Higher Education LGBT Articles Digest #123
1. BOSTON GLOBE Teen attacked in
connection with Day of Silence observance is released from hospital
2. NEW HAVEN REGISTER Spawn of Phelps announce picket at Yale
3. SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGIAN Letter from jerk who
is "heterosexist and proud of it"
4. ASSOCIATED PRESS Body in Charles River is identified as
missing Boston University professor John Daviero
5. BOSTON GLOBE Article from 04-06-03 wondering what happened to
Daviero; specifies that he was openly gay
6. NEW HAVEN REGISTER Yale students take advantage of Phelps
counter protest to stage an oral hygiene campaign, complete with "God
Hates Plaque" signs
7. NEPONSET VALLEY DAILY NEWS TRANSCRIPT (Massachusetts) Based
on nothing more than wishful thinking, school official denies that beating of
female student had anything to do with her participation in Day of Silence
[more on #1 above]
8. STANFORD DAILY Queer awareness days begin today
9. THE STUDENT PRINTZ (University of Southern Mississippi)
Column: Bigotry is common on USM's campus
10. CONCORD JOURNAL (Massachusetts) Answers sought in
16-year-old's assault; School principal is still extremely defensive about
suggestions that the attack could have something to do with student's
participation in Day of Silence
11. VANCOUVER SUN (British Columbia) B.C. College of
Teachers suspends teacher's teaching certificate for one month as punishment
for letters he wrote to the local newspaper criticizing homosexuality
12. THE ITHACAN Gay pride flag was stolen for the second time
in the three years it has flown on campus for celebration of Gaypril
13. NEW YORK TIMES Certain Words Can Trip Up AIDS Grants,
Scientists Say
14. YALE HERALD Challenges rouse gay community at Yale;
Students respond to Phelps incursion, domestic partnerships furor
15. PITT NEWS (University of Pittsburgh) Straight women's and
lesbians health compared in study
16. NEWARK ADVOCATE (Ohio) Denison University and Village of
Granville awaits visit from the Phelps fairies
17. BOSTON GLOBE Catholic Boston College grants grudging
acceptance of gay-straight alliance but without that pesky name
#1
Boston Globe, April 14, 2003
Box 2378, Boston, MA, 02107
(Fax: 617-929-2098 ) (E-Mail: letter@globe.com )
( http://www.boston.com/globe )
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/104/metro/Attacked_teen_is_released_from_hospital+.shtml
ATTACKED TEEN IS RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff
The Concord High School student who was
found beaten and unconscious
Thursday was well enough yesterday to be allowed to come home from the
hospital, her father said.
''She is still pretty dinged up, her lips
are still swollen,'' Carl
Meuse said of his 16-year-old daughter, Caitlin. ''But a lot of the
swelling has gone down.''
Caitlin Meuse was released from Boston
Medical Center about noon
after being treated for a head injury, missing front teeth, a fractured
nose, deep cuts, and severe facial swelling. She spent two days in
intensive care after neighbors found her bleeding and unconscious on the
sidewalk just outside the family's Prescott Street home Thursday night.
She felt well enough yesterday to go out
and visit a friend, but her
father said she still has memory lapses - including about the attack - and
that she is ''still coming to grips with it.'' Police said Meuse was
struck
on the head and face, possibly with a baseball bat. ''She keeps saying,
'This isn't right, this isn't right,''' her father said.
Local police and prosecutors said there
were no new developments in
the ongoing investigation into the attack.
Carl Meuse said Concord Police
investigators told him yesterday that
they are pursuing ''several scenarios'' of the attack, including checking on
a possible link to a heated exchange Meuse had with a schoolmate on
Wednesday.
That was when Meuse joined a group of
students in a ''Day of
Silence,'' an annual event at schools nationwide in which participants
refrain from talking throughout the day to promote tolerance of gay,
lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students. A female student shouted
derogatory comments at a group of students that included Meuse, who reacted
by approaching the girl silently and writing her a note, witnesses said.
Meuse's message was not known, but the girl allegedly retaliated by calling
Meuse a lesbian.
Meuse is not a lesbian, but is
''open-minded'' and supports civil
rights for gays and lesbians, family members said.
