BOSTON, MA — Dozens of students, faculty, and staff from the Harvard community rallied on campus Feb. 29 to call on the University to award honorary degrees to seven students who were persecuted and expelled in 1920. The students were targeted by a University-sanctioned body known as the "Secret Court," which targeted students who were gay or perceived to be gay.
At the rally, which took place outside an event hosted by Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey to launch the Born This Way Foundation, demonstrators presented more than 5,000 signatures from a popular online petition on Change.org to Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, urging her to award these expelled students honorary degrees.
Kaia Stern, director of the Prison Studies Project at Harvard University, started the petition on Change.org to support the work of Their Day in the Yard, a movement that launched on Harvard's campus in 2010 to call attention to the "Secret Court" and to seek justice for the Court's student victims.
"It's time for the Harvard community to come together and recognize that what happened to these seven students in 1920 is not only an injustice, but a historical wrong that must be remedied," said Stern. "These seven students deserve honorary degrees as a measure of justice for what was done to them by the Secret Court."
Harvard's "Secret Court" was initially exposed in 2002 after a reporter from Harvard's student newspaper, The Crimson, found archived materials about the Court's actions. Though Harvard has apologized for the "Secret Court's" targeting of students who were gay or perceived to be gay, none of the students persecuted or expelled have been awarded honorary degrees from the University, despite the fact that several of the students were very close to graduating.
Live signature totals from Kaia Stern's campaign (including comments from Harvard alums, students, faculty, and staff):
http://www.change.org/petitions/harvard-university-please-abolish-the-anti-gay-secret-court-of-1920-and-grant-posthumous-honorary-degrees-to-the-seven-student-victims
Media coverage of Kaia Stern's campaign:
Associated Press ("Harvard Group Seeks Degrees for Gays Expelled"):
http://hosted2.ap.org/OREUG/f7ded15e4d4846268a17b79c1c4b7cb8/Article_2012-02-28-Harvard-Gays%20Expelled/id-311aecd72e6e44229db5cf2c0237a093
Bloomberg ("Harvard Group Wants Degrees for Gays Expelled in 1920"):
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-28/harvard-group-wants-degrees-for-gay-students-expelled-in-1920.html
