duke lgbt essay

Duke's Historic LGBTQ-Inclusive Application Question Matters

Psychology Graduate Student, University of Washington

The fall is always a stressful, nonetheless exciting time for most high school seniors, notably as they prepare and submit applications to colleges and universities. After coordinating their letters of recommendation and completing standardized tests, ambitious applicants fine-tune their personal statements and tackle mountains of supplemental essays. However, many LGBTQ high school seniors struggle with the added burden of determining the best possible way to present (or not) their sexual orientations and gender identities.

Sexual and gender minorities, like me, must weigh a variety of factors in considering whether or not it would be appropriate to "come out" in our applications. What if the admissions counselor that reads your application is homophobic? What if they think you're "too gay"? What if you're not gay enough? These resounding and overwhelming "what-ifs" ultimately lead many college-bound LGBTQ seniors to withhold their identities on their applications.

This phenomenon manifested itself at my school, Duke University, this spring. With the goal of connecting LGBTQ admitted students to campus LGBTQ resources, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions began "flagging" applicants who disclosed that they were "out" on their applications. As the president of Duke's undergraduate LGBTQ student group, I was provided with these names and enthusiastically awaited the opportunity to communicate with these students about all of the resources that make Duke a leader in LGBTQ life. I was quickly disappointed, though, when I realized this list only yielded 6 students, out of the nearly 4,000 who received acceptance letters this past year.

Aware of the limitations of this "flagging" approach, Duke is doing something about it, making history all the while. This fall, when over 30,000 high school seniors are expected to complete Duke's application, they will come across a new optional essay question:

"Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. If you'd like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you've had to help us understand you better--perhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background--we encourage you to do so. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke."

Applicants may be particularly surprised by the words "sexual orientation" and "gender identity," in the midst of this question, and with good reason. This addition now makes Duke the fourth university nationwide, and first among all Common Application institutions to make explicit mention of sexual orientation and gender identity on the application for undergraduate admission.

In doing so, Duke has made it clear that in order to gain a complete and holistic picture of its applicants, admissions officers will now consider sexual orientation and gender identity as important pieces of a candidate's background, just like race, gender, religion, ethnicity, and age. LGBTQ applicants will benefit from answering this question because it provides a space to safely disclose their identities while minimizing concerns over the stigma that comes along with "coming out" in a college essay. While most students do not identify as LGBTQ, the mere presence of this question sends a powerful message to the Duke community about diversity.

I am particularly excited about what this means for next year's incoming class. From the time they apply, all students who enroll at Duke will be aware of its commitment to diversity in many forms, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity. I am proud of my university for making such a strong statement about the importance of diversity not only to the campus community, but also to the broader world of higher education.

In our changing cultural climate that surrounds LGBTQ issues, it's time to begin to understand the dynamic definition of diversity. As it stands now, Duke inquires applicants about all historically marginalized identities in the form of check boxes, except sexual orientation and gender identity. This double standard suggests to me that LGBTQ demographic information may be better logged via a check box. Nonetheless, the question in its current form represents a significant step in the right direction.

Therefore, I hope to continue to work closely with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to evaluate whether this question serves its purpose of equitably meeting the needs of LGBTQ applicants. I look forward to other colleges and universities following suit by making more explicit their commitments to sexual and gender diversity on their own applications.

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History of LGBTQ Life at Duke

Discover the rich history dukes lgbtq community..

A narrative history of LGBT life at Duke. By: Jess McDonald, Lumen Scholar from Elon University

Introduction

As at any school, the story of LGBTQ life at Duke University is intrinsically linked with the historical path of the University, and so it is worthwhile to note the timeline of the institution’s evolution.  Duke University traces its roots back to 1838, when it was founded in Randolph County, North Carolina, as a religiously affiliated private college geared toward men, although women attended sporadically.  In 1892, the college relocated to Durham, and it was renamed as Duke University in 1924.  Soon after, the Woman’s College was founded.[1]  Around the same time, the college grew to include graduate schools including a School of Religion, thus maintaining a religious presence on campus.  The men’s and women’s colleges merged in 1972 to become the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, which still exists as Duke’s undergraduate college today.[2]  The university’s first gay student organization was formed soon after the merge, in the fall of 1972.[3]

The Early Years: Promise and Struggle (1972-1978)

• 1972 – Women’s and men’s colleges merge at Duke
• 1972 – Duke Gay Alliance (DGA) forms
• 1973 – The Gay Morning Star: Newsletter of the Duke Gay Alliance first released
• 1973 – Student Affairs Workshop on Homosexuality occurs
• 1974 – DGA requests that “sexual orientation” be added to Duke’s nondiscrimination policy; President Sanford denies request
• 1974 – Triangle Area Lesbian Feminists form as an expansion of the DGA’s Lesbian Rap Group (a discussion group)

