Dear members of the Spectrum Center 40th Anniversary Celebration Host Committee:

On Friday, Nov. 18, I dressed up for what I thought was going to be a night full of joy, laughter and celebration. What I experienced instead was a night full of silence, marginalization and oppression. As I sat in Rackham Auditorium and watched performer after performer pay tribute to an office I have come to respect and admire over the past few years, I couldn’t help feeling unsafe and unwelcome. I couldn’t help noticing that this event, like so many others before it, seemed intent on highlighting the lived experiences of only a select few individuals in the Ann Arbor LGBTQ community: That of cisgendered gay, white men.

Whether unintentional or not, I feel that "Broadway Comes Home" failed to live up to the high standards set by the Spectrum Center and the University. I think it's quite fair to say that the event was not inclusive by any stretch of the imagination. As far as I could tell, it lacked visible representation of lesbians, bisexuals, people of color, people with disabilities, transgender individuals — the list goes on and on. Now this certainly isn’t the first time something like this has happened at the University. And it unfortunately won’t be the last. But I feel it’s important for you all to know that there were people in the audience who felt erased by the handling of this event. In a room filled with so many people of varying shapes, sizes, ages, colors, sexual orientations and gender expressions, it was completely unacceptable to have such a stark contrast between the stage and the audience. This blatant lack of diversity is not what the Spectrum Center has stood for over the past 40 years, nor is it what the University has stood for over the past 194.

I will never be able to look back on this event without being reminded of my constant struggle for visibility as a queer person of color. What I am able to do, however, is continue speaking out against injustice even when doing so may require me to confront a community I have come to know and love.

When Spectrum Center founder Jim Toy quoted Audre Lorde during his acceptance speech on Friday night, it reminded me of another black woman from whom I draw much inspiration. Like Coretta Scott King, I believe that “we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny. I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.” That is why moving forward, all I ask of this committee is to seriously consider whose voices are most often remembered at events like "Broadway Comes Home" and whose voices are most often forgotten. I beg all of you to constantly push yourselves and look for ways in which your work can be more inclusive of LGBTQ people and our various, intersecting identities.

Never forget that we, too, sing equality.

Yours in Earnest,

Noel Gordon
LSA junior