#2
New Haven Register, April 14, 2003
Long Wharf-40 Sargent Dr., New Haven, CT, 06511
(Fax: 203-865-7894 ) (E-Mail: letters@nhregister.com )
( http://www.ctcentral.com/ )
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7704855&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=7576&rfi=6
GAY-HATING PASTOR TO VISIT YALE
By William Kaempffer, Register Staff
A Kansas minister who travels the country
denouncing homosexuality
plans to visit New Haven today to protest the "institutionalized
perversion"
at Yale University.
Pastor Fred Phelps, 73, who once shouted
epithets at the funeral of a
murdered gay man, is expected to bring roughly 10 supporters for a 30-minute
picket at 9:30 a.m. at College and Elm streets.
Phelps, the pastor of Westboro Baptist
Church, also plans to protest
several churches in Hartford and Southington, which his church called
"sodomite whorehouses," as well as the state Capitol and University
of
Hartford.
"The universities are bastions of
filth these days. You can't hardly
scratch the surface," Shirley Phelps-Roper said. She is one of
Phelps'
daughters and an attorney for the church "They need to be reminded that
there is a hell and there is a judgment."
Phelps-Roper said her father was not
available for comment but said
she could answer questions about the church.
Gay advocacy organizations and others
that preach tolerance called
Phelps' church one of the most virulent anti-gay organizations and the
shock-jock of homophobia.
Lorri Jean, executive director of the
National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force, said Phelps' vocal beliefs are some of the most venomous she's
encountered.
"There are rarely people who I think
are evil. He is evil," she said.
The church has conducted roughly 22,000
pickets since 1991, traveling
the country to promote Phelps' beliefs.
Next month, the group plans to picket a
memorial service for Fred
Rogers, the host of the popular children's show "Mr. Rogers'
Neighborhood"
in Pittsburgh. They considered Rogers an "evil man" and the
show a "satanic
ministry" that was "predicated on lies."
Phelps and his supporters are perhaps
best known for picketing and
shouting epithets during the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the University of
Wyoming student who was murdered in 1998 because he was gay.
"His people were there as the casket
was being brought into the
church. They were screaming at the family, 'Matthew is a fag,' 'Matthew
is
in Hell now,'" said Mike Collins, a board member of Bridges LGBT, a
community organization for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered
people in Connecticut. "As the casket was being brought into the
church.
Can you imagine?"
Yale undergraduate Cyd Cipolla, liaison
at the LGBT Cooperative at
Yale, said people shouldn't be surprised by Phelps' decision to visit Yale.
Despite a conservative reputation of
"old stodgy, old blue," she
said, Yale is quite progressive in its opportunities for gay students and
employees - and a natural target for Phelps' church.
She said her organization has planned no
counter-protest and has been
urging people to ignore Phelps' presence entirely.
"This guy is crazy. It's not
worth it. Do something else with your
time," she said.
A Yale spokesman did not return a request
for comment.
The Anti-Defamation League, which
monitors organizations that it
identifies as hate groups, said Phelps' church is comprised of a dozen or so
people, mostly family and extended family of the pastor.
Jean, of the gay and lesbian task force,
said the church is small and
shunned even by conservative groups. But their beliefs are so
outrageous,
she said, that it makes other condemnable, anti-gay messages look almost
moderate.
"He is so extreme that he moves the
anti-gay continuum in a way that
makes it permissible to be more anti-gay than would be the case without
him," Jean said. "This man has no constituency; his church is
largely his
family. He has a few others who are involved with him."
But the church members are also a group
of savvy, professional
protesters who know their rights down to local laws regulating the
dimensions of the signs, their adversaries acknowledge.
And, as a family of lawyers, they're
quick to sue, their opponents say.
. William Kaempffer can be reached at
wkaempffer@nhregister.com,
789-5727.
#3
South Dakota State University Collegian, April 8, 2003
Box 2815, Brookings SD 57007
(Fax: 605-688-6165 ) (E-Mail: wcol@sdsumus.sdstate.edu )
LETTER: HETEROSEXISM IS OKAY
I am a heterosexist and I am proud of it!
According to an article in the March 18
issue, heterosexists are
individuals who "believe sexual love between members of the opposite sex
is
the only acceptable option in society." That describes me.
Contrary to
many of the statements in these articles, my beliefs do not come out of
ignorance, hatred, narrow mindedness or small mindedness.
Sex is a gift from God and is intended
for a man and a woman to enjoy
together. The Bible is very precise on the issue of homosexuality, and
says
that it is wrong. Most other major global religions say this as well.