The members named the new organization the Duke Gay Alliance (DGA), and their first newsletters say much about the campus climate of the early 1970s at Duke.  DGA members were self-aware of their early start, having organized before any groups in surrounding areas including NC State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  From the metaphoric title of their newsletter, The Gay Morning Star, it also seems as if group members saw themselves as leaders in the fight for gay liberation at the time.  A newsletter writer strongly asserts, “The changes since the 1969 Stonewall Riot are epochal; with Harvard, Princeton, MIT, etc., etc., in the van on campus gay liberation, could Duke be far behind?”[4]  Members of the Duke Gay Alliance clearly viewed their organization’s formation as a response to the Stonewall riot, a violent reaction to a police raid on a gay bar in New York City that is widely hailed as a major milestone in initiating the gay liberation movement.[5] Their language demonstrates that rather than forming in response to a local incident or as a continuation of the activism of pre-Stonewall student groups, the DGA formed with strong political underpinnings and a connection to the wider gay liberation movement that organized after the Stonewall riots.   The conscious decision to form a student group, as well as the administration’s so-called “indulgent” attitudes towards openly gay faculty in the early 1970s (an extremely rare position at the time),[6] demonstrate a surprisingly gay-friendly campus climate for a small, private university in the 1970s South.  It was probably the presence of gay faculty and the tolerance of the administration that resulted in the uncontested formation of the Duke Gay Alliance in 1972 and their continued existence on campus.  This support was also manifested in the 1973 "Student Affairs Workshop on Homosexuality."[7]  Nonetheless, when the Duke Gay Alliance requested that “sexual orientation” be added to the university’s nondiscrimination policy in 1974, President Sanford promptly denied the request.[8] Unsurprisingly, there are other indications of a negative campus climate during the 1970s at Duke.  In one of the first newsletters, a student notes with mixed feelings that “In most cases, gay students with decent averages have not been expelled, merely mis-advised to seek psychiatric help or, at best, ignored,”[9] and a 1971 alumnus explains that he felt pressured to remain completely closeted during his time at Duke.[10]  A 1978 alumnus says that there was not an LGBT support system during his time as a student and, “We didn’t talk about LGBT then.  Most gays and lesbians were closeted, were fearful.”[11]  In the DGA’s newsletter, the university is referred to as “a campus full of empty closets whose reputation for straighter-than-thou conformity has remained unspotted by any genuine radicalism,”[12] an environment that forced “most gays to defer -- in some cases for years -- any commitment about their sexual orientation.”[13]  This is in stark contrast to the relatively positive environment at UNC Chapel Hill, and DGA members “would have expected Gay Liberation to appear there first….”[14]  From this, one can infer that Duke’s student life at the time was not very pro-gay.  The writer notes that the social life of gay men mainly consisted of small coteries around one or multiple gay professors or off-campus “tea-rooms.”[15] It is also worthwhile to note the presence or lack thereof of women in the Duke Gay Alliance.  The non-inclusive title of the Duke Gay Alliance and references to “Gay sisters” [16] rather than lesbians indicate a male-dominant power structure within the group.  Following the feminist movements of the 1960s, many same-sex attracted women adamantly referred to themselves as lesbian rather than gay.[17]  With the non-inclusive language of the DGA’s early literature, it is not surprising than only “approximately one third” of their members were women.[18]  Though the DGA sponsored a lesbian rap group, this group separated from the DGA in 1974 to form the Triangle Area Lesbian Feminists.[19]  It seems likely that the fresh merge of the men and women’s colleges contributed to the gender gap within the group.

The Conservative Era & AIDS Backlash (1979-1987)

• 1983 – Student Government President revokes DGLA charter         
• 1983 – In a campus-wide referendum, 56.2% of student voters opposed NC anti-homosexual statutes
• 198X – DGLA reorganizes within a few years; few records found

The 1980s were a difficult time for LGBTQ students at Duke University.  Fiercely conservative senator Jesse Helms reigned as a North Carolina representative, and Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980.  AIDS was beginning to devastate communities across the United States, particularly those of gay males.  Known as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) in its early days, the condition became known as AIDS in 1982.[20] These factors had dramatic consequences on the Duke Gay and Lesbian Alliance (a name change that occurred somewhere between the mid-1970s and early 1980s).  In 1983, the president of Duke’s student government vetoed the group’s charter because a university lawyer advised him that the charter encouraged "homosexual activity," an encouragement that he said was prohibited by North Carolina law.  The student government president encouraged the DGLA to change their purpose from “promoting a social setting for gays and lesbians” to include a more informational role and resubmit their charter.[21]  The details from the coverage of the veto by UNC’s Carolina Gay Association hint that the fear of AIDS may have influenced the decision.[22]  The DGLA considered suing Duke’s student government,[23] and they likely would have won considering that the Court had already stated that “mere speculation of future illegal activity was an insufficient reason for regulation by the university” in a previous case (Gay Students Organization of the University of New Hampshire v. Bonner [1974]).[24]  Nevertheless, it does not appear that Duke’s student group took the case to court.  The student government’s November referendum included a poll to measure student support of the “anti-homosexual statutes of North Carolina,” and the student government planned to send a letter to the NC legislature or other appropriate authority to make the position of Duke students known.[25]  The poll showed that 56.2 percent of voters opposed the statutes.[26]  The DGLA charter was resubmitted, debated by the student government, and then the vote was delayed.[27]  The Chronicle published a letter to the editor expressing disappointment about the veto in December 1983,[28] and the trail runs cold from there.  The only other information available from this time period is student organization charter requests.  A request from early 1986 indicates that DGLA had been active “under this name and new charter, two semesters.”[29]  Another charter from later that year states that the DGLA was “organizing as a brand new group.”[30]  It seems that neither group kept very good records, if they kept any at all.  It is difficult to know whether this means the groups were less active, operating underground, or if there were other factors preventing them from keeping records.

