LGBTQ Leadership in Higher Education

201 Pages·2022·3.747 MB·English

by  Raymond E. Crossman (editor)

LGBTQ Leadership in Higher Education
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LGBTQ
Leadership
in
Higher
Education
edited by Raymond E. Crossman
Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
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© 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2022
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Mary land 21218-4363
www . press . jhu . edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Crossman, Raymond E., 1964– editor.
Title: LGBTQ leadership in higher education / edited by Raymond E. Crossman.
Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021048342 | ISBN 9781421444079 (hardcover) | ISBN
9781421444086 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sexual minorities in higher education—United States. | Educational
leadership—United States. | Universities and colleges—United States—
Administration. | College presidents—United States. | College administrators—
United States.
Classification: LCC LC2575 .L528 2022 | DDC 378.1/11—dc23/eng/20211109
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021048342
A cata log rec ord for this book is available from the British Library.
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please
contact Special Sales at specialsales@jh . edu.
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Contents
Preface vii
by Charles R. Middleton
Introduction 1
Raymond E. Crossman
1. Identifying LGBTQ Leadership 7
Erika Endrijonas • Karen Whitney • Raymond E. Crossman
2. Feminist Leadership 21
Katherine Hancock Ragsdale • Terry L. Allison • Erika Endrijonas
3. Intersectionality and Leadership 35
DeRionne Pollard • Raymond E. Crossman • Nancy “Rusty” Barceló
4. Coming Out and Being Out 49
Ralph J. Hexter • James Gandre • Regina Stanback Stroud
5. Leading Inclusion on the Campus 63
Regina Stanback Stroud • Erika Endrijonas • Daniel López, Jr.
6. Leading in a Heteronormative/Heterosexist World 77
Raymond E. Crossman • Richard J. Helldobler • Theodora J. Kalikow
7. Leading in a Homophobic World 91
Terry L. Allison • Karen Whitney • Susan E. Henking
8. Mentorship 105
Theodora J. Kalikow • Richard J. Helldobler • Terry L. Allison
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9 . Self- Care 119
James Gandre • Katherine Hancock Ragsdale • Theodora J. Kalikow
10 . Presidents and Partners 131
Ralph J. Hexter • James Gandre and Boris Thomas • Karen Whitney
and Peggy Apple
11 . Becoming an LGBTQ President or Leader 145
Karen Whitney • James Gandre • Katherine Hancock Ragsdale
12 . The Future of the LGBTQ Presidency and
Leadership 159
Ralph J. Hexter
Contributors 171
Index 183
vi Contents
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Preface
Charles R. Middleton
S
tories are the handmaidens of language. When humans devel-
oped language, it soon followed that they had to have something
to talk about. And among t hose t hings that generated conversation
in all cultures, storytelling arose.
Historians are the professional storytellers, but t here are many
gifted amateurs in society and even in e very f amily. Anyone who has
been at a f amily holiday gathering knows that t here is always one
member who, after the feast, regales the table with tales of days
gone by.
Stories are malleable as to purpose. They can be designed to
amuse, to instruct, to answer questions such as “who am I and
where did I come from?,” and to rec ord experience for posterity.
Most of all, they enable us to tell our successors about why we mat-
tered and what we were all about, both individually and collec-
tively. It is noteworthy that the g reat poets of the ancient world w ere
essentially storytellers.
Often the best storytellers are literary folks with a gift of lan-
guage. Using language elegantly is part of the knack of telling a
good story, which may be why historians are often expert prose
writers. It’s also about timing. Again, the best narrators of a good
account follow Lord Macaulay’s dictum to make the audience
laugh, make them cry, and make them wait.
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We have been waiting for the stories in this volume for a very
long time and I, for one, am joyful that they have arrived.
This is a book of narrations org a nized around key themes in
the lives and c areers of a group of remarkable leaders in higher ed-
ucation. It is a book that just a short twenty years ago, at the turn
of the new millennium, could not have been written and for the
most basic of reasons: there was no one to write them.
Think about it. In the year 2000, Y2K and all that, only Theo-
dora J. Kalikow. Nobody else. Oh, we were there, and some of us
were even presidents. But using the standard of being publicly out
(which is the twenty- first- century standard for membership in the
organ ization that we “out” presidents formed in 2010), in 2000
there was only one.
These essays are fresh and engaging because they are fresh.
They reflect experience of these presidential leaders over portions
of the last 20 years. I’m sure that many o thers not included in t hese
pages will see themselves in the commentaries, though the com-
ments are explici tly not representative of the experiences and
views of any par ticu l ar organi zation or institution. But they do rep-
resent shared experience, and when I read them, I could hear
many of the themes of my own story come through loud and clear.
To say that we live in remarkable times is a gross understate-
ment. I suppose that few p eople in the past, whenever they lived,
would ever have said that their times w ere boring and unremark-
able. Sober historians reflecting back, of course, do provide that
assessment from time to time.
Yet even the most exciting and energizing and scary times that
I have experienced over the span of three- quarters of a c entury cer-
tainly did not, upon reflection, approach what’s going on right
now. Much is bad, but much is also wonderful. Including us: w e’re
here, w e’re queer, we’re fabulous: get used to us!
I was born t oward the end of World War II. Both of my parents
were sailors and thus were part of the Greatest Generation. Of
viii Preface
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those who write here, Theo and I alone can make that claim. I
mention this because generational experiences put meaning to
storytelling, and Theo and I aside, this is a book of the baby boom-
ers and t hose in Generation X who followed them. In the overarch-
ing story line of LGBTQ people and civil rights, it is the baby
boomers who have been the pioneers and the Gen Xers who have
steadfastly worked to expand on their success. They blazed and
continue to blaze the trails that crisscross all walks of life. They are
my heroes. I salute them and am grateful to know and to have
worked with so many of them over the years. These are w omen and
men whom I would other wise never have met and become col-
leagues with w ere it not for the power of our shared experiences and
our desire to pay them forward for new generations to come.
My own story has been pretty well told, so I’m not going to
delve into it here. But a couple of things are worth revealing if not
for the first time, then in a new way.
First of all, I grew up in the South, specifically in south Florida
in the 1950s. It was the time of Anita Bryant. My parents were
people of that place and that time. We all read the Miami Herald
daily, even my brother and I, and the news was a nightly topic of
conversation at dinner.
I didn’t know what gay was, but I did know that it was some-
thing that was to be avoided at all costs. On at least one unforget-
table occasion, linking the odious views then prevalent on race to
sexual orientation, my f ather explic itly said that it was worse even
than being black. My thanks to Andrew Tobias for writing The Best
Little Boy in the World and its sequel. I d idn’t know it at the time, but
in practice I became a version of that little boy and grew into a man
with all that boy’s attributes. Perhaps that is why when young higher
education professionals t hese days seek my counsel on how to de-
velop their c areer, I essentially tell them, be the best l ittle girl or the
best little boy you can be. Be aut hent ic, be reliable, work hard, learn
constantly, and your career will take care of itself.
Preface ix
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