Mark Handel Papers,1989-1995

Graduate of Webb School of Knoxville (Tennessee) 1991, and Cornell University 1995.

Diary, posters, a high school yearbook, and other material pertaining to Handel's involvement in the political and cultural expression of gay sexuality and coming out. Diary (1989-1991) includes writings on coming out to friends; also, notes about computer programming, photographs, and drawings. Posters created using the pseudonym "Auntie Ezra," a cultural guerilla group "out to annoy right-to-lifers and the 'radical wrong'" through campus postering. "Auntie Ezra's Queer Elements" was put up November to December 1992, with an emphasis on the Engineering and Arts quads. Layout and photography by Handel for "Outrageous" (spring 1995) a Cornell literary journal for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people. Webb School yearbook (1991) co-edited by Handel: his comments including vague reference to being gay and a senior quote ("And yes I am...") were censored by the school. In his editor's notes he wrote that he hoped his efforts would make things easier for future students like him; this was also censored when the school blacked out those comments and pasted over a revised version with Handel's comments. Includes a copy of "Query: Tennessee's Lesbian and Gay Newsweekly" and an article on the controversy.

Includes handbook and ephemera from the Boston-New York AIDS ride (September 15-17, 1995).

Collecting program: Human Sexuality Collection.