Rekindling Momentum on Campus (1988-1995)

• 1988 – NC Federation of Campus Gay & Lesbian Organizations forms
• 1988 – DGLA grows from six to 20 members and becomes more active
• 1988 – Duke’s Board of Trustees includes “sexual orientation” in nondiscrimination policy and Equal Opportunity policy
• 1989 – Aurora: The Duke Gay and Lesbian Newsletter published by the DGLA
• 1990 – Divinity Students for Gay and Lesbian Concerns group forms
• 1990 – Committee on Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues forms within law school
• 1990 – Duke University AIDS Task Force recommends the creation of a task force on gay and lesbian concerns
• 1990 – Harmony, a group for friends and allies of LGB people, forms
• 1991 – DGLA’s welcome message to new students on the bridge between East and West campus is painted over with anti-gay hate speech, igniting a variety of controversial reactions across campus
• 1991 – Task Force on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Matters (later amended to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Task Force) is established by President Brodie
• 1991 – Administrator suspended after anti-gay discrimination in hiring practice
• 1992 – Women’s Center creates a Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Programming Coordinator position
• 1993 – Duke LGB Alumnae/ni Network first gathers at homecoming

The DGLA became increasingly active on campus in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  In 1988, the group grew from six to twenty members and sought to raise awareness of gay and lesbian struggles through actions such as Blue Jeans Day, a designated date on which gay and lesbian students were asked to wear blue jeans.  DGLA students hoped that the day would empower the gay and lesbian community and challenge all students to consider homophobia on campus.[31]  Additionally, a significant event in the history of Duke’s LGBTQ community occurred on December 9, 1988, when the Board of Trustees extended the university’s nondiscrimination policy to include "sexual preference."[32] Meanwhile, many student groups organized around LGBT issues during this time period.  These included the statewide NC Federation of Campus Gay and Lesbian Organizations (1988),[33] the Graduate and Professional Gay and Lesbian Alliance at Duke (1989),[34] a straight-allied group called Harmony at Duke (1990)[35], Divinity Students for Gay and Lesbian Concerns (1990),[36] and the Committee on Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues in Duke’s law school.  Aurora: The Duke Gay and Lesbian Newsletter, created as a reincarnation of the DGA’s The Gay Morning Star, was first published in 1989.[37] By the early 1990s, HIV/AIDS had become a battle to be fought rather than a disease that forced surrender.  The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), a direct action advocacy group concerned with HIV/AIDS issues, expanded to the Triangle in 1990;[38] meanwhile, the Duke University AIDS Task Force was hard at work.  By the fall of 1990, the University AIDS Task Force had resolved “that the creation of a task force on gay and lesbian concerns should be a matter of highest priority if the University is to confront effectively the threat of AIDS to our students.”  The following AIDS Task Force document explains the perceived connection between HIV and the gay and lesbian community at Duke: Despite having the knowledge to avoid infection with HIV, many gay men and men who consider themselves heterosexual but are sexually active with other men, continue to practice unsafe sex.  Fear, denial of their sexual orientation, and lack of a sense of self-worth and of acceptance are obstacles to the adoption of behaviors to protect themselves and others.[39]

While these words may seem somewhat misguided today, they are more understandable through a historical lens.  An LGBT-friendly campus would mean less stigmatization of LGBT students and the issues they face, including the threat of AIDS.  Additionally, simply discussing HIV/AIDS and related issues is a positive step forward compared to ignoring the condition or refusing to take proactive steps.  There were clear signs that these steps needed to be made, such as the defacement of a DGLA welcome message to new students with the phrase “NO THANKS AIDS KILLS,” which ignited a firestorm of controversial reactions across campus as seen in the Chronicle.[40] In 1991, the Task Force on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Matters (later amended to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Task Force) was established by President Keith Brodie.  This group of faculty, staff, and students were charged with assessing “attitudes and conditions on campus regarding gay, lesbian, and bisexual students and issues,” as well as recommending changes in the Duke community.[41]  The creation of this Task Force was a huge impetus of further change.  With the official recognition of LGB concerns on campus, Duke’s administration made a further commitment to honor their 1988 nondiscrimination policy change and support students regardless of their sexual orientation.  This soon became apparent in February 1991, when a top administrator was suspended for one month without pay and required to perform volunteer work and complete a course on gender issues after anti-gay discrimination in his hiring practices.[42]  By 1992, the position of Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Programming Coordinator had been created in the Women’s Center.[43]  Gay, lesbian, and bisexual alumni organized in 1993 and became known as Gay and Lesbian Alumni - Duke (GALA-Duke) in 1994.[44]

The Creation of an Institution (1994-2000)

• 1994 – DGLA changes name to the Duke Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Association
• 1994 – Gay and Lesbian Alumni – Duke (GALA – Duke) group forms
• 1994 – LGB Center created for resources and space for students (unstaffed)
• 1994 – Position hired for LGB Services and Sexuality Programming within Counseling and Psychology Services
• 1994 – Trinity College offers a “Perspectives in LGB Studies” course
• 1994 – Duke Guild for LGB Concerns forms as a group for employees and staff
• 1994 – Duke extends “same-sex spousal equivalent” benefits to employees
• 1994 – Another anti-gay hate speech incident occurs at the bridge between East and West campus
• 1995 – Spectrum (multicultural group) denies DGBLA admission
• 1995 – Outlines: The Newsletter of the Duke Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Association first published
• 1995 – Student Government increases DGBLA’s funds for the first time in over a decade
• 1996 – LGB Center gets a half-time director (Dr. John Howard) and moves to larger space
• 1996 – Program in the Study of Sexualities approved
• 1997 – DGBLA changes its name to Gothic Queers
• 1997 – Duke’s Department of Facilities Management paints over LGBTQ pride slogans on East Campus bridge, igniting controversy
• 1999 – Duke hosts Southeastern Conference for LGBT College Groups
• 1999 – LGB Center gets a full-time director (Dr. Karen Krahulik)
• 1999 – Committee on Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues changed its name to OUTLaw
• 1999 – The Princeton Review ranks Duke as the top school at which “Acceptance of the gay community is low”
• 1999   – Anti-gay hate speech is painted over LGBTQ pride messages on the bridge between East and West campus

