This Wednesday Saint Mary’s hosted a panel on LGBTQ+ history on campus. Four LGBTQ+ alums from different graduating classes led the discussion, ranging from 1974 to last year. The speakers were Jacqueline Leskovec, Kelli Harrison, Lety Stanton-Verduzco and Mads Hornack.
Jacqueline Leskovec, the earliest graduate on the panel, described the LGBTQ+ community at the College 50 years ago, or the lack thereof.
“When I first came out, I was a student here at Saint Mary’s, and at that time, there was absolutely no community to speak of,” Leskovec said. “I did not know of anyone else who might be queer, there was no discussion. There were no students walking hand in hand out in the hallways. None of that existed.”
Leskovec was one of the founding members of the Pride SMC affinity group and now serves on the board of trustees at Saint Mary’s.
Harrison, who graduated in 1998, recalled the diverse reactions to emerging LGBTQ+ groups in the tri-campus community.
“Notre Dame tried to start an LGBTQ club on Notre Dame’s campus, and so both campuses were abuzz,” she said. Harrison shared that some people questioned whether LGBTQ advocacy has a place at a Catholic school, with some even suggesting that students should transfer or leave campus entirely.
Harrison also met her current wife while attending Saint Mary’s and explained how their openness on campus led to verbal abuse and other mistreatment.
“I remember one time walking by McCandless Hall and somebody threw an open window, yelled, ‘dykes!’ which I thought the only way to handle that was to kiss my girlfriend, right there. So that's what we did,” Harrison said.
Stanton-Verduzco of the class of 2004 brought to light to what she claimed was a disparity between Saint Mary’s students and faculty on accepting the LGBTQ+ presence on campus.
“I always found very supportive staff and faculty at Saint Mary’s when I didn't find supportive students on campus,” she said.
Hornack, who graduated just last year, was able to comment on the present LGBTQ+ community at the College and described how they helped sustain that community.
“I was asked to be on a task force to help implement policy for transgender and non-binary individuals to come to Saint Mary’s. I was the only student on the task force, so I was the voice of the student body,” they said.
They spoke about unwanted media attention and backlash they faced in their role.
“There were hate crimes,” Hornack said. “They put up sticky notes denouncing our identity. They were tearing down our posters trying to form unity within the community.”
Nonetheless, Hornack highlighted the strong support they received from friends and fellow club members.
“I was lucky enough to have a good, solid friend group as well as a good board for SAGE. We really relied on one another, and we kind of had each other’s back with everything, like we weren’t going through this alone. We truly did have solidarity,” they said.