I am firmly opposed to emotional, verbal
and physical violence
against anyone, including homosexuals. I choose not to associate with
homosexuals, not out of fear, but because I am morally opposed to their
lifestyle.
I would also like to comment on the
"fact" that was printed in the
second article that stated many homophobes are opposed to homosexuality due
to their own repressed sexual attraction to members of the same sex.
For this reasoning to have any merit, it
must also hold true for any
issue that an individual may disapprove of on a moral basis.
These reasons would say that anyone who
is disgusted by pedophiles is
actually fighting their own repressed feelings to go have sex with an
eight-year-old boy. How about those who disapprove of bestiality, incest
and polygamy? Do all of them deep down want to have sex with a sheep and
their dad on their way home to their 13 spouses?
Homosexuality is a choice. It is a
choice that is guaranteed and
protected in this great nation of ours, but so is heterosexuality and this
is the choice that I choose.
One of these choices is wrong and it sure
is not mine.
- Jared Olson, Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Faribault, Minn.
#4
Associated Press, April 15, 2003
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/105/region/Body_in_Charles_River_identifi:.shtml
BODY IN CHARLES RIVER IDENTIFIED AS MISSING BOSTON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR [JOHN
DAVERIO]
By Martin Finucane
BOSTON (AP) - A body found floating in
the Charles River was
identified Tuesday as John Daverio, a Boston University professor whose
disappearance a month ago baffled investigators and the university
community.
Daverio, whose body was found Monday by
the BU rowing team, had
drowned, said Emily LaGrassa, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex County
district attorney's office. She said Daverio was identified using dental
records.
While an autopsy determined the cause of
death was drowning, the
circumstances of Daverio's death were still unknown, LaGrassa said.
Boston Police Capt. William Evans said
there were no signs of trauma
to the body, and investigators did not suspect foul play. Evans said
police
were looking at the possibility that Daverio fell in the river by accident
or committed suicide.
Daverio's body was discovered by the crew
team around 7:30 p.m.
Monday, police said. It appeared he was wearing the same clothes he had
on
the night of his disappearance, according to police.
Daverio, a Boston University School of
Music professor, was last seen
on March 16 around 8:40 p.m., heading out of the College of Fine Arts
building where his office was located. The BU Bridge, which spans the
Charles River, is just a block from the building and police believe he
walked in that direction.
A surveillance camera caught him leaving
the building, carrying a
white plastic bag with a rectangular object inside that police believe was a
book.
The body was found just a short distance
downstream from the bridge.
The bag was not recovered.
Daverio had arrived at the school as a
student 32 years ago and had
spent the past 20 years on the faculty, university officials said. He
was
chairman of the department of musicology.
Daverio, 49, was one of the world's
leading scholars on the work of
composer Robert Schumann. He recently published a book called
"Crossing
Paths: Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms," which explored the link between
art
and life in the work of the three musicians.
University officials praised Daverio as a
renowned scholar.
"He was a distinguished,
provocative, fine, scintillating teacher,"
said Andre de Quadros, Director of the School of Music at the College of
Fine Arts.
College of Fine Arts Dean Walter Meissner
said Daverio was a "truly
remarkable human being" and the university community found the news of
his
death "shocking and devastating."
Elizabeth Seitz, a fellow music professor
who had been Daverio's
friend for 18 years, said Tuesday that he was "just the greatest guy,
sweet,
funny and intelligent and just always there" for his friends.
While officials have noted that Daverio
was deeply concerned about
his elderly and ailing parents, who live in Pennsylvania, Seitz rejected the
theory that he may have committed suicide.
"There's just no way. He was
too involved with work. He had too
many things going on. He was doing well. He was at the peak of his
career.
... He was always busy, had a million friends. And everyone
universally
respected and liked him."
Nancy Ackerman of Concord, a former
student, said, "He was probably
my favorite professor of all in Boston University. He was an incredibly
brilliant man. He was articulate. He was kind. He was fair
and just a
really nice person."
Jane Fitzgerald of Rutland, also a friend
and former student, said,
"It's a huge loss for a lot of people."
Schumann, the composer Daverio had
studied and written about
extensively, attempted to kill himself by throwing himself in the Rhine in
1854. He died two years later.
BU Police Capt. Robert Molloy said
investigators were aware of the
coincidence, but didn't think it played a role in Daverio's disappearance.
Someone left a bouquet of flowers outside
Daverio's office in the
College of Fine Arts building. A yellow ribbon was draped on the door
with
a handwritten message: "Return to Safety, Johnny D."
