Karla Jay

I think I'd have a love/hate relationship with Karla Jay, were she my professor. As a Distinguished Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at Pace University, and the author of books like The Gay Report: Lesbians and Gay Men Speak Out about Sexual Experiences and Lifestyles and The Amazon and the Page: Natalie Clifford Barney and Renée Vivien, I have no doubts that she is my superior. She was writing about living as an out lesbian before I was born, so my respect for her is a given.

However, Karla Jay assumes that my generation is ungrateful. This isn't the first I've heard of this, but she does put her complaint quite eloquently in the current issue of In These Times. In an open letter to her students (and, presumably, young people everywhere), she writes: