This is presented as a resource to help the gay community but critics point to the potential for abuse.
Campus Reform reports:
University’s ‘Out List’ connects students to queer teachersBoston University (BU) recently published its Out List, an initiative meant to “promote visibility, connectedness, and sharing of resources among LGBTQIA+ faculty, staff, students, and the larger Boston University community.”The Out List identifies LGBTQ faculty and staff to make “visible the vibrant LGBTQIA+ community that resides at BU”, and to help students “find LGBTQIA+ mentors and connect with the wealth of resources our faculty & staff provide.”The creation of the List followed after BU’s LGBTQIA+ Task Force claimed the “invisibility” of LGBTQ faculty and staff was “pervasive” at BU, and that the university had an “unwelcoming environment.”According to Thomas Lee, Jr., co-chair of the committee that developed the Out List, the project is also meant to communicate that BU is “a queer-friendly university.”Those on the List can choose to share information about their “gender identity, sexual orientation, whether they were a first-generation student, racial and ethnic identities, religion, and more.”Those running the Out List plan to expand the project to include “a list of courses that are taught by LGBTQIA+ faculty each semester, as well as a section highlighting research being conducted by LGBTQIA+ faculty and staff.”Initiatives such as the Out List are part of a broader trend in higher education of universities attempting to advertise their queer credentials, a trend exemplified by the Campus Pride Index (CPI).As Campus Reform recently reported, CPI is an organization that allows universities to pay a $225 annual fee to be listed on their site as ‘LGBTQ-friendly’, and showcase their LGBT bona fides.When asked for comment, BU student Arsheya Maghsoud told Campus Reform, “I do strongly feel that there is a level of bias and irrelevance built into these groups and platforms that appeals to the liberal ideology.”Maghsoud went on to explain “that [having groups like the Out List] automatically approaches the issue of social interaction through an overly sexualized lens, which begs the question of why platforms or groups like this should even exist.”
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