New Brunswick's Queer History
Welcome!
This website was created to describe the history of the queer community at Rutgers University and in the New Brunswick, New Jersey area. Each project describes a different aspect of the complicated history, from describing key figures in queer movement, to exploring origins and the overall change over time.
The following topics will be presented:
A Gay History, by Kyle Hartmann (kylehart@eden.rutgers.edu)
How Times Change, by Aaron Lee (aaronlee@eden.rutgers.edu)
University Faculty, by Felisha Blount (feliblou@eden.rutgers.edu)
Queer Culture, by Kerry Conlin (conlon@eden.rutgers.edu)
Tracing Queer Origins, by Alison Gibbons (alisongi@eden.rutgers.edu)
The website was created by Kaitlyn Herthel (kaitlynalyson@gmail.com), under the direction of class instructor Christopher Mitchell (christopher.adam.mitchell@gmail.com).
A Gay History
Rutgers, while in what is now thought of to be a more accepting community, was once a harsh and unsafe place to be gay or lesbian. Joseph Cady, the author of the essay “Notes on Teaching Masculinity and Homosexuality in Literature,” found that, “Despite the accomplishments of the gay liberation movement, there was still no open and reliably safe forum for discussion in the larger university community (at Rutgers the atmosphere remained such that in 1976, two years after I gave the “Homosexuality and Literature” course, a fraternity hung a gay student in effigy on the street outside its house on the “Gay Day” declared by the Student Homophile League)” (158-159 Cady). While this was a problem for the Rutgers gay community it wasn’t until 1981 that Rutgers set up and enforced a nondiscrimination law which among other things encompassed sexual orientation. While this seemed to work for the time this still wasn’t a forum in which people could discuss things such as harassment or bullying. There was really no place that gays and lesbians could go to meet as a group for this or even for a more social setting other than the bars and clubs.
The Den 1950’s to 1990’s
The most popular club around this time was “The Den”. The Den had a long history of being gay friendly and became a gay bar in the late 50’s after a small gay bar opened next to it and the patrons bar -hopped between the two. After this bar closed The Den started to advertise itself as a gay bar and the customers soon followed. The Mack family, the owners of the bar, lived in Greenwich Village in NYC and had a lot of friends who were gay, hence their tolerance of gay people at what was originally not a gay bar. The block was eventually condemned (So that the Johnson and Johnson tower could be built) and The Den was forced to move to Hiram Street near The Frog and The Peace.
It was at this location, according to the current day promoter Scott Silvers, that the State’s Alcohol Beverage Control came in and closed The Den (Silvers). At this time it was illegal for people to congregate together in such a way that others would perceive them as a homosexual. The Den was fined for this but the Mack’s didn’t believe that it was fair so they sued and eventually won. The Den’s webpage records some of that history: “six years later after numerous court challenges the Mac Family eventually won the case against the A.B.C., which set a precedent to allow homosexuals to congregate in public places in the State of New Jersey.
This occurred before Stonewall, in New York City” (The Den). This is something that is interesting because throughout the Tri-State area everyone signifies the gay revolution with Stonewall when in actuality The Den was the first to challenge this law. Scott Silvers said, “ I should also mention that many people say that the news of The Dens triumphant win sent a stirring though the community and probably gave the people in the city the courage to stand up with police raided Stonewall, which prompted the Stonewall Riots” (Silvers).
The Den’s savior came in the form of man the name of David Morris. Morris was a man who loved The Den and as a lawyer came out in order to protect the bar that he was a patron of. He went on to become one of the biggest gay advocates in the State of New Jersey and was a member of the Gay Activist Alliance of Morris County (GAAMC). His passing this year saddened many.