Exactly what did happen to Daverio may
never be known, Molloy said.
#5
Boston Globe, April 6, 2003
Box 2378, Boston, MA, 02107
(Fax: 617-929-2098 ) (E-Mail: letter@globe.com )
( http://www.boston.com/globe )
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/096/city/At_BU_a_guiding_light_a_troubling
_absenceP.shtml
AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY, A GUIDING LIGHT, A TROUBLING ABSENCE [JOHN DAVERIO]
By Johnny Diaz, Globe Staff
Three professors pick up his classload.
His office remains intact.
Fliers picturing John Daverio blanket the one-mile stretch between his
Boston University office and his Allston apartment.
Daverio's friends and colleagues can't
understand how the popular
Boston University musicology professor walked out of his office and out of
their lives - without a word.
The last reported sighting of Daverio on
campus owes to an overhead
surveillance camera. It shows Daverio carrying a white bag leaving his
Commonwealth Avenue office between 8:40 and 9 p.m. March 16.
Also left behind at BU: his wallet,
license, credit cards, and
briefcase.
Daverio hasn't been heard from since.
That is out of character for a
professor known to his friends as a creature of habit. The disappearance
left university officials with complicated challenges: Who covers
Daverio's
classes during his indefinite absence, how to avoid referring to him in the
past tense, and what to tell his devoted and yet curious students?
''They have been told the absolute
unvarnished truth,'' said Ellen
Carr, a spokeswoman for BU's College of Fine Arts.
''He was here, he walked out of the
building on a Sunday night and
was never seen again,'' said professor Andre de Quadros, director of the
school of music at BU. ''There are no other facts to tell them.''
Daverio's disappearance has also become a
challenge for Boston
University police. Detectives say they are having trouble finding anyone
who has an unkind word to say about the professor, and they have little to
go on. They are not sure they are dealing with foul play. They
combed the
campus, including the Charles River bank, dispatched search dogs to sniff
through BU's hallways and checked his home. Nothing.
''He could have walked away,'' said
detective Patrick Nuzzi of Boston
University police, ''but that would be out of character for him. He is
still classified as a missing person.''
Until word arrives of Daverio's
whereabouts, the school and his
friends are picking up where he left off, keeping his spirit alive and his
affairs in order. De Quadros, for one, coordinates weekly gatherings for
staff and students to ''share'' their thoughts on how their professor
remains gone without a trace.
About 25 people turned out at a recent
gathering at the school's
Marsh Chapel. They reflected on the man with the dry sense of humor, the
man who would never break an appointment, the man whose passion for
musicology has established him as one of the world's leading scholars on the
work of composer Robert Schumann.
Among Daverio's more notable
achievements: the American
Musicological Society's Alfred Einstein prize in 1988 for scholarly writing
and the release of a book he published last year called ''Crossing Paths:
Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms.''
Daverio, the chairman of BU's musicology
department, also wrote book
reviews and critiques on musicology and gay studies as well.
At the end of a 1994 review in Current
Musicology magazine, Daverio
outed himself, acknowledging he was gay, said Elizabeth Seitz, a friend of
Daverio's for 17 years and a fellow musicology professor.
In the article, he wrote that as a gay
Italian-American musicologist,
he at first wondered if he was betraying his background by concentrating on
a straight, Germanic composer like Schumann. ''I intend neither to be
flippant, nor to allow my epilogue to degenerate into a Personals Ad, but
only to say that I am a long way from resolving these questions.''
Seitz, a fellow musicology professor,
didn't think Daverio had been
seeing anyone lately.
Detectives are looking for anyone who may
have known him outside the
school for fresh leads. ''We are asking people who may have known John
or
may have socialized with him,'' Nuzzi said.
Seitz, who once studied under Daverio,
called her former professor
''the guiding light of our musicology department.'' Daverio, she said,
was
a private person who seemed married to his job. ''He was an amazing
teacher, an amazing scholar and great friend,'' she said. ''He was out.
He
was very careful not to date anyone from BU.''
