Before Thanksgiving,  I wrote about the importance of actively engaging in meaningful, direct discussion. Then Anthony Perez came to see me, offering to share a recording of a conversation he had with a friend, Alan Sutton ’14, about the sensitive topic of sexuality. Anthony is a junior from Los Angeles and is majoring in Spanish and minoring in Portuguese. His actions—initiating this discussion and then sharing it with the campus community— take courage and resolve. I am pleased to include the recording here, and I want to thank Anthony and Alan for taking this important step. I hope this will encourage further dialogue across campus.
—Shirley M. Collado

The following dialogue has emerged from my genuine desire to understand how students on this campus consider non-heterosexual culture. I did not have any clear direction or pre-written questions when Alan Sutton, a junior here at Middlebury College, and I sat down to record a candid conversation about sexuality.

What immediately surfaced within the first few minutes of my interview with Sutton was a familiar reality for me: the difficulty that surrounds terminology and nomenclature within the non-heterosexual community. If you don’t currently identify as gay, bisexual, or lesbian then where do you stand? Even more intriguing to me was the question of how normative standards on this campus, and beyond this rural environment, foster a space for speech that is degrading to some.

This small clip is just the beginning in what I hope will be a continued conversation that tackles the necessary issue of creating a comfortable community for every student on campus. —Anthony Perez ’14