Robert Goss will address the topics of queer culture and religion. He is the author of Jesus ACTED UP: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto, co-editor of A Rainbow of Diversity, Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship, and managing editor of the Journal of Religion and Education. Goss is also co-chair of the Gay Men's Issues in Religion of the American Academy of Religion. He is a former Jesuit priest who transferred his clergy credentials to the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Churches and now works in education of UFMC clergy. He is also an AIDS and queer activist.

Wednesday, April 9, 8 p.m.
Film--Mudd Hall Auditorium

Jeffrey, starring Steven Weber and Patrick Stewart. A gay man is so affected by the AIDS epidemic that he decides to give up sex forever.


Also: Queer Studies, the JHU graduate group, will hold its third annual Queer Lecture Series, which includes:

Wednesday, April 16, 5 p.m.
Lecture--323 Gilman

Phillip Brian Harper, associate professor of English at NYU, will give a talk titled "Gay Male Identities, Personal Privacy and Relations of Public Exchange." Harper, who has published many essays on the racial, gender and sexual politics of 20th-century literature and culture, is the author of Framing the Margins: Social Marginality and the Logic of Postmodern Culture and Are We Not Men? Masculine Anxiety and the Problem of African-American Identity.

Monday, April 21, 5 p.m.
Lecture--323 Gilman

Elizabeth Grosz, visiting professor of critical theory and philosophy from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, will give a talk titled "The Strange Detours of Sublimination: Psychoanalysis, Art, Homosexuality." Grosz is author of several books on feminist theory and philosophy including Essays on the Politics of Bodies. In 1995, she won a New South Wales Premiers Literary Award for her book Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism.

Thursday, April 24, 5 p.m.
Lecture--323 Gilman

Leo Bersani, French professor at the University of California, Berkeley, will talk about "Gay Identity, Gay Writing." Bersani has written several books; his most recent is Homos, Arts of Impoverishment: Beckett, Rothko, Resnais.


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