In the late 80’s The Den was forced to move yet again by the city of New Brunswick to make way for the Hiram Square Condominium Complex. The Mack family basically gave up on New Brunswick, thinking that they were being pushed out because of the gay cliental, and moved outside city limits to 700 Hamilton. It was opened again in the early 90’s, after around six months of refurbishing the inside, to huge crowds. There was no money spent on the grand opening, instead relying solely on word of mouth. The thing that attracted a lot of the crowd was the new dance floor, something that they had never had. According to Scott, who started working there as a coat check boy and bar back in the third month after opening, the bar was “packed from day one” (Silvers). Another reason for the high turnout in numbers was that one of the bartenders (who went by the name of Steve Kelso) did a photo shoot for the gay leather magazine Colt. While the bar was previously a crowded place, after the bartenders photo shoot people were coming in from New York to see Kelso, putting the bar at the top of the list of places to be. Kelso went on to become Colt Magazines #1 selling model. Another one of the bars was Todds. Todds was the lesbian bar, “The Den was always the boys bar and Todds was the girls bar” says Silvers, “[Todds] closed [and] reopened as Escape, it was short lived though” (Silvers). Throughout this time a popular place to go after the bar was to “The Wall.” The Wall was a place near the College Ave Train Station where all the gay guys use to go after the bar closed. This was basically a pick up place where you could go to pick someone up if you had no luck at the bar. Sometime around here a group of drunken frat boys “beat the crap out of” a few guys in the early morning (Silvers). Because of this the pick-up location moved to Seminary Place.
Michael Corey 1978 to 1985
Michael Corey entered into the pharmacy program at Rutgers in 1978 and decided to live on College Avenue. He dormed in the Frelinghuysen Dorm which he felt was better than having to live on Busch as far as being able to be himself. He didn’t want to come out but at the same time was trying to explore his new freedom. He says that “The biggest worries were social stigma, family acceptance, being ostracized, getting beat up, mocked and abused and, of course, an occasional case of the clap. To a very large degree (as far as I knew), nobody knew I was queer and I spent a lot of time doing my best to hide it” (Corey). He did say that the best part about living in the dorms was being able to check out the guys on the floor when you took a shower.
Michael remembers the name calling around campus - “fag” or “queer” were said in such a way that wasn’t just another insult, it meant something. The college avenue campus was usually pretty tolerant towards the gay population but these words could sometimes be heard around “the quad” on College Avenue or some of the dorms that had balconies after some alcohol was added. He also notes that the Livingston Quad was pretty bad due to the “radical unrest” at the time.
Michael spent a lot of his time over the next few years trying to keep up with the pharmacy programs regimented course schedule. A popular hangout for him to relax was The Den. He recalls:
- “The Den was your basic local / regional gay bar. It was in the slum section of town near the end of Route 18 (before it was extended over to Piscataway). This was also close to the slum section of town where the Projects were build. The bar was split into 3 areas. . . a small/cramped bar area when you walked in (checking you coat with Mrs C) and then drooling over Peter at the bar; bathrooms were in the back and small a trough and 1-2 stalls (with varying uses depending upon how busy the place was); a small outdoor area with some tables and plants in a fenced-in area; and a medium sized dancefloor in a separate room” (Corey).
The Den was a place where Michael could go to relax. He ended up going there with his friends a lot of the time, sometimes for holidays such as Halloween, in which he won a trophy for a costume. Around this time though being gay wasn’t as safe as it is today. After a few robberies and a few muggings that occurred as guys were leaving the bar, it became commonplace for people to leave in pairs or groups. And while he doesn’t say that the police were receptive, they weren’t dismissive either.
The popularity of the different types of places that men went to cruise are also a part of this history. Places like “The Wall,” which was also known for mild amounts of gay prostitution, and the Rutgers Library were just some of these places. He explained,
- “The wall was an elevated area where there was a cement retaining wall. Guys would meet by the wall and then could take a little action in mall area behind plants or inside one of the school buildings if they were open. We'd also ride our bikes over later in the evenings and see who was around or who might do a drive by. Older guys would ride past in their cars riding very slow and with a window down to check out who might be of interest. It sounds very NYC streetcorner whores and in some cases, it was. The College Ave library stacks and men's rooms were pretty standard, but they were also notorious so at times it had the potential to be hostile in addition to somewhat exciting. The College Ave Gym also had possibilities if you were working out or playing a sport (not me). There was also the potential to meet other guys in the darkened areas around the College Ave Quad. . . it was a bit safer area if you lived there” (Corey).
