Harvard and LGBT Equality

We’ve been very critical of Harvard University in the past for not doing as much as its Ivy League peers for LGBT students. As previously mentioned, the university doesn’t have an adequate campus resource center for current LGBT students. The university doesn’t rank anywhere near the top of the Campus Climate Index, a measure that quantifies the efforts of universities in the arena of LGBT equality. But something cool is happening right now with regard to Harvard’s efforts to embrace its LGBT students!

Harvard should grant posthumous degrees to students expelled in the 1920’s for being gay.

It seems that students and faculty at Harvard are urging administrators to award posthumous degrees to seven Harvard students who were expelled decades ago for being gay or for being perceived as gay. On the eve of Lady Gaga’s visit to the Harvard campus to promote her “Born This Way” anti-bullying campaign, the group of students and faculty will hold a rally in order to sway administrators to grant these posthumous degrees.

Larry Summers, former president of Harvard, previously denounced the McCarthyist actions of the university to weed out LGBT students in decades past. According to “The Washington Post,” Summers called such tactics by Harvard, “abhorrent and an affront to the values of our university.” We couldn’t agree more. But more can always be done to demonstrate that the university does not condone the errors of its past, and we at Ivy Coach think granting these posthumous degrees would be a really nice start. It would be a wonderful show of support to current LGBT Harvard students. Make it happen, Harvard administrators!