MIT’s Women’s & Gender Studies Program (WGS), along with the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women and Sexuality (GCWS), are flagship advocate employment centers at MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS). Their mission is to make sure that sexuality, and in particular non-heteropatriarchal forms of sexuality, gets injected into every aspect of MIT’s pedagogy, culture, and wellbeing services.

And so, WGS is pleased to present “Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America,” a book talk with Princeton’s award-winning Professor of Homosexual History Margot Canady.

What was America like before Fortune 500 companies routinely sponsored Gay Pride Parade floats? Students born in this century may find it hard to believe, but there was actually a time when being on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and making sure everyone knew it, was not considered a plus when it came to admissions, hiring, and promotion.

Youngsters might struggle to imagine a society in which every university and corporation didn’t offer special services, affinity groups, and designated lounges for queer people. They could hardly conceive of a world in which an individual’s sexual preferences and bedroom behavior was nobody’s business but their own.

This makes it important to expose each rising generation to the history of queer oppression. Doing so will help reinforce their chosen identities, arming them with timeless narratives that can fuel lasting grievances. Remember Stonewall!

Most straight people have stopped caring, aside from worrying that they might get reported for not using preferred pronouns. Perhaps in 50 years it will no longer be necessary for the world’s leading STEM university to provide queer educational services. But not yet. Too many careers are at stake, like jobs for the many folks staffing MIT’s LGBTQ+ Career Advising and Professional Development Office.

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