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Collegiality. What is it? Tl;dr, it’s a nebulous concept at best and a tool to perpetuate discrimination against some of our Law School’s most vulnerable people at worst. Everyone I have asked about what collegiality means gives a different answer. Is it waving at a peer in the hall with a smile? Is it sharing notes when someone misses class?
For my past three years at UVA Law, it’s meant being tame and polite in the face of blatant homophobia and transphobia. It’s being told to “bite my tongue” when someone shares a transphobic article on my Con Law class’s Zoom chat justifying depriving trans children of medically-necessary gender-affirming care. It’s being “placed on notice” by my peers on Reddit when we organize a protest against Dallin Oaks–a man who oversaw the enforcement of electroshock and vomiting aversion therapy and other means of intimidation against the queer community. It’s not being able to share how I truly feel about a Scalia dissent in class because I would be just another triggered leftist snowflake. It’s only getting barely a quarter of the Law School to sign onto a Lambda petition asking for people to support us.[1] It’s been people campaigning for homophobic and transphobic politicians like Glenn Younkin showing up to queer spaces like Halloqueen.
Now, it’s an expectation to be “civil” when homophobic and transphobic speakers keep on getting invited to UVA Law with open arms. The Federalist Society at UVA has invited Erin Hawley, the senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), to speak on November 15. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the ADF as a hate group, and rightfully so, in my opinion. ADF has pushed for recriminalizing queer people, defended sterilizing trans people, and advocated for denying us participation in pretty much every aspect of society.[2] Fed Soc’s event is happening during an existential threat for queer people, trans people in particular. Every year during my time at UVA Law has been dubbed the worst year for queer people in terms of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, which has largely been targeted at trans people and trans youth in particular.[3]
This is the context for Fed Soc’s event. I’m sure the justification is going to be about free speech if it hasn’t already been raised by the time of writing this op ed. If we’re really about free speech and having all viewpoints represented, why isn’t a pro-queer person at this event?
I’m not a spokesperson for all queer people, but I’m tired and so are the vast majority of my queer colleagues. Real @#$%ing tired, if I’m being quite honest. I don’t know how I can put this into perspective for those who have not experienced the oppression queer people currently and historically have faced. That’s because there is no comparison. There is no queer equivalent of Dallin Oaks. There is no queer equivalent of the ADF. Conservatives in this country have not been subjected to having electrodes placed on their genitals or having fingers forced down their throats to stop being conservative. Conservatives as a class are not being called groomers and pedophiles on a national stage, don’t have entire groups dedicated to their sterilization, and don’t have their very existence up for debate. This is what we, as queer people, have experienced and continue to experience.
I’m all about free speech as much as the next person. I truly think it is essential for our democracy, which the past few years has shown is more fragile than any of us could ever have imagined. But we keep on inviting, platforming, welcoming, and celebrating the most vitriolic—and frankly evil––speakers to this Law School, and expecting queer people to behave “collegially.” What does collegiality mean to me? Stop expecting queer people to be collegial if you can’t even do so in the first place.
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bwj2cw@virginia.edu
[1] Spencer Haydary was the president of Lambda Law Alliance at UVA for the 2021-22 school year, and does not currently speak on behalf of the organization.
[2] See, e.g., Southern Poverty Law Center, Alliance Defending Freedom, (https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/alliance-defending-freedom (last visited Nov. 5, 2020, 10:11 PM).
[3] See, e.g., Matt Lavietes & Elliott Ramos, Nearly 240 Anti-LGBTQ Bills Filed in 2022: So Far, Most of Them Targeting Trans People, NBC News, Mar. 20, 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/nearly-240-anti-lgbtq-bills-filed-2022-far-targeting-trans-people-rcna20418.