Lavender Bridge
Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN
Queer student groups have a longstanding history in the Twin Cities--possibly, this history goes back to a bisexual group at the University of Minnesota in 1968 (see: the B.E.C.A.U.S.E. Conference, but it certainly dates to the organization of Fight the Repression of Erotic Expression (F.R.E.E.. Minnesotans continue a tradition of emphasizing strong education(1); this emphasis creates a large, vocal, and active student population. In many respects, activist students were responsible for initiating the queer community after the Stonewall Riots.
Unfortunately, this grouping of students was indicative to the racial inequalities present in Minnesota—students at the “U” were overwhelmingly European-American, and the activist queer students were not different in this regard.(2) That is not to suggest that queer people of color were absent from campus activity; instead, these students likely invested their time in opposing the University’s race-based inequalities.(3) Nonwhite students struggled against Minnesota’s academia for decades and made substantial progress. By the late 1980s, campuses across the State actively sought people of color and advertised diversity and local governments realized the positive effects of diversifying institutions.
This is especially evident when Metropolitan State University (then a community college) sought a new campus in 1988. St. Paul and Minneapolis each offered sites for “Metro State;” Minneapolis proposed donated land on its Northside (where a high concentration of African-American families live) and St. Paul countered with a proposal on its troubled East Side.(*)
The institution chose St. Paul, and it has operated in the Capital City for 20 years. Lavender Bridge has coexisted with Metro State for almost half of its East Side existence—the group organized in [when?] and continues to organize LGBT events on campus. The events, ranging from community service projects to lectures,(*) provide students of color with opportunities that were once unavailable.
(1)
(2)Tretter, Jean-Nickolaus. Interview with the author and Jacob Gentz, 1/16/2009
(3)
(*)"St. Paul offers to buy hospital site in bid for Metropolitan University" The St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1/7/1988.
(*)Beach, James. "Lavender Bridge." Lavender Magazine issue 206: 4/18-5/1, 2003. Pages 76-77.
This page is still under construction. -SVC
Part of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: 100 Queer Places in Minnesota History, (1860-1969), (1969-2010)