Thanks largely to the work on the LGBT Task Force, the University Center for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Life was established in October 1994.  However, the Center lacked full- or part-time staff other than one work-study student.[45]  Nevertheless, the creation of a space devoted to LGB life at Duke was a notable advancement.  By this time, the DGLA had changed its name to the Duke Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Association and grown to over 90 active members,[46] and the Duke Guild for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns had formed as an organization for LGB employees.[47]  In addition, Counseling and Psychology Services had created a position and hired a therapist for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Services and Sexuality Programming.[48]  Trinity College first offered a “Perspectives in Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Studies” course during 1994[49]  and, after much hard work by a dedicated group of faculty and staff, 1994 was also the year that Duke extended “same-sex spousal equivalent” benefits to employees.[50]  These developments indicate the growing support of the university for LGBTQ students, staff, and faculty and their concerns.  Nevertheless, some people on campus were not as supportive.  Another hate speech incident occurred in 1994 when paintings promoting for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Awareness Week were covered with anti-gay slogans on the bridge between East and West campus.[51] The year 1995 brought the resurgence of an LGB student group’s newsletter, previously published as The Gay Morning Star, then Aurora, and now as Outlines: The Newsletter of the Duke Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Association.[52]  In the mean time, Spectrum (an umbrella association of multicultural groups at Duke) denied the DGBLA admission and changed its description from “multicultural” to “multiethnic,” disappointing many LGBTQ students, staff, faculty, and allies.[53]  However, positive change occurred when the Student Government increased DGLBA’s funding for the first time in over a decade.[54]  The following year, the university hired Dr. John Howard as the LGB Center’s first half-time director and moved the Center to a larger space.[55]  In addition, the Arts and Sciences Council approved the Study of Sexualities program in 1996. In 1997, the Center for LGB Life changed its name to the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Life.[56]  During the same year, the DGBLA changed its name to Gothic Queers in an effort to reflect the new attitude of the resurgent queer community at Duke,[57] a resurgence spurred largely by Director John Howard.  As had been done by other groups in the past, they painted the bridge between East and West campus to publicize National Coming Out Week and were unhappily surprised to find that the Department of Facilities Management deemed their messages offensive and painted over them. They charged the university with censorship[58] and, after discussion within university administration, the Director of Facilities Management made an official apology.[59] Duke hosted the Southeastern Conference for LGBT College Groups in 1998,[60] and Dr. Karen Krahulik was hired as the new, full-time director of the LGB Center in 1999.[61]  Reflecting the name changes of other related student groups, the Committee on Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues changed its name to OUTLaw around the same time.[62]  Gothic Queers faced more opposition when anti-gay slogans appeared on the bridge between East and West Campus, which they had painted bright pink in preparation for their pride week.[63]  The same year, The Princeton Review’s Best 331 Colleges ranked Duke as the top school at which “Acceptance of gay community is low.”  Many students, faculty, and staff criticized the rankings, especially after it was revealed that the rankings were based on only 63 surveys.[64]  While it may seem that Duke’s LGBTQ community faced much opposition in the late 1990s, it is crucial to recognize the importance of the creation of the LGBT Center and the improving support of the administration in facing these struggles – a support that would have been far less likely to appear in the decade prior.

A Continuing Evolution (2000-2010)

• 2000 – Same-sex union ceremonies allowed in Duke Chapel
• 2000 – Duke Allies created as an organization for allies of LGBTQ people
• 2001 – SAFE program developed in order to increase allies across campus and endorsed by President Keohane
• 2002 – DukeOUT forms as a group for graduate and professional LGBTQ students and their allies
• 2002 – Gothic Queers changes its name to the Alliance of Queer Undergraduates at Duke (AQUADuke)
• 2003 – “Gay? Fine By Me” t-shirt project begins
• 2004 – Center for LGBT Life doubles its space
• 2006 – The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students ranks Duke as one of the top twenty US schools for LGBT students
• 2006 – Dr. Janie Long is named new Center Director
• 2007 – Board of Trustees adds “gender identity” to the nondiscrimination policy
• 2007 – First campus-wide Coming Out Day is held on Duke Plaza
• 2007 – “Love = Love” t-shirt project begins
• 2008 – Duke Allies and AQUADuke combine to become Blue Devils United
• 2008 – Blue Devils United creates its blog, “Our Lives”
• 2008 – Women Loving Women is created to support Duke women (undergraduate and graduate students) who have an attraction to other women
• 2008 – Openly gay bishop Gene Robinson speaks at Duke
• 2009 – Several hate speech incidents occur, including swastikas, anti-gay vandalism on a bench, and the defacement of LGBTQ pride paintings on the bridge between East and West campus
• 2010 – WOMYN, a publication for queer women at Duke, is created
• 2010 – Duke’s Student Government votes to support gender-neutral housing
• 2010 – Policy change enables students to use their preferred name rather than their birth name on class rosters