At BU, de Quadros has reassigned
Daverio's academic commitments for
the remainder of the semester. Three professors - Joel Sheveloff, Jeremy
Yudkin, and Lisa Urkevich - have stepped in and picked up his graduate
courses: Music in the Romantic Period, Music of the Classical Period,
and
Musicology and Research. Daverio's master's comprehensive exams are
being
handled by Richard Cornwell and Gerald Weale. Devoted students have
pitched
in as well. On March 20, they descended on the area between Daverio's BU
office and his Allston apartment to post and distribute ''Missing'' fliers
in hopes someone will report a lead about his whereabouts.
Outside Daverio's second-floor office,
flowers and a yellow ribbon
emblazoned with the words ''Return In Safety'' bedeck his office.
Seitz said she thought Pope John Paul II
would be more likely to
disappear than Daverio. He lived alone and he didn't appear depressed or
troubled before he vanished, said Seitz.
Seitz is in the process of seeking power
of attorney from Daverio's
parents over the professor' s financial affairs so she can pay his Allston
mortgage and bills. Daverio had just returned to town after visiting his
elderly parents in Pennsylvania, where his mother had been recently
hospitalized. Straight from the airport, he dropped off his belongings
at
his apartment, phoned his folks to say he arrived safely, then headed to his
BU office to check for e-mail messages - his usual routine after returning
from trips.
De Quadros visited Daverio's parents last
week to try to soothe their
concerns about his disappearance and plans to update them on the
investigation. The crucial element to the case is the footage from the
school's surveillance camera, police say.
It shows Daverio walking out of the BU
building at 855 Commonwealth
Ave. and he appears to be heading left, toward downtown. Detectives
believe
the bag contained a book.
Maria Georgakarakou, who had a 2 p.m.
appointment with Daverio the
Monday after his disappearance, hopes he will keep his appointment, however
late. ''We are going to have him back soon,'' said Georgakarakou, a
musicology student and singer. ''And we are going to have everything
ready
for him when he returns.''
. Johnny Diaz may be reached at jodiaz@globe.com.
#6
New Haven Register, April 15, 2003
Long Wharf-40 Sargent Dr., New Haven, CT, 06511
(Fax: 203-865-7894 ) (E-Mail: letters@nhregister.com )
( http://www.ctcentral.com/ )
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7715547&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=7576&rfi=6
YALE STUDENTS SPOOF ANTI-GAY [PHELPS] PROTEST
By William Kaempffer, Register Staff
NEW HAVEN - As strident anti-gay
protesters picketed across the
street, a group of Yale University students trumpeted their own whimsical
cause of the day - dental hygiene.
"God Hates Plaque" read one
protest sign hoisted Monday morning at
Elm and College streets, a slight variation from the "God Hates
Fags" sign
across the street being bandied by the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church.
"We heard that they were from the
Midwest, an area known for poor
oral hygiene," said Will Tauxe, a Yale sophomore, who helped organize the
tongue-in-cheek counter-protest. "It was our calling - dental
evangelism."
The 30-minute picket by the church went
off without a hitch. A
handful of city police officers stood posts nearby but there were no
confrontations to mediate.
Some Yale students filmed the protesters
up close on a hand-held
video camera. Two groups of counter-protesters set up shop on opposite
corners of the intersection. Project Orange, a community-wide,
gay-rights
organization, held vigil at the southwest corner and the dental contingency
on the northeast.
The church's patriarch, Pastor Fred
Phelps, didn't attend, but a
handful of members of the small congregation pulled out protest signs and
sang anti-gay songs.
At one point, one of the protesters
delivered a dramatic faux sneeze
and then theatrically blew her nose in a rainbow flag, a symbol of gay pride.
"We've been on every major campus in
the United States," said Margie
Phelps, one of the pastor's daughters. "No reason Yale should be
exempt."
One of their signs read "Thank God
for Sept. 11" and another asserted
that the space shuttle explosion was a matter of divine intervention.
Margie Phelps called the two disasters
"fair warning from God" that
"this nation institutionalizes sin at every level."
Shirley Phelps-Roper, another daughter,
stood next to her 7-year-old
son in the picket. The boy looked shy and cast his eyes downward when a
reporter asked him a question.
At one point, the mother asked him if he
knew why they were there and
he murmured a response.
"He said, 'Because God hates
fags,'" Phelps-Roper answered.
The church conducts hundreds of protests
a year across the country,
preaching the evils of homosexuality and promising fiery damnation. The
group is perhaps best known for protesting the funeral of Matthew Shepard,
who was murdered because he was gay.
The congregation asserts that they are
simply preaching the word of
God and giving ample notice to sinners that the Day of Judgment will come.