These places allowed for men to meet and hook up. While they didn’t necessarily allow men to be 100% safe or 100% out, it provided a common ground where you could find someone like you and be able to hook up. Richard Berkowitz in an interview after his lecture also mentions “The Wall” and how he and a friend of his would frequent this area looking for guys to hook up with (Berkowitz). While he doesn’t say directly that he partook in the prostitution in this area, with the reputation of The Wall and Berkowitz’s accounts of his twenties it might not be that hard to assume what happened.
The rest of his Michaels years at Rutgers were marked by meeting and eventually rooming with a number of different gays and lesbians, coming out to friends, exploring his sexuality with other men (sometimes more than one at once) and eventually graduating.
Change at Rutgers 1998 to 1992
While the clubs, specifically The Den, allowed for a meeting place socially, there was still no place to meet to talk about the problems of the college. It was because of this, among other things, that the University decided to set up a committee to battle these types of attacks on the University’s gay students. “In reaction to homophobic graffiti and harassment, the university in 1988 created the Select Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns” (Wall Street Journal). This was a much needed step that would help to bring the harassment and mistreatment of gay students at Rutgers to lower levels.
Jeff Van (1994) a student at Rutgers University “says, he acted like his Connecticut prep-school friends. He dated girls, and he talked about them with his dad, man to man. Now a college sophomore [article from 1992], he would rather put on a dress and go off the gay and lesbian dance. (He told the bridal salon the dress was for Halloween.) He wears a rainbow flag on his backpack to make a point of his homosexuality.” Jeff goes on to talk about how at an interfraternity meeting that was intended to talk about the negative aspects of stereotypes, he went up against the Greeks saying: “I’m sick of asking people’s permission to be gay.” While Jeff feels safe enough to go to the gay and lesbian dance, others might feel that their masculinity is being challenged by this (Wall Street Journal). While Van recognizes that he is fighting for his freedom and rights now that once he starts looking for a job his activism will probably be left out of his resume for fear of finding a job.
Another gay student James Dale (student in the early 1990’s) was the subject of a controversy after a newspaper ran article on a seminar taking place on the needs of lesbians and gay youth that he took part in. Because of this he was thrown out of the Boy Scout troop that he was an assistant scoutmaster of. While this was not directly linked to Rutgers it marks the beginning of change. Men were now starting to feel more comfortable about their sexuality and now were willing to stand up for it. Students started to feel that they could be themselves and come out not only on campus but in the real world. “Mr. Dale has been successful at merging his two worlds. After coming out his sophomore year at Rutgers, he told his mother and -- eventually -- his father, a former Army colonel. Last year [1991], both parents marched in the national Gay Pride parade in Washington” (Wall Street Journal). While this could be attributed to changing times and gay men being more accepted in general this also most likely has to do with the fact that Rutgers, after realizing that there was a problem that could no longer go unnoticed, set up a committee in order to deal with this.
What eventually happened was, “in reaction to homophobic graffiti and harassment, the university in 1988 created the Select Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. It is chaired by James D. Anderson, a gay university administrator. Its membership also includes faculty, students and staff, even the campus police chief” (Wall Street Journal). While this worked for many years it was interesting to see how the university seemed to change its mind a few years later. Rutgers supposedly started to offer benefits to sole domestic partners or gay faculty members but when a few members tried to collect on health insurance and health care they were turned down. While they allowed other benefits, such as access to the gym, family housing, and time off for bereavement, they were not allowing what would most likely cost them the most, insurance and health care. Due to this, five gay and lesbian employees at Rutgers filed suit in 1993 in Middlesex Superior Court. Among these was James D. Anderson who ended up leaving the university because of this (Queer Resource Directory).
While Rutgers over the years has recognized the gay population and tried help ensure the safety and well being of their students and staff, they have just recently in the past twenty years put up real measures to do this. By creating a Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns they set up an actual body to look over what was going on at the college. Partner benefits are starting but they need to go further. The most telling sign that the temperature of the college is changing though is how students have gone from being afraid to come out, to coming out at college but not in the real world, to finally going up against the State for being let go from the Boy Scouts. A rock during all of this for the gays to hold on to is The Den. Being run for over fifty years as a gay bar, The Den has provided a social gathering point for the gay community and continues to till this day.
