Tue, 13 Feb 2001
Last fall [2000], the Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Issues in Anthropology (COLGIA) submitted their final report to the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association. In an effort to disseminate the findings of the report, it is available on the AAA Web site. Here is a brief summary of the report and the recommendations.
FIRST: Survey responses and life-story narratives speak directly to the presence of anti-lgbt bias and discrimination a number of venues on U.S. campuses. These expressions of discrimination are not always overt or dramatic, and camouflage makes such events less painful and, at times, easy to disregard. The cumulative effects of such discrimination cannot be ignored.
COLGIA recommends:
While AAA cannot "outlaw" the practice of anti-lgbt discrimination in anthropology departments and other professional domains, COLGIA RECOMENDS SEVERAL STEPS FOR THE AAA TO TAKE. THESE INCLUDE A STATEMENT CONDEMING DISCRIMINATION IN HIRING, RETENTION, AND PROMOTION, THAT THE ETHICS COMMITTEE RESPOND AGGRESSIVELY TO DOCUMENTED REPORTS OF DISCRIMINATION, AND THAT EMPLOYMENT ANNOUCEMENTS ADVERTISED THROUGH THE AAA INDICATE WHETHER OR NOT THE EMPLOYER OFFERS BENEFITS TO DOMESTIC PARTNERS.
SECOND: The camouflage which surrounds anti-lgbt sentiment in anthropology helps explain the persistent "downplaying" of instances of anti-lgbt discrimination which were reported in the surveys and the life-story narratives. "I'd like to think of myself as a victim, but I'm not sure of whom" remarked one senior anthropologist, reflecting on being "in the closet" throughout his anthropological career. It is COLGIA's belief that a broad dissemination of this report will encourage other lgbt colleagues to move beyond downplaying practices, to develop more accurate assessments of the details of their own intersections of sexuality and anthropological career, and to support additional lgbt colleagues to do the same.
COLGIA recommends:
2.1. that one copy of the COLGIA report be provided, free of charge, to all teaching units, museums, and other entities regularly included within the AAA Guide;
2.2. that the Report be made available to the rank-and-file AAA membership through the AAA website;
2.3. that AAA Member Services work with program committee for AAA 2000 (and beyond) to ensure that the program of the annual meetings provides for an open discussion of anti-lgbt discrimination in anthropology.
THIRD: Survey results suggest that, while anthropologists may not be interested in conducting lgbt-centered research or in addressing such issues within other professional venues, anthropologists are willing to teach about lgbt topics in the classroom--and many report they are already doing so. Necessary are efforts which will support anthropologists in academic settings who are already addressing lgbt-related issues and concerns within the classroom, and efforts which will encourage even more anthropologists to do the same.
COLGIA recommends:
3.1. that AAA Academic Relations coordinate the collection of syllabi, helpful teaching strategies, and other curriculum materials from anthropologists already involved in the teaching of lgbt-related anthropology; and develop a plan to make copies of those materials available to interested users. The AAA-sponsored Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching (Morgan, ed., 1989) provides a worthwhile model for this project. Particular efforts are required here, to address lgbt issues for courses in archaeology and physical anthropology, since survey respondents from those subfields expressed uncertainty about developing lgbt-centered curriculum and instructional plans which would be relevant for their courses;
3.2. that the annual budgets of the AAA for the next five years include funds to assist in the copying and dissemination of these curriculum materials;
3.3. that AAA Academic Relations and SOLGA jointly sponsor one session at the annual meetings of the AAA where anthropologists can discuss and examine the practical dimensions of lgbt-centered teaching.
FOURTH: Mentoring. While anthropologists, as a group, may be doing an effective job teaching about l/g/b/t issues, survey results suggest that anthropologists have been less successful in offering career-related and personal support to lgbt students and younger colleagues. More distressing are the reported instances where anthropologists have allowed mentoring to become a site for sexual harassment vand personal intimidation. Happily, a number of effective mentoring practices, by heterosexual as well as l/g/b/t anthropologists, already provide blueprints and guidelines for improving mentoring practices within academic departments and non-academic work settings.
COLGIA recommends:
4.1. Building on COLGIA's successful experiences with this effort, that AAA Academic Relations and SOLGA jointly sponsor an open session on mentoring at the annual meetings of the AAA.
FIFTH: Lgbt-centered research: Survey results reveal some interest in researching lgbt issues on the part of lgbt and "straight" anthropologists, but also some questioning about the relevance of such research to established anthropological interests, as well as some reluctance on the part of some anthropologists to become deeply involved in such tasks. In order for lgbt research to claim its own legitimacy within the profession, anthropologists involved in such research need to do more, as anthropologists, to disseminate research findings—e.g. more articles in the profession's flagship journals, more sessions (and sessions of quality) at the national and regional meetings, more applications to funding agencies to seek support for such tasks, more researcher visibility (again, as lgbt people and as anthropologists) within the news media, as well as more efforts to draw sharper, substantial linkages between anthropological research and the pressing lgbt issues of our day.
COLGIA recommends:
5.1. that AAA Executive Committee reaffirm the legitimacy of lgbt-related research, and ask individual Anthropology departments to do the same;
5.2. that AAA Government Relations work with SOLGA to develop a plan to educate federal and private granting agencies regarding research needs in lgbt anthropology, and the importance of making funds available so that researchers can address those needs.
SIXTH: Maintaining and enhancing the data-base. Left unanswered in these recommendations—and in this Report—are a range of additional questions about lgbt experience in the profession, e.g. connections between sexuality and race/ethnicity or sexuality and rural academic experience, career experiences for lgbt anthropologists outside of academe or in academic and other settings outside of the US and Canada. Moreover, the Survey data on which this Report is based were collected in 1994; lgbt anthropologists have claimed much greater visibility in the profession since that time, and a reassessment of many of the issues explored here will shortly be in order.
Even so, we are aware that anti-lgbt discrimination continues to flourish within anthropology, that such discrimination can have many different forms, and that lgbt anthropologists tend to "downplay" their vulnerability to such treatment.
COLGIA recommends:
6.1. that the AAA, in association with SOLGA, develop and implement efforts—including a follow-up survey of the AAA membership—which will continue to document the hostile treatment faced by lgbt anthropologists and show how race, gender and other characteristics of anthropologists further mediate the experience of discrimination;
6.2. That the AAA make an ongoing commitment to publicizing documented cases of mistreatment, thereby undercutting the isolation which prevents many lgbt anthropologists from identifying such treatment as part of a persistent pattern of anti-lgbt discrimination.