In 2000, Duke Allies was created as a counterpart of Gothic Queers for straight allies.  The Chronicle quoted the 2002 president of Duke Allies as saying, “Duke Allies gives people who are in the closet, or people who are intimidated by GQ an outlet.  We really wanted to make it more of a stepping-stone to activism or the gay social atmosphere on campus."[65]  In addition to the formation of Duke Allies, 2000 was the first year that same-sex union ceremonies were allowed in Duke Chapel.[66] President Keohane endorsed SAFE – Students, Administrators and Faculty for Equality – in 2001 in an effort to train allies across campus and make them more visible.[67]  In 2002, DukeOUT formed as a group for graduate and profession LGBTQ students and their allies.[68]  Meanwhile, Gothic Queers changed its name to the Alliance of Queer Undergraduates at Duke (AQUADuke) and changed their policies to reinforce confidentiality rules and increase outreach to closeted students.[69]  In 2003, the “Gay? Fine By Me” t-shirt project began at Duke, and it has since spread across the country.[70]  The following year, the Center for LGBT Life changed spaces again and doubled in size.[71] Dr. Janie Long was hired as the new Center director in 2006,[72] the same year that The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students ranked Duke as one of the top twenty US schools for LGBT students.  Many students and faculty, however, questioned the rankings and suggested that the results were distorted.[73]  “Gender identity” was added to the university’s nondiscrimination policy in 2007,[74] the same year that the first campus-wide Coming Out Day was held outdoors on Duke Plaza (as opposed to prior celebrations that occurred in the Center’s indoor space downstairs).  This event also marked the launching of the “Love = Love” t-shirt project, in which free shirts supporting LGBTQ equality are distributed on campus.[75] In 2008, Duke Allies and AQUADuke combined to become Blue Devils United.[76]  Soon after, the group created a blog titled “Our Lives.”[77]  The same year, a group called Women Loving Women was created to support Duke women (both undergraduate and graduate students) who had an attraction to other women. This group was the first space exclusively for queer women on record since the late 1980s, and it was created in hopes of increasing the involvement of women in LGBTQ life at Duke.  Reverend Gene Robinson, who gained worldwide attention as the first openly gay Episcopalian bishop, also visited Duke in 2008 and spoke to a crowd of hundreds in Duke Chapel.[78]  Several hate speech incidents occurred in 2009, including graffiti with swastikas, anti-gay vandalism on an East campus bench,[79] and the defacement of LGBTQ pride paintings on the bridge between East and West campus.  In a strong show of unity, members of Blue Devils United and their friends responded by hanging rainbow flags out of their dorm windows.[80]  In 2010, a new publication (and officially recognized student group) for queer women called WOMYN was launched in hopes of inspiring a “larger, confident, and powerful queer women’s presence at Duke.”[81]  Additionally, Duke's Student Government voted to support gender-neutral housing in 2010, and policy changed to allow students to use their preferred name rather than their birth name on class rosters.  Summer 2010 also marked the kickoff of the Duke LGBT Network, a new initiative to connect alumni, students, faculty, and staff and serve the LGBT community of Duke University.[82]

Conclusion: More Visibility, More Support

In Fall 2009, the Blue Devils United blog “Our Lives” was relaunched with a new mission statement and without the anonymity of the first blog.  The blog editor writes, “We’ve decided to abandon the pseudonyms of [the blog from] last year and put real names and faces to our words.  To do otherwise, we feel, would falsely connote a sense of fear among the staff.  We are not afraid, and we feel safe here.”[83]  This visibility contrasts starkly with similar, earlier LGBTQ newsletters published by student groups at Duke, in which writers resisted using their full name or, in the case of the last newsletter on record (published in 1995), one person wrote all of the submissions.[84]  The support for and visibility of LGBTQ students today suggests a promising future of continuing success and growth for the LGBTQ community at Duke University.

Queering at Duke

As at any school, the story of LGBTQ life at Duke University is intrinsically linked with the historical path of the University, and so it is worthwhile to note the timeline of the institution’s evolution.

1960s: The Age of Arrest The 1960s were turbulent years in American history.  A younger generation of Americans, including many Duke students, were claiming their stake over the future in the struggle for civil rights and the protests against the Vietnam War. A more silent struggle was occurring in the shadows, as men were arrested for the "crime" of homosexuality, forever changing their lives and disrupting their education.

1970s: The Age of Coming Out The 1970s witnessed a fundamental shift in the way queer people at Duke and across America chose to fight the forces of intolerance and oppression. At Duke, the “Age of Arrest” was lost to institutional memory and queer students were able to be more open about their LGBTQ identities without the direct fear of arrest or expulsion.

1980s: The Age of the Closet The visibility and progress of the 1970s gave new hope to the struggle for LGBTQ equality at Duke, but the early 1980s harkened back to a much darker period. Eleven years after the first queer student group was established, the Student Government Association revoked its charter. There was a fear that the group might “promote homosexuality” which was still against state law.

1990s: The Age of the Turn Around The LGBTQ community made more progress toward equality the 1990s than in the previous three decades combined. The formation of the LGBT Taskforce by President Brodie, the creation of the LGB Center for students, and benefits to same-sex couples all happened during this decade. LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff now had a seat at the table to express their concerns.

2000s: The Age of Growth By the start of the new millennium, Duke University had adopted many institutional policies equalizing benefits and prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff. While the struggle for full LGBTQ acceptance is not over, it is undeniable that the future of LGBTQ equality has never looked so bright at Duke and beyond.

2010s: The Age of Vitality Duke University began to address the transgender members in LGBTQ community by changing its policies to allow students to use their preferred name on class rosters and becoming one of the first schools in the country to provide a gender-neutral housing option. In 2013 the Center for LGBT Life became the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity and moved to a new larger and more visible location in the Bryan Student Center.

