04-30-2013, 03:33 PM
An odd concept, I suspect it is true only if you define "out" in a very specific manner.
Back in those days it would have been rather hard to get an accurate census style count on anything from that class. The Froshbook definitely did not have that kind of detail, and that would have been the go to source for most things.
In theory, perhaps 2 members of the class noted their sexual orientation in their application and/or dorm roommate guides. Hard to imagine anyone that had access to either of those sources would then go around and claim numbers.
However, I think there is another place where you could get a tally. When I was on campus I believe there was some type of LGBT club, similar to the HAPA club and other groups. Perhaps there were only two freshmen in that club at the start of the year? THAT is something I could believe.
I could also imagine that the Daily requested that Freshman call members that were part of the LGBT community contact the Stanford Daily for a piece on living as LGBT on campus. And then "2" corresponds to the number that actually contacted the Daily.
I would imagine that many more people in the class were "out", but were not eager to run around to the Stanford Daily to talk about their sexual orientation.
As a member of the class of 1993, my sophomore roommate was gay. I don't believe he was "out" they way Maddow describes, but I also don't think many of us thought much about it. However, most in the dorms we lived in would not have had any problem guessing he was gay. I doubt he was 1 of 2 in my class. That's for sure.
My guess is that she will send out a clarification on her count methodology soon enough, as I suspect more than 2 people from that class will tell her she is incorrect. If you think about it, any openly gay couple would drive that number to 3, so my guess is many could refute that estimation immediately.
Back in those days it would have been rather hard to get an accurate census style count on anything from that class. The Froshbook definitely did not have that kind of detail, and that would have been the go to source for most things.
In theory, perhaps 2 members of the class noted their sexual orientation in their application and/or dorm roommate guides. Hard to imagine anyone that had access to either of those sources would then go around and claim numbers.
However, I think there is another place where you could get a tally. When I was on campus I believe there was some type of LGBT club, similar to the HAPA club and other groups. Perhaps there were only two freshmen in that club at the start of the year? THAT is something I could believe.
I could also imagine that the Daily requested that Freshman call members that were part of the LGBT community contact the Stanford Daily for a piece on living as LGBT on campus. And then "2" corresponds to the number that actually contacted the Daily.
I would imagine that many more people in the class were "out", but were not eager to run around to the Stanford Daily to talk about their sexual orientation.
As a member of the class of 1993, my sophomore roommate was gay. I don't believe he was "out" they way Maddow describes, but I also don't think many of us thought much about it. However, most in the dorms we lived in would not have had any problem guessing he was gay. I doubt he was 1 of 2 in my class. That's for sure.
My guess is that she will send out a clarification on her count methodology soon enough, as I suspect more than 2 people from that class will tell her she is incorrect. If you think about it, any openly gay couple would drive that number to 3, so my guess is many could refute that estimation immediately.