Daniela Wise-Rojas, Class of 2025, Government

Pictured in the gallery below (click to zoom in) is a written record of graffiti on Cornell’s campus from April 1990 and 1991. Both sides include different unfiltered graffiti transcripts from separate locations on campus. Dated April 4, 1990, the first side depicts graffiti “chalked in front of Willard Straight Hall and the campus bookstore,” with lines such as “GAY FRAT MEMBER” and “QUEER AND PRESENT DANGER.” Dated April 8, 1991, the second side depicts graffiti chalked “between Willard Straight Hall and Triphammer Bridge,” with lines such as “GIRLS KI$$ GIRLS,” “BI ALL MEANS,” and “HOMOPHOBIA IS FOR THE DWEEBS.”

Although people never documented the design and color of the graffiti writings, the content, sites, and dates were. It is unclear who contributed to the graffiti and who took the time to document these records. Nevertheless, these portray an image of Cornell’s cisgender and heteronormative canon of academia being slowly overshadowed and defeated by people within the LGBT community when gay marriage wasn’t legal in NY state or the USA. According to Women’s and Gender Studies Lecturer at Rutgers University, Tara Burk, a “new generation of lesbian street artists” in the 1990s, were creating “works that touched upon both political issues and sexuality.” Such was a medium for LGBT people to “create symbols” and statements to “designate their identity in public.” Gay activists on campus used graffiti as a medium for communication and expressing political sentiments. Cornell activists were attempting to set a new precedent; that pretending LGBT people don’t exist on campus is a signal for LGBT people to make their existence boldly known. Furthermore, humorous and sometimes relatable lines of graffiti appeal to the humanity of LGBT individuals; people in the community have a sense of humor and expression, too, like their straight counterparts.

Source

April Cornell Graffiti Records, Michael J. Ellis Papers, April 4 1990, April 8 1991. Human and Sexuality Collection, #7615, Box 1, Folder 1-8, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, ID#125754

https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM07615.html

Bibliography

Burk, Tara. “Graffiti and Graphic Art.” In Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History, edited by Howard Chiang, Anjali Arondekar, Marc Epprecht, Jennifer Evans, Ross G. Forman, Hanadi Al-Samman, Emily Skidmore, and Zeb Tortorici, 618-623. Vol. 2. Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019. Gale eBooks (accessed October 2, 2021). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3662300152/GVRL?u=cornell&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=4c265248.