Harvard. Such an environment includes a safe social space for closeted students, an atmosphere of acceptance throughout the College for those who decide to come out, a set of social opportunities for students to meet other students and educational events designed to inform both the community at large and BOND members about issues facing those who are not "straight" or those who are transgender.
BOND is intended to be a safe place in which sexual orientation is no longer a barrier to social interaction. The degree to which persons choose to emphasize sexual orientation--whether for intimate pursuits or for purposes of political action--also varies from person to person.
BOND as an entity does not claim to speak for its members in national political matters, nor does it do so for segments of the larger community. These vital functions we leave to other organizations.
It is our goal to create a more considerate environment at Harvard. To have achieved a "considerate environment" is to have accomplished the following:
·Awareness in the general community that there is diversity in opinion and behavior among those who are not exclusively heterosexual and/or transgender.
·Satisfaction among members that there is diversity in opinion and behavior among other students who are not exclusively heterosexual and/or transgender.
·An understanding that the "acceptability" of one's interpersonal attractions is not something that can or ought to be debated.
·A place in which the act of pursuing intimacy requires neither hiding nor proclamation.