How Times Change
Until quite recently it was illegal to be gay in the United States. That changed with the federal repeal of sodomy law. College has always been a haven for those among us who are intellectuals or lead alternative lifestyles. New Brunswick has a history which has been rich with Queer life. However, if one were to look at Rutgers and New Brunswick today, it is a very different place when compared to how it was for those who came before us. Living on campus is a wonderful experience for many people. It is an opportunity to find yourself away from those who knew you; like your parents and high school friends. For queer people, it serves the same purpose. Although, for queer people it is often a more important time of self-discovery, because in college an individual finds himself or herself or zirself in an environment where sexuality and gender are things to be studied and not viewed as strict constants in our lives. However, what if these important psychological processes are interrupted by a homophobic or transphobic roommate? What if you cannot live with a person who shares the same gender identity that you do? All of these are obstacles which LGBT people have to overcome when they are living on campus. How has living on campus changed? How has it stayed the same? Rutgers appears to be following a national trend that I have noticed. It is easier to be gay anywhere, so queer people tend to not congregate together as much as they have in the past. The 1960’s was the beginnings of a sexual liberation for many people, for queer people it was the beginning of a more gay mainstream liberation which came to a head in 1969 in New York city. For Rutgers, the story begins much earlier. However, this investigation picks it up in 1972 in Wessels dormitory with Walter’s history. Walter lived in Wessels for his freshman and sophomore years of college. In that day, some rooms in Wessels had three people to a room. Walter’s two roommates tried to force him to leave the room because he was gay. On another occasion, one of his roommates who was also gay and training to become a lawyer, asked Walter to sign an affidavit stating that he was not gay, nor had they ever touched each other. Walter says he later saw this roommate casting multiple ballots for himself in a student government election. Walter continued saying that overall he did not feel that he could be open about his sexuality. During his freshman year while he was still closeted, he began exchanging letters with someone from the Rutgers Homophile league. Eventually the other student he was writing to, named Jim, phoned him and they spoke briefly.
Walter’s living situation later changed and he went to live in a single in Brett Hall. He also wrote for the Rutgers newspaper, The Targum, and later became its editor. He did say that he loved being in college. After Walter left Rutgers, he said he went back in the closet. When I asked him why, he responded with “would you tell someone that you were transgender after you’re out of school?” and I replied, “Ha ha, maybe in 20 years.” We both laughed but I realized the gravity of both of our situations. His attitude seems to reflect an attitude of that time saying that, in the end you can only depend on yourself (Walter). When I asked him what he thought the biggest difference was for queer people of my generation, he said the biggest difference was that now you could look on TV and see people that were like you(Walter). There was no Will and Grace during his time. The biggest names in the gay community were porn stars.
Richard Berkowitz was another Rutgers Student who went to school during the same time as Walter. In fact, they met when Richard came into the Targum office and wanted to write an article about an interview that Dick Cavett was doing with Katherine Hepburn(26). Richard lived in Hardenbergh Hall, one of the dorms near the Raritan River. In his book, Stayin’ Alive, Richard recalls feeling embarrassed while walking into the office and seeing the receptionist reading a book called Lesbian Nation. After writing the article, Walter began calling Richard quite frequently. In that time, rooms did not have private phones, so someone on your floor would pick up the phone and call out who the phone call was for. Walter kept calling so frequently that Richard’s floormates eventually confronted him about, “that flaming fag from the Targum” (Berkowitz, 27). Richard went and hid in his room for fear of violence. He eventually moved off campus because hearing the people that lived around him calling him a faggot and laughing at him drove him to the edge of Hardenbergh’s rooftop one day. Richard also made his living by hustling at some gay cruising spots which were on campus. The two main pick up places were Kirkpatrick Chapel --which is only a short walk away from the main residence hall area on college avenue-- and the Seminary wall which is an even shorter walk. Walter recalls a time where both Richard and he were trying to pick up men at the wall around Kirkpatrick Chapel and someone drove up next to them and threw water in Richard’s face.
