McKelvy House Invites Campus to Dinner Discussion on Bisexuality Issues Sunday

The McKelvy House Scholars will host a dinner discussion Sunday evening on issues related to bisexuality.

Dinner will begin 6 p.m. at McKelvy House, 200 High Street; RSVP by Saturday to rotha or x4033. Led by Amanda Roth ’04 (Easton, Pa.), a double major in philosophy and Women’s Studies and Marquis Scholar, the discussion will start at 6:30 p.m. and requires no reservations.

“We’ve been hearing more and more lately about ‘gay’ rights, ‘same-sex’ marriage, etc., but these terms obscure the fact that those deviating from the heterosexual norm are a pretty diverse group who don’t easily fit within any one label,” says Roth. “A lot of that diversity falls within the ‘B’ in GLBT — gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender”

Two popular views regarding bisexuality are that it doesn’t exist or that everyone is really bisexual, notes Roth.

“But even while it seems people aren’t sure whether anyone or everyone is bisexual, those who identify as bisexual face prejudice,” she says. “Some studies have found that bisexuals are looked down upon more so than gays or lesbians, and many bisexuals report finding that prejudice comes from within the GLBT community.”

Roth is an organizer of this year’s Association for Lafayette Women production of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, which will be presented 7:30 p.m. March 5-6 in the Farinon Center’s Marlo Room. She also was a creator of last semester’s We Were Pioneers, an original play telling the story of Lafayette’s transition to coeducation, which was based on an EXCEL Scholars project led by Special Collections assistant Kristen Turner and Diane Shaw, Special Collections librarian and college archivist. In a previous EXCEL project with Deborah Byrd, associate professor of English, Roth provided groundwork for research on orphans in British fiction and nonfiction writing.

She is a recipient of the Eugene P. Chase Government Prize, awarded annually to the student who has submitted the best written exposition in the field of political science during the academic year. Roth was one of six Lafayette student presenters at the ninth annual Undergraduate Women’s Studies Conference, which was hosted by Lafayette and sponsored by the Women’s Studies Coalition of the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges.

Since 1962, the McKelvy House Scholars program has brought together Lafayette students with a wide range of majors and interests to reside in a historic off-campus house and share in intellectual and social activities. Weekly Sunday dinner discussions that engage the students in debate and exchange of ideas are the hallmark of the program. Most members also contribute to the annual McKelvy Papers, written on a topic of each person’s choice. McKelvy Scholars participate in activities together such as field trips to plays, concerts, and exhibits, and sponsor events for the campus as well.

Past discussions:
Dec. 7 — Anger and frustration toward computers and technology
Nov. 9 — “Unnecessary” crimes
Nov. 2 — Genetic alteration
Oct. 26 — Social construction of gender
Oct. 19 — Greed as an economic force
Sept. 28 — Value