Ethnography of a Queer University Center

What is it about?

The authors detail an educational ethnography of a university queer cultural center’s role on campus and in the surrounding community. The data include participant observation, in-depth interviews, and artifacts. The authors review lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, ally, and questioning (LGBTQ) issues in higher education, heterosexual attitudes, and queer theory. The findings of barriers to the Center’s mission plus the suicide of a Center student prompted the authors to explore research poetry as a means to express the inexpressible. Furthermore, they illustrate tensions between contemporary queer and gay theories through the telling of a straight tale (traditional research report) and a gay tale (experiential research report), interrupted with queer tales (poetic interludes) and queer asides. At the heart of the tale is the transformation of the first author, a gay male, to a researcher and scholar of gay issues. This tale is therefore at all times queer, gay, and straight.

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Why is it important?

Am ethnography of an LGBTQ center is detailed which includes the death of a student constituent and a member of the surrounding community who was transgender. The ethical and relational aspects of these situations are explored. Van Mannen's idea of tales in ethnography is extended with queer, gay, and straight tales. Queer asides are developed as a way to speak directly to the reader.