As lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans look to the future and fight for full equality, members of the campus community gathered Monday to discuss the LGBT community’s past.
Carolyn Herbst Lewis, assistant professor of history and women’s and gender studies, discussed the history of sexuality in the U.S. with Spectrum members and University students as part of the first LGBT History Address.
The talk honored of LGBT History Month in October, which the Student Government Senate passed a resolution Oct. 5 to recognize.
Lewis focused on the Cold War era and how sexuality and gender were perceived as a civic duty. Heterosexuality was equivalent to being an American at the time, she said.
In order to understand homosexuality, it’s important to understand the history of heterosexual relationships, according to Lewis.
She said if society does not talk about heterosexuality, the implication is that there isn’t any history. No history means it’s a norm and anything different is a deviation from that, Lewis said.
“There was a goal to strengthen morality,” Lewis said about the Cold War era. “The Soviets wanted to weaken [the U.S.].”
Lewis said sexuality was an important factor of American society at that time. The family, which was considered to be the stability of the nation, depended on control of sexual behavior, she said.
“Sex ensured security and stability of the nation,” Lewis said. “Russia was the antithesis of everything the United States stood