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Date:  Wed, 2 Oct 2002 20:03:19 -0700 (PDT)

From:  "Sean Smith" <[email protected]>

Subject:  have you ever heard of ... ?

To:  [email protected]

I have a question for you.

Have you ever heard of a gay professor of physics?  How about a gay professor of chemistry?  Or math?  Or any hard science?

I haven't.  I was an undergradate in the physics department at UC San Diego (where I received my BS) and later a graduate student in the physics departments at San Francisco State and UC Irvine (where I received my MS) and then in the math department at UC Irvine.  So the fact I've never heard of any gay professors in these fields -- not a single one -- seems very odd.  This is exactly the sort of thing students, faculty, and staff would tend to gossip about.  And a gay professor would be unlikely to choose to remain closeted (and I'm not sure he/she would be able to keep it secret anyway).

So I suspect there are almost no gay professors in these fields, especially at research universities.  Wouldn't it be interesting to reseach the demographics of professors in the hard sciences, and see whether this is really the case?  I did a quick search (I spent maybe 10 minutes) on Melvyl for books that might have statistics on sexual orientation of those in academia and didn't find anything.  But the statistics may have been collected and be available somewhere.

Now ... what would it mean if  the percentage of gay professors (or for that matter, advanced graduate students and Ph.D. recipients) in these fields really is much smaller than in the general population?

Is there less interest in the hard sciences among gay students?  Or do gay students tend to lack aptitude in these areas?  I suppose that is possible.  Even if these are contributing factors, I don't think they are enough to explain (what I am assuming is) the glaring discrepancy between the percentage of gay scientists in these fields and the overall population.

Are gay students being impeded because scientists in these fields are prejudiced against homosexuals?  I find that to be extremely unlikely.  I have been in the physics and math departments in three different universities.  I saw little or no evidence of any anti-gay bias among the faculty.

So I finally come to my main point.  I have a conspiracy theory to sale you.  The US military and/or intellgence community has a virtual veto power over who is permitted to complete an advanced degree in many academic fields. 

Is this hard for you to believe?  It is, to some extent, an acknowledged fact among those who make it to the Ph.D. candidate level and beyond at research universities.  If you know any graduate students here at UC Berkeley, you can ask them.  I myself know of a first year graduate student here who, as an undergraduate, had a friend who noticed he was being "checked out" by two men claiming to be FBI agents.  I had a boss years back who had a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in forensic science and who had similar experiences.  And I have experienced this myself.

Why would the US military and/or intellgence communities be exercising such a veto power?  Possibly to avoid advanced training in these fields being given to those with criminal intent, or to those who are psychologically unstable, or to those who would in some way undermine US interests.  I'm not sure, but this seems like a plausible motive.

The US military hates fags (at least, large portions of the military do).  So does it worry you that military intelligence agents may be deciding which students will be blocked from advanced study at our universities?

I had some very serious problems before I left UC Irvine in February -- I was harassed and evenly physically harmed by federal agents of some sort.  From things I overheard, were said to me, taunts, etc, I know that being gay in and of itself was considered to be a mental illness by those who were harassing me.  The Dr. Barbara Schlessinger school of thought, you might say.  Actually if anything I should be called bisexual, but that is beside the point.  I think the fact I'm not straight has greatly contributed to the difficulties I've experienced.

I would really like to meet someone from your organization to talk about this.  My own experiences at UC Irvine were horrible.  I think current undergraduates in these fields are at risk.  If I met with someone, I could explain in more detail exactly how they may be at risk -- and you could get an idea as to whether I'm plainly nuts or if there is a chance you should take what I'm saying seriously.

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