From the Editor:
In 1976, a gallon of gas cost $0.60, a gallon of milk cost $1.65,
and gay sex was illegal in 33 states and the District of Colombia.
Homosexuality had been off the DSM-II list of mental disorders for
only two years, and the anti-gay Save Our Children coalition was one
year away from forming. 1976 was also the year LAMBDA magazine,
then the newsletter of the Carolina Gay Association, published its
first issue. In the heart of a state where queer sex would remain
criminalized for nearly 30 more years, UNC students began to publish
accounts of their struggles, hopes and identities.
It was with an eye to this example of writing through strife
that I began work on my inaugural issue as Editor-In-Chief of LAMBDA
this fall. In May, the state I call home wrote anti-queer discrimination
into its constitution. The initiative was passed by my fellow North
Carolinians by a devastating margin. It seemed my state was telling
me, a queer person, to sit down and shut up.
But I thought of those Tar Heels in 1976 who had fewer queer
role models to look to than I; who were pioneers of queer activism in
their own right. I thought of the fighters of today, like Terri Phoenix
and Kevin Claybren, who made Gender Non Specific Housing a reality
on this campus in 2012, less than a year after it was flatly rejected by
administration. I figured the time at which you are being told to shut
up is the time when your voice is most powerful.
This semester, LAMBDA was tremendously lucky to have the
voices of so many talented staffers. My work on the magazine could
not have gone so smoothly without the mentoring of its former
editor, Swati Rayasam, another powerful voice for justice on UNC's
campus. This issue is for all of those Tar Heel voices, past, present
and future that have pushed and will continue to push this university
towards equality for all members of its community.
Make sure you speak up with them.
3,
Cammie