It turns out Richard’s and Walter’s fears and unease were not unfounded. The Rutgers Homophile league occasionally ran an event they called Blue Jeans Day. The purpose of the event was to show how arbitrary it was to categorize someone solely based on their sexual orientation by planning to “record” all students that day who wore blue jeans as homosexual (Nichols 66). This event ran several times over the years, the first being in 1974, and another in 1975. In 1975, a fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) hung an effigy that bore a sign that read “The only good gay is a dead gay—back to your closets homos”(qtd. Nichols 67). The crowning piece of the effigy was a pool cue stuck through the effigy’s chest (Berkowitz 35). In 1978, the Homophile league, now re-named Rutgers Gay Alliance held another blue jeans day, to which DKE responded with another effigy hanging from a second story window, with its arms outstretched as if it were being crucified(Nichols 69). In 1979, another Blue Jeans day was held and instead of an effigy, they hung a sign out the window reading, “Sodomy is a pain in the ass” and “Anita—Deke loves you” (Nichols 70). Eventually in 1980 DKE was placed on probation, and was later kicked off campus for a violating their probation(Nichols 76). According to Stayin’ Alive, in 1974 Howard Crosby was gaybashed and suffered severe head trauma(34). It seems that violence and threats were almost commonplace for queer students living on campus and went on uncontested for quite a few years.
One particular dormitory on college avenue has a reputation for being what Junot Diaz called, “home of all the weirdos and losers and freaks and fem-bots”(170). Junot Diaz lived in Demarest Hall and was a former Creative Writing Section Leader. The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries called Demarest, “a hot bed of homosexuality” (Nichols, 79). Demarest was originally a freshman dorm before 1950, when it became the dorm for RU football players. The original football stadium was located where the college avenue parking deck now stands today. In the 1960’s it became an honors dorm, and in 1966 the dorm’s residents created what are known as Special Interest Sections, which are discussion groups that run weekly and center around an academic topic (The History Lesson). Demarest appears to have had quite an interesting history with regard to non-normative culture. Many of the leaders of the Homophile league, and that club’s offspring have lived in Demarest. A woman named Wilhite, who was involved with Rutgers Gay Alliance, and also in the lodging of complaints with DKE lived in Demarest(Nichols 78-81). Demarest Hall also had an underground Women’s Studies section, and a small group of feminists formed CAFT (College Avenue Femminist Terrorists)(Nichols 79). A current resident, Danny, recalls speaking to an alumna of the women’s studies section and learning that they held a section on “How to Queef”(Danny). CAFT also was notorious for doing things like spilling ammonia in Scott Hall when a pornographic film was being shown in one of the classrooms. One fraternity was showing pornographic films at a fundraiser to try to make money, and CAFT staged a bomb threat all in order to combat sexism. (Nichols 79). Though, during 1979-1981 when Wilhite was a resident, not all in Demarest was queer friendly. Some of the straight members of Demarest resented the building having the reputation of the gay dorm, and wrote profanity on some people’s doors (Nichols 80).
Demarest today has some similar traits to the ones it had in the 1970s and 1980’s. It still prides itself on tolerance and acceptance. Some residents muse that the construction of the building—the narrow halls and small rooms as well as the infamous stoop-- forces you to speak to essentially everyone in the building. A strong sense of community is instilled in new residents upon their first days living in the building by older residents who want to share their experiences with incoming students. In the early 1990’s, Demarest formed its first LGB Interest Section. A former resident named Eric, surmises that the group’s founding was “to give academic merit to a safe space…and to give solidarity to that group of people.” Of course, Demarest cannot advertize itself as a safe space, because that would imply that other buildings on campus are not safe spaces for queer people. The LGB interest section eventually added a letter, a T for transgender, sometime during the 1990’s and in the very late 90’s it underwent another name change and became known as Queer Studies(Eric). Eric says the name change was due to the term queer at the time having less stigma attached to it, and there were multiple Queer activists in Demarest. The first section, or discussion of the year was Coming Out Stories, which remained a tradition until the section’s membership started dwindling to around 5-6 people in 2005-2006. Eric and another resident who lead the section named Paul, changed the name to Sex, Sexuality and Gender in the year 2006. Eric says the name change came about because of dwindling membership, and the Coming Out Stories tradition deterred straight allies from joining and sharing their experiences. Danny remembers the new section blossoming through an increase in participation. “Even though the focus ultimately changed away from queer, the diversity of opinion in section and increase in membership more than made up for it.”
