Being Gay at Bucknell

By Scott Van Pelt
Features Editor

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of articles profiling the experiences of different groups, scenes and communities on campus. These articles chronicle the uniqueness of only a few individuals, and do not necessarily represent the experience of a greater whole.

In the often-monochrome scene of this campus, it takes guts to stand up and be unique. There are a number of students and faculty on campus, though, who don’t necessarily choose to go against the mainstream, but do anyway. One of these people is Sean Coyne ’10.

You could say Coyne is a lot of things: an athlete, friend, junior, animal behavior major and one more thing—Coyne is one of only a few openly gay students on campus.

Coyne came out of the closet during his first year and started noticing changes in the people around him soon after.

“It changed things because people definitely act differently around me [now]. In a good way, mostly, they try to be careful about the words they use, and they just try to be more aware,” Coyne said.

Since his first year, Coyne believes the campus has been “getting better” with regard to its attitude towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and faculty.

Coyne credits this mainly to the presentations and talks sponsored by the Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Awareness (LGBT). The office offers a number of events which educate and help inform the student population.

Every year around mid-October, for instance, Friends of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgendered (FLAG&BT) club and the Office of LGBT Awareness compile a list of students and faculty who, according to office’s Web site, “pledge to provide an open mind and a supportive atmosphere for LGBT students.” This past year, more than half the campus signed this list.

Relatively speaking, the University isn’t the best campus out there for LGBT students, Coyne notes. When recalling his experiences in New York City, Coyne finds that city schools are much more accepting of differences in sexual orientation.

Part of this has to do with the many myths surrounding people who are LGBT.

“Anyone’s sexual orientation (straight, gay, asexual) is but only one facet of their total identity, like blue eyes, being left-handed, etc. There are people who would have you believe [that] being LGBT is the ‘only’ identity one has, which is simply not true and very unfair to the total identity makeup of any one person,” said Fran McDaniel, director of the Office of LGBT Awareness.

Also, it’s easy to fall into believing mistaken stereotypes. News flash: Not all gay men are fashionable and tidy.

Coyne confesses he’s not the cleanest guy when it comes to keeping his room in order. In fact, his friends tend to be surprised when they come into his room and see it isn’t sparkling clean.

For the most part, Coyne says he considers himself a lucky guy. He hasn’t had to encounter a great degree of hostility or prejudice.

He recalls only one negative instance—a dorm mate writing the word “fag” on his whiteboard during his first year.

While the pain of prejudice is strong, Coyne finds that most people have been by his side. With the support of his teammates and friends, Coyne says he has had a rewarding college experience thus far. He says that FLAG&BT, working with the Office of LGBT Awarness, is also doing its part to spread the message of acceptance on campus.

“You want to get the message out there, but if you force it down people then it really turns them off,” Coyne said.

“It’s a slow process, but it’s definitely coming along.”