Yale University had sent out e-mails to
students alerting them to the
planned protest and urging them to avoid confrontation.
But Tauxe said he and his friends
couldn't resist and created the
Christian Yale Dental Network to tweak the visiting congregation.
. William Kaempffer can be reached at
wkaempffer@nhregister.com, or
at 789-5727.
#7
Neponset Valley Daily News Transcript, April 16, 2003
254 Second Avenue, Needham, MA 02494
(E-Mail: neponset@cnc.com )
http://www.neponsetvalleydailynews.com/news/local_regional/mw_gaybeating04162003.htm
OFFICIAL SAYS GAY RIGHTS [DAY OF SILENCE] NOT A FACTOR IN BEATING
Boston Herald
A Concord girl's beating last week had
nothing to do with her taking
part in a Concord-Carlisle High School gay rights program, a school official
said Monday.
"I think the press is trying to put
a spin on it that really isn't
there," Assistant Superintendent Nadine Binkley said. "So
we're very, very
saddened that people are trying to make a connection between the events that
happened to Caitlin and the events at the high school with the Day of
Silence."
Caitlin Meuse, 16, was beaten unconscious
near her Prescott Road home
last Thursday, a day after she had a confrontation with another student at
school during the Day of Silence observance in support of gay rights.
The
other girl was suspended for yelling anti-gay comments at Meuse and other
students.
Police Chief Len Wetherbee said a large
number of leads are being
chased down. He said investigators are looking into what happened at
school
but have made no arrests.
Investigators believe Meuse was struck
with a blunt object, such as a
bat, leaving her unconscious and bleeding in the street with a broken nose,
cuts, swelling and two missing front teeth.
"You would have never thought she
was alive," neighbor Mary Wells
said yesterday. "I thought for sure she was dead."
Meuse was released from the hospital
Sunday and is expected to remain
out of school for the next couple of weeks, her father said. The girl
plans
to visit doctors today to get replacement teeth.
"She's coming along," Carl
Meuse said. "You'd know someone put a
hurting on her, though."
The rail-thin Caitlin Meuse, dressed in a
black Ozzy Osbourne
T-shirt, was seen coming out of her house yesterday sporting two black eyes.
Several Concord-Carlisle students said
they were reluctant to talk
about the case because school officials urged them not to spread rumors
about the matter.
Others said Meuse isn't well-known at
school because she had
transferred there earlier in the year from a private school in Cambridge.
"I have never heard of anything like
this," sophomore Mike Walker,
15, said. "It comes as a complete shock."
#8
Stanford Daily, April 16, 2003
Storke Publications Building Suite 101, Stanford CA 94305-2240
(Fax: 650-725-1329) (E-Mail: letters@daily.stanford.edu )
( http://daily.stanford.edu/daily/servlet/Front )
http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=10908&repository=0001_article
QUEER AWARENESS DAYS BEGIN TODAY [AT STANFORD]
By Ilena C. George, Contributing Writer
Today, Queer Awareness Days begins with
silence.
"We're kicking off QuAD this year
with National Day of Silence, an
annual national event which has been growing in size since 1996," said
sophomore Adam Forest, a staff member at the Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual /
Transgender Community Resource Center. "Participating students on
campus
will be wearing NDOS T-shirts and will attempt to remain silent for the day
in an effort to mark the silence forced upon the LGBT community by a largely
unaccepting cultural climate."
Participants and organizers feel QuAD is
an important way to address
unresolved issues involving the LGBT community.
"I see QuAD as a time to show the
diversity and vibrancy of queer
[and] LGBT people and the way that we have changed and continue to change
the world," said senior Ming Wong. "At the same time, it is
also a reminder
that we have not come nearly far enough in terms of ending discrimination,
hate crime and gender conformism, as well as securing the right to choose,
job security, affordable and decent health care, a truly diverse media and
so on."
Besides the significance of addressing
these issues at large, QuAD
organizers say it is important to bring attention to the troubles the LGBT
community faces at Stanford.
"Because social approbation is still
so strong, many LGBT people
struggle with the sense that their lives, their struggles and their
communities are largely invisible," said LGBT-CRC Director Benjamin
Davidson. "Here at Stanford, many LGBT students feel alone -
although there
are a great many LGBT students on campus. Because so many people are not
'out,' the queer community can seem almost submerged at times."
QuAD is a long-running annual event.