Some of the more peculiar aspects of Demarest that are around today include an unofficial coed bathroom policy created by the residents, which probably dates back to the 1970’s(Eric). Two years ago Demarest underwent a remodel, and previously because the building housed football players, all the bathrooms—men’s and women’s—had urinals in them. The sides of the building where there men’s and women’s rooms were located would switch after each semester. Occasionally, because this practice is so common to “Returners”, or residents who are returning to live in Demarest for another year, newcomers sometimes are not informed of this policy and are sometimes frightened when they discover a member of the opposite sex in their restroom. Eric remembers before he was even living in the building, he spent the night here as a high school senior and walked into the men’s room and saw a woman in there. He goes onto explain that this is not a “pervy thing” and I have not found any incidences of inappropriateness in my experiences in the building, or in my research. Many residents ask what the difference would be if the bathrooms were sex segregated, as people living on the side of the building where their appropriate bathroom is not there, would have walk around the halls in a towel in order to shower. There have been recent movements to make the coed bathrooms an official dorm policy, but those were rejected. Though, the residents’ concerns may have been heard because in the recent remodel, none of the bathrooms were fitted with urinals, and the only difference between the two is the sign outside the door on the wall. However, residents often like to rip the signs off the wall, and this year, someone drew a penis on the woman in the WOMEN’S sign. Eric shared with me some of the other events that occurred on his first night in Demarest. He was at a CAP (College Avenue Players) party and they were playing spin the bottle, and it landed on another man, and this particular guy “freaked out”, Eric said, “it is strange to see such acceptance inside a building and outside; not”(Eric). Many people within the building do not have problems with having a LGBT identified roommate, and are supportive even if there is a declining queer population in the building itself. There was also another movement to have gender neutral housing in Demarest, and while that request was declined, residents did an unofficial room switch anyway so that people of the same sex were roommates. It was all set to happen, when the residents, who were living in the basement rooms, found cockroaches in their rooms and decided to move out(Eric).
Recently, it seems that many queer groups are becoming smaller and smaller. Perhaps it is because it simply is easier to be gay anywhere now. Eric muses that, most of the people who go to Rutgers are white upper-middle class people, and those of whom identify somewhere on the spectrum often do not have to go through as much pain with regards to their sexuality and are able to blend into mainstream culture. There is also a rising sentiment that a queer person doesn’t just only need queer friends anymore. Being out still has an explicit value, in the fact that it offers some people a chance to see healthy individuals who they may share an identity with, but as Walter said in my interview with him, “the biggest difference between your generation and mine is that you can look on the TV and see gay people… we had no Will and Grace in my day”. As a transgender person, I have not encountered any problems living in a dorm. Today, trans people are viewed very much like gay people were viewed in the time before 1990. If I can live freely, then I would imagine that most gay or lesbian people would be able to live elsewhere on campus and for the most part feel safe. I’m not sure that they could be out, just as I am not sure I could be out in another dorm, but I imagine with the right support system a person could manage. Rutgers adopted a policy prohibiting discrimination and harassment which includes sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and gender expression and was last updated last year(TLPI: College and University Policies). Rutgers today is in many ways a different place than it was years ago. This generation of Queer people is different from previous generations of LGBT identified people. What is happening in college dormitories is very indicative of how LGBT people are viewed in society today. Perhaps Demarest is not a great barometer, because it offers itself as a haven for those students who really need a support system and a place to find themselves more than other dorms do. As queer membership in LGBT oriented clubs decline I think a question we have to ask ourselves is why this is happening? Being mainstream is tempting, but I think it is also important to realize that unless there are some people who are willing to stand behind the most vulnerable of minorities, we have lost sight of what equality really is.
