Kristina Boerger Oral History Part 1
Dublin Core
Title
Kristina Boerger Oral History Part 1
Subject
Activism (LGBTQ)
Activists (LGBTQ)
Civil rights (LGBTQ)
Lesbian Rights
Lesbian activism
Anti-gay discrimination
Anti-lesbian discrimination
Description
Kristina Boerger discusses the discrimination she faced on the basis of being a lesbian during a summer job while she was a student. Additionally, she talks of her involvement at U of I in both queer and mainstream culture
Creator
Kristina Boerger
Date
2021-04-16
Contributor
Liv Borawski
Rights
In Copyright
Format
.mp3
Language
English
Type
Sound
Coverage
Champaign, Illinois
Urbana, Illinois
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Duration
00:06:30
Transcription
Kristina Boeger: I'm Kristina Boeger and I was a student at U of I between 1983 and the year 2000, during which time I earned three different music degrees, I now professor in Coral Ensemble Studies at Oxford University Minneapolis, and I'm really honored to be included in this project. Um, I was deeply, deeply influenced by my years as a lesbian activist for several
causes while I was at U of I and I appreciate the effort to capture this history and learn from it and use it as we go forward.
Liv Borawski: Yes, awesome and I'm super duper excited, from what we learned yesterday, I like we can talk about it more but I'd love to talk about like university policy and also the idea of not talking about the history behind certain stuff that has been put in place at the university, but we'll get to that all in like this short amount of time. So, would you go ahead and just like
introduce yourself maybe talk about like the some of the big activism that you were part of at U of I and then if anything, things that caused that but just take it one step at a time, feel free to jump in whatever you want and if I have a question I'll just like raise my hand so you can see so that I can ask it well after you're done with your thought.
Boegers: Sure. Well, when I was 20 years old I had a summer job in a program with, at a program with a college in another state. And I was teaching a couple subjects in a summer program and really really really loved it, but four days before the end of my contract I was secretly removed from that environment, put on a bus to the nearest large city with no money in
my pocket and nowhere to go. Because you know it was discovered that they had an out lesbian teaching on their campus and that couldn't be. So now this was 1985, right. It was really a big trauma in my life it was extremely disruptive of my relationships with my family, with whom I had not yet been out, and I'm not going to go into all the emotional fallout of that but it was, it was a true crisis in what up to that point had been a life of a lot of privilege and happiness. So, this was my rude awakening to the big bad world you know, and I wanted to sue that college for discrimination because it was, I mean open and shut you know they had told me all summer they'd never had such an outstanding teacher. In fact, they had extended my contract. It was only supposed to go halfway through the summer and they begged me to stay on so it had nothing to
do with failing to carry out my duties to excellence. But that was when I learned that in this country that I had been raised to believe was the land of the free where there was liberty and justice for all. I mean I thought this is a slam dunk right but every attorney or organization that I called said to me, Well, you know, there's no, you don't have legal protections from
discrimination. It is legally protected that heterosexuals, anybody can treat you any way they want on the basis of your being a lesbian so you don't have a case and therefore we can't represent you. So I was, I mean, you know, there are a lot of people in the United States who knew well before they were 20 that this is not the land of the free and the home of the brave, with
liberty and justice for all. Like I said, I had a background that shielded me from that understanding, so this was earth shattering, and I was in such pain and rage about it and I thought you know my only way out of this with my mental health is going to be. I'm going to make sure that these conditions change in this country so soon as I got back to the U of I, I took a look at
the policies there to make sure that these protections existed and if they did not, I made myself a vow I said I'm going to make sure that this happens on my watch and I'm not leaving until it happens and if I finish my degree, I'll just stay and keep going until it happens. And to make a long story short I did, as a leader in that effort. Obviously, nobody does that alone so they were just so many glorious people who were, you know, my co-activists and teachers and agitators and laborers in that struggle. The successful result was achieved in 1987. In that time, I, you know, had the brains and the empathy to realize that if I'm not getting a fair shake as a citizen in the US, and this is a systemic problem, probably there are other populations who are suffering, not because they just couldn't figure out how to do better, but because the deck is stacked against them. So, that, that incident in my life really radicalized me to a 360 degree view. And so I was really, I learned so much and was so privileged to be part of a whole group of student activists who were concerned with a number of things. Most saliently at that time, I was working in coalition with activists from the Divest Now Coalition. The University of Illinois still had investments in corporations in apartheid South Africa. So, corporations that were getting rich off, you know, essentially, some, you know, near slavery conditions in a country where their labors had absolutely no rights, etc. And so time was really ripe globally, certainly nationally, as a movement to really put the pressure on to pull those dollars out of South Africa by way of changing that government, ending apartheid. And so I was involved with that group. And, you know, doing a lot of studying and about racism in the United States. I was also involved w/ the People's Alliance on Central America and learn so much about covert US corporate and military interventions in and distractions of community life in the, the in Latin America. And, you know, a number of other a number of other efforts. And so that was, that was an incredibly formative time for me. And I want to say that I've always been tremendously disappointed with any white people who are not heteronormative who have had the opportunity smacked in their face to see that we have some systemic problems with injustice in this country and whose focus remains with like, you know, white queer culture, and who do not extend themselves also to learn about and work against other systemic oppressions but that has certainly been the life that I came, into thanks to that terrible crisis in my personal life in 1985.
causes while I was at U of I and I appreciate the effort to capture this history and learn from it and use it as we go forward.