Hear excerpts from an interview with former Duke President Keith Brodie, pictured here with Dr. Nanette Gartrell (center) and Dr. Janie Long. Embedded Soundcloud Audio Files

Hear excerpts from an interview with Joyce Clements (left) and Susan Robinson on their experiences at Duke. Embedded Soundcloud Audio Files

Hear excerpts from an interview with Duke alum and current Dean of Students, Sue Wasiolek. Embedded Soundcloud Audio Files

Hear excerpts of an interview with former Duke student Mark Waddell. Embedded Soundcloud Audio Files

Lavender Graduation 2013 Photo from and link to Flickr album

Alumni Reception 2013 Photo from and link to Flickr album

Pride Parade 2013 Photo from and link to Flickr album

Ally Week Photo from and link to Flickr album

Coming Out Day Photo from and link to Flickr album

Footnotes/References:

Duke application now asks about gender identity, sexual orientation

Duke University recently became the first Common Application school to explicitly ask about students’ sexual orientation and gender identity.

The optional LGBTQ-inclusive essay question, which has a 250-word maximum, is intended to promote diversity and show Class of 2019 applicants that Duke is a welcoming community for all students, Christoph Guttentag, the university's dean of undergraduate admissions, wrote in an e-mail.

The question reads:

"Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. If you’d like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you’ve had to help us understand you better — perhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background — we encourage you to do so. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke."

“They give an additional valuable insight into the students we don’t always get elsewhere in the application,” Guttentag says. “As one staff member said, it encourages students to be ‘a bit more free, candid and engaging.’”

The question’s implementation stemmed from an initiative led by Blue Devils United , the university’s undergraduate LGBTQ student organization. The group aimed to improve equitability in admissions, connect LGBTQ students with campus resources and gather demographic information on LGBTQ students by including the question, says BDU president and Duke senior Daniel Kort.

Given that Duke is Southern-based, a number of stereotypes exist about the climate on campus, Kort says.

“By saying that we care about sexual orientation and gender identity, we’re making a powerful statement about diversity,” Kort says. “We’re saying that, at Duke, your identity won’t just be tolerated, it will be celebrated.”

Duke joins three other undergraduate institutions who have also opted to include LGBTQ-inclusive application questions — Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Iowa and Elmhurst College in Illinois.

Rather than asking students to respond the question by essay, these institutions have optional questions that allow applicants to check yes or no boxes to indicate whether they identify as LGBTQ.

While Kort says he strongly supports this checkbox approach, he thinks the open-ended essay format is a “significant step in the right direction.”

He pitched Duke’s novel approach in November at IvyQ , a conference where Ivy League LGBTQ and Ally students discuss building diverse, aware communities. And he said the proposal was well received, with audience members unanimously supporting the practice of asking about LGBTQ identities on applications for undergraduate admissions.

Kort says the college application process is inherently stressful, especially for students deciding whether to be open about their gender identity and sexual orientation.

“When colleges provide a safe space for all students, they can reduce that level of stress,” Kort says. “This is the right thing to do, and colleges are beginning to realize it.”

Rachel Chason is a sophomore at Duke University and a spring 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.

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Duke University Makes Applications More Welcoming for LGBT Hopefuls

In an optional, open-ended short essay, applicants to Duke can now describe their sexual orientation and gender identity in their own words.

"Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke," reads a new voluntary question added to the prestigious university's admissions application, reports GLAAD .

The question asks aspiring attendees to share, if they wish, "a perspective you bring or experiences you've had to help us understand you better -- perhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background."

Duke's small change to the regular application could have big consequences for the LGBT student population. Advocates for such questions have argued that tracking queer and transgender students is critical to their success, notes Inside Higher Ed .

This is the reasoning behind including other minority identifications, such as race and ethnicity, on application forms. Such questions may also make LGBT students feel more welcome to apply or be open about their identity while on campus.

When encountering the new Duke question, an applicatnt is able to fill in several sentences in a blank box provided. This format is more open-ended than that used by the handful of other schools who have included application questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. Elmhurst College, the University of Iowa, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology each offer students optional boxes to check instead.

While Christoph Guttentag, Duke's dean of undergraduate admissions, says he chose the question's open-ended format because "in general, I prefer to think of diversity within the context of values, interests, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, rather than discrete attributes," not everyone is pleased with its potential vagueness.

Daniel Kort, president of Blue Devils United, Duke's LGBT student group, told the Huffington Post that he would have preferred a checkbox, similar to other universities, to more concretely pinpoint LGBT students' identities.

Still, Kort says, the inclusion of the question is "a significant step in the right direction.

"Given that Duke's approach to the issue is novel," he concludes, "I look forward to hearing back from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions if the question effectively serves the needs of LGBTQ applicants."

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Resources to Connect with Duke’s LGBTQ+ Community

Use or join ‘OutDuke’ or ‘OutList’ to connect with the community

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As a resource on the OutDuke list, Solomon Enos fields questions from Duke applicants and their parents about Duke’s LGBTQIA+ programs and living in Durham and the south as a gay man. 

“People want to know they’re coming to a place where their identity is celebrated,” said Enos, associate director of Undergraduate Admissions. “It’s so wonderful to tell people that Duke and Durham are accepting places.” 

OutDuke and the Duke Health OutList are two lists of LGBTQIA+ and ally staff and faculty who are willing to be contacted for support by the Duke community.