Liv Borawski: Yes, awesome and I'm super duper excited, from what we learned yesterday, I like we can talk about it more but I'd love to talk about like university policy and also the idea of not talking about the history behind certain stuff that has been put in place at the university, but we'll get to that all in like this short amount of time. So, would you go ahead and just like
introduce yourself maybe talk about like the some of the big activism that you were part of at U of I and then if anything, things that caused that but just take it one step at a time, feel free to jump in whatever you want and if I have a question I'll just like raise my hand so you can see so that I can ask it well after you're done with your thought.
Boegers: Sure. Well, when I was 20 years old I had a summer job in a program with, at a program with a college in another state. And I was teaching a couple subjects in a summer program and really really really loved it, but four days before the end of my contract I was secretly removed from that environment, put on a bus to the nearest large city with no money in
my pocket and nowhere to go. Because you know it was discovered that they had an out lesbian teaching on their campus and that couldn't be. So now this was 1985, right. It was really a big trauma in my life it was extremely disruptive of my relationships with my family, with whom I had not yet been out, and I'm not going to go into all the emotional fallout of that but it was, it was a true crisis in what up to that point had been a life of a lot of privilege and happiness. So, this was my rude awakening to the big bad world you know, and I wanted to sue that college for discrimination because it was, I mean open and shut you know they had told me all summer they'd never had such an outstanding teacher. In fact, they had extended my contract. It was only supposed to go halfway through the summer and they begged me to stay on so it had nothing to
do with failing to carry out my duties to excellence. But that was when I learned that in this country that I had been raised to believe was the land of the free where there was liberty and justice for all. I mean I thought this is a slam dunk right but every attorney or organization that I called said to me, Well, you know, there's no, you don't have legal protections from
discrimination. It is legally protected that heterosexuals, anybody can treat you any way they want on the basis of your being a lesbian so you don't have a case and therefore we can't represent you. So I was, I mean, you know, there are a lot of people in the United States who knew well before they were 20 that this is not the land of the free and the home of the brave, with
liberty and justice for all. Like I said, I had a background that shielded me from that understanding, so this was earth shattering, and I was in such pain and rage about it and I thought you know my only way out of this with my mental health is going to be. I'm going to make sure that these conditions change in this country so soon as I got back to the U of I, I took a look at
the policies there to make sure that these protections existed and if they did not, I made myself a vow I said I'm going to make sure that this happens on my watch and I'm not leaving until it happens and if I finish my degree, I'll just stay and keep going until it happens. And to make a long story short I did, as a leader in that effort. Obviously, nobody does that alone so they were just so many glorious people who were, you know, my co-activists and teachers and agitators and laborers in that struggle. The successful result was achieved in 1987. In that time, I, you know, had the brains and the empathy to realize that if I'm not getting a fair shake as a citizen in the US, and this is a systemic problem, probably there are other populations who are suffering, not because they just couldn't figure out how to do better, but because the deck is stacked against them. So, that, that incident in my life really radicalized me to a 360 degree view. And so I was really, I learned so much and was so privileged to be part of a whole group of student activists who were concerned with a number of things. Most saliently at that time, I was working in coalition with activists from the Divest Now Coalition. The University of Illinois still had investments in corporations in apartheid South Africa. So, corporations that were getting rich off, you know, essentially, some, you know, near slavery conditions in a country where their labors had absolutely no rights, etc. And so time was really ripe globally, certainly nationally, as a movement to really put the pressure on to pull those dollars out of South Africa by way of changing that government, ending apartheid. And so I was involved with that group. And, you know, doing a lot of studying and about racism in the United States. I was also involved w/ the People's Alliance on Central America and learn so much about covert US corporate and military interventions in and distractions of community life in the, the in Latin America. And, you know, a number of other a number of other efforts. And so that was, that was an incredibly formative time for me. And I want to say that I've always been tremendously disappointed with any white people who are not heteronormative who have had the opportunity smacked in their face to see that we have some systemic problems with injustice in this country and whose focus remains with like, you know, white queer culture, and who do not extend themselves also to learn about and work against other systemic oppressions but that has certainly been the life that I came, into thanks to that terrible crisis in my personal life in 1985.
Interviewer
Liv Borawski
Interviewee
Kristina Boerger
Location
Virtual
Citation
Kristina Boerger, “Kristina Boerger Oral History Part 1,” Omeka, accessed May 18, 2024, https://historyharvest.web.illinois.edu/omeka/items/show/251.