OutDuke 

Staff with the Duke Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity (CSGD) created OutDuke in 2014 to provide staff and faculty willing as informal resources to the community. About 200 staff and faculty are listed on OutDuke.

“We acknowledge that entering the CSGD might be difficult for some folks for a variety of reasons,” said Nick Antonicci, director of the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity. “The OutDuke list assists members of the Duke community with a marginalized sexual orientation or gender identity tap into a network of support and resources. The list eliminates this fear of the unknown.”

The School of Medicine’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion worked with students to publish the OutList in 2015. The OutList helps students find mentorship and research opportunities with LGBTQIA+ and ally healthcare professionals. About 200 faculty and staff are on the OutList. 

Dinushika Mohottige, a nephrology fellow for the Department of Medicine, joined the OutList to help Duke’s LGBTQIA+ employees, students and patients feel included.

“By putting your name on the OutList, you make it clear that you stand for equality and the for the affirmation of all the people you work with and serve,” Mohottige said. “The OutList combats this feeling of isolation the LGBTQIA population can feel.”

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2 Strong Duke Essay Examples

With a very low acceptance rate, Duke is one of the most competitive U.S. colleges to get into. Alongside killer stats, extracurriculars, and letters of recommendation, admissions officers are looking for engaging, concise, and thorough essays to put you over the top.

In this post, we’ll share a Duke essay written by a real student and analyze what it did well and where it could be improved. Hopefully, you can take away some insight that will help you write your Duke essays.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Read our Duke essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts. 

Duke Pratt School of Engineering Essay Example – Why Engineering?

Prompt:   If you are applying to the Pratt School of Engineering as a first year applicant, please discuss why you want to study engineering and why you would like to study at Duke (250 words).

One Christmas morning, when I was nine, I opened a snap circuit set from my grandmother. Although I had always loved math and science, I didn’t realize my passion for engineering until I spent the rest of winter break creating different circuits to power various lights, alarms, and sensors. Even after I outgrew the toy, I kept the set in my bedroom at home and knew I wanted to study engineering. Later, in a high school biology class, I learned that engineering didn’t only apply to circuits, but also to medical devices that could improve people’s quality of life. Biomedical engineering allows me to pursue my academic passions and help people at the same time.

Just as biology and engineering interact in biomedical engineering, I am fascinated by interdisciplinary research in my chosen career path. Duke offers unmatched resources, such as DUhatch and The Foundry, that will enrich my engineering education and help me practice creative problem-solving skills. The emphasis on entrepreneurship within these resources will also help me to make a helpful product. Duke’s Bass Connections program also interests me; I firmly believe that the most creative and necessary problem-solving comes by bringing people together from different backgrounds. Through this program, I can use my engineering education to solve complicated societal problems such as creating sustainable surgical tools for low-income countries. Along the way, I can learn alongside experts in the field. Duke’s openness and collaborative culture span across its academic disciplines, making Duke the best place for me to grow both as an engineer and as a social advocate.

What the Essay Did Well

A strength of this essay is how it grows in specificity as it progresses, and in college-essay-writing, specificity is key. In the first paragraph, there’s a smooth yet concise transition from a general childhood fascination with engineering to a more mature and specialized field of interest. We learn more and more about this student, almost in layers; first we learn they loved math and science, then engineering, and then biomedical engineering. In every sentence, each of this student’s personal qualities and traits builds off of the one before it, adding more dimension and nuance to their character.

In shifting from her past experiences to Duke’s academic offerings, this student uses their similarly interdisciplinary natures to connect the two. This penchant for smooth, concise transitions is an especially important asset when working with a sub-300 word limit. This applicant chose Duke-specific opportunities to discuss, giving no generic desires for “great professors,” a “top” program, or empty appeals to emotion (“The campus just felt like home!”)

The final sentence serves to nicely tie the essay up, re-affirming the student’s personal qualities and how they suit the student for Duke, personally and academically.

What Could Be Improved

This essay could be made stronger with some improvements to the second paragraph. When including Duke opportunities they want to take part in, this student tells us “ I am fascinated by ,” and it “ interests me ,” but this is fairly basic writing. The reader shouldn’t have to be told about your interest and excitement over something; it should jump off the page.

Rather than telling us they are fascinated by interdisciplinary research, they could write something like this: “ I’d take the thrill of finding connections between two seemingly unrelated topics, knee-deep in library archives, over the drop on the Kingda Ka rollercoaster.”  Notice how this sentence doesn’t explicitly say anything about how they find research fascinating, but by describing it as a more thrilling experience than a rollercoaster, the reader gets a strong visual of the student’s passion.

Another thing missing from this essay is the  why behind this student’s interest in helping others. They clearly flush out their motivation for pursuing engineering, but they never explain what draws them into being a social advocate. Throwing in how they want to “ improve people’s quality of life “, “ create sustainable  surgical tools for low-income countries “, and be a “ social advocate ” has little impact if we don’t understand the importance. A sentence or two that provides background on this student’s compassionate side and where it originated from or what it looks like in action would help bring more weight to their claims of becoming a social advocate.

Duke Essay Example – Why Duke?

In the last six years, my community has been disconnected from the national grid. The result? I watched my mother spend so much money on fuel and patronizing nearly every generator technician in town so we could access electricity. I developed the habit of going to my tutorial centers with my phone charger, hoping that by some streak of luck, the generator would be on. However, with Duke’s minor in Energy Engineering, all these could become things of the past. I especially look forward to courses like ENERGYER 310: INTRODUCTION TO ENERGY GENERATION and ENERGYER 490:RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES, which will equip me with the knowledge I need to design cheap and environmentally friendly energy systems.

Outside the classroom, I hope to contribute to Duke’s mission of supporting positive change worldwide by participating in some of Duke’s signature programs, especially the Duke engage gateway program. I am a big fan of math competitions and math in general. As a result, I worked with some of my friends in 2019 to set up a math enrichment organization for high schoolers. I plan to someday have the Duke engage program work with our organization to help provide STEM classes and encourage hand on design projects among Nigerian high school students. I look forward to the academically challenging classes, interactions with strangers, and all the other things that come with being a blue devil.

This essay, which is responding to a textbook example of the “Why This College?” prompt, does a nice job of clearly explaining this student’s motivation for pursuing the specific opportunities at Duke they mention. Because of the story at the beginning about what this student and their mother went through to access energy, the reader understands the personal connection this student has to energy engineering. That personal connection, coupled with the fact the student names specific energy engineering classes at Duke, proves that their interest in the subject is genuine.

The student’s discussion of the Duke engage program is also backed with a personal story that deepens the connection between their past experiences and the things they hope to accomplish at Duke. Rather than just saying they want to join the engage program because they like creating positive change, their description of creating a “math enrichment organization” in high school shows Duke admissions officers that they have already embodied that value of making the world a better place.

One way this essay could be improved would be to more empathetically drive home the theme of making the world a better place. Between this student’s passion for bringing energy solutions to their community and helping Nigerian students access STEM resources, they clearly have a genuine desire to be a force for positive change. Right now, however, the essay feels somewhat like two distinct anecdotes stuck together, rather than a cohesive story focusing on this aspect of their personality, with Duke-specific opportunities woven into that story.

Centering the essay on this quality would shift the focus from the programs at Duke, and how the student fits into them, to the student’s personality, and how Duke aligns with it. It might seem like a subtle difference, but the result would be an essay that both flows naturally and highlights the student’s admirable character.

How would the student go about making this change? The essay could start with a sentence that shows us their passion for helping others in general, rather than in the context of their local power grid of the math organization they cofounded. This line could be quite simple, for example: “ ‘To help others!’ That’s how I answered my mom every year when she asked what I wanted for my birthday. ” 

Then, the student could move into talking about the helplessness they felt not being able to fix the power grid, and how that feeling motivated them to pursue energy engineering. Their story would continue by transitioning into a discussion of how they hope to help people in a variety of ways, not just by improving their access to electricity. They could cite their math organization as an example of another way they’ve worked to make people’s lives better, and demonstrate their commitment to that organization by describing how they hope to grow it with the skills they learn from the Duke engage program.

This version of the essay, by centering on their personality from start to finish, would feel more cohesive, while still incorporating why the student wants to attend Duke specifically.

Where to Get Your Duke  Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your Duke essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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LGBT Studies: Primary Sources

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Primary Sources at the Rubenstein Library

The Rubenstein Library actively collects materials documenting the lives, work, and activism of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and organizations as part of our History of Gender and Sexuality collections.

• LGBT Organizational Records
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Periodicals in Special Collections

This list highlights collections of periodicals from the LGBT movements of the 1960s through the present, primarily from 1960s-1990s. These materials are housed in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library and must be used in the reading room. Some may be in offsite storage, so please request them in advance of your visit.

• Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance Periodicals Collection Includes newsletters documenting activities of feminist, gay/lesbian, and other activist groups throughout the Southeast. This collection also includes rare and ephemeral women's and lesbian journals from the early women's movement.
• Front Page Records, 1975-2004 The Front Page is a newspaper devoted to gay and lesbian issues in North and South Carolina.
• Milo Guthrie Papers, 1966-1987 Contains numerous journals, newsletters, leaflets, and flyers concerning gay and lesbian rights.
• Women's and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Movements (LGBT) Periodicals Collection, 1968-2005 Comprises individual issues of periodicals produced by or reporting on organizations involved in the women's rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights movements of the late 20th century and early 21st century.
• Zines at the Rubenstein Library The Bingham Center's zine collections include publications about sexuality, sexual identities, queer life and culture, and LGBTQ-related topics. Our collection is primarily (but not exclusively) created by cisgender women and girls, and is trans- and gender-nonconforming-inclusive. Dates from early 1990s-present.

Lesbian and Gay Pulp Fiction

Pulp fiction refers to a genre of cheaply-produced paperback books about sensational topics, and in the 1950s, became a way for publications depicting the lives of lesbians, gay men, and queer people to reach a wide audience. Below are links to information about the lesbian and gay pulp fiction collections in the Rubenstein Library.

• Lesbian & Gay Pulp Fiction
• Drewey Wayne Gunn Collection of Gay Male Mysteries and Police Stories Catalog listing of all books in this collection
• Drewey Wayne Gunn and Jacques Murat Collection of Gay American Pulps Catalog listing of all books in this collection. (There is some overlap with the listing above of Mysteries and Police Stories.)

More LGBT Primary Sources Online

• Queer Pasts This link opens in a new window Queer Pasts is a collection of primary source exhibits curated by academic editors Marc Stein and Lisa Arellano. The database uses “queer” in its broadest and most inclusive sense, embracing LGBT topics as well as other sexual and gender formations that are queer. Particular focus is given to perspectives from people of color, trans people and people with disabilities.
• LGBTQ Primary Sources List of sources includes oral history projects, digitized periodicals, and other historical documents. From the Douglas D. Schumann Library & Learning Commons, Wentworth Institute of Technology.
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