Previously, the event was
designated by the acronym GLAD, for Gay and Lesbian Awareness Days, and was
run by volunteer groups.
"This is the first year that QuAD
has been designed by LGBT-CRC
student staff, rather than a voluntary student organization," Davidson
said.
"Many of the programs were designed in collaboration with other groups -
the
ASSU, Black and Queer at Stanford, LGBT Meds, the Queer Straight Social and
Political Alliance and the Women's Community Center."
The theme this year is "The
Homosexual Agenda," which, as Forest
explained, "is a play on the common misconception that the queer
community
is a monolithic entity. We hope that QuAD will be an annual portrayal of
the rich diversity of and within the queer community, while providing a safe
and intellectually stimulating two weeks of moving, community-building
events."
There are a wide variety of events
occurring throughout QuAD,
including a workshop and performance by musician Jenn Lindsay, a reading by
Stanford alumnus Tim West from his book, "Red Dirt Revival" and a
talk by
Paula Treichler, author of "How to Have Theory in an Epidemic: Cultural
Chronicles of AIDS," on the ramifications of sexuality education in
medicine. The events conclude on April 30 with "Politically
Inspired," in
which a panel of writers will speak on current events.
"These events were chosen with the
aim of conveying the richness and
diversity of the queer community," Forest said.
Students have high expectations for the
upcoming events.
"Hopefully QuAD will do many or all
of the following: demonstrate the
value of queer [and] LGBT individuals and our cultures, raise awareness
about the challenges facing queer [and] LGBT people and communities, give
people information on how to make change on these issues, connect the
LGBT-CRC to Stanford students and the surrounding community [and] give new
meaning to the word 'fabulous,'" Wong said.
#9
The Student Printz, April 16, 2003
University of Southern Mississippi
Box 5121, Hattiesburg MS 39406-5121
(Fax: 601-266-4263) (E-Mail: printz@usm.edu )
( http://www.printz.usm.edu )
http://www.printz.usm.edu/opinion/4-16-2003bigotry.html
BIGOTRY COMMON ON UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI'S CAMPUS
Guest Columnist: Michael Ide
As a member of the USM Gay/Straight
Alliance, I have been annoyed
with the continuous destruction of our fliers within one day of posting them
on campus. This has gone on for two years.
The GSA posted a large display on the
wall of the Commons to announce
the beginning of our spring film series, and within two days it was stolen,
or likely ripped down.
We later posted a five-poster display
announcing, "The GSA celebrates
Black History Month," in memory of black members of the Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transexual community. It suffered the same fate. I
was
outraged and hurt when I found our display missing. Sadly, I was even
forced to take down GSA fliers myself because they were smeared with words
like "fag."
Recently, "The Vagina
Monologues" came to campus. The event was
subject to the same malicious censorship that the GSA has faced since we
became an organization. This type of disrespect is even prevalent
against
the Women's Studies Department whenever it decides to post fliers.
Anyone
up for a little misogyny?
The most recent example of disrespect
occurred after "Take Back The
Night," a rally protesting violence against women. Perhaps it would
be
tactful of the University to be more forthcoming with rules against chalking
before it takes place, rather than picking one group to fine after numerous
groups have chalked all year without ramifications. This seems to send
the
message that chalking is ok as long as the content is happy, such as
"Group
X loves Group Y," but when we begin to inform people of the insanely high
number of rapes on college campuses each year, it is cause for censorship
and punishment.
The fact that our organizations cannot
post any information without
the University disrespecting and unlawfully censoring them only highlights
the reasons that we as a society celebrate things like black history,
women's history, or LGBT history. When marginalized groups have a
message,
they are silenced.
While it is important these citizens
reclaim their group's histories,
what is at stake on this campus is the present. I am tired of hearing,
"We
do live in South Mississippi," whenever there is a hate crime committed
in
this area.
It is a discredit to our state that not
even a pow-wow to raise
awareness of Native American culture can occur without someone disgracing
the event. We live in an area teeming with racism, sexism and
homophobia, a
fact I was convinced of when I discovered the words "Die Fag"
scratched into
my dorm room door.
We should not tolerate hate and
ignorance, in any form, on this
campus. We all share the responsibility to eradicate this social cancer
and
not simply leave it for other people to deal with.
According to the University's Purpose
Statement: "[USM] teaches
respect for diversity of ideas, beliefs, and cultures . It seeks to
attract
and . this diversity, while working always to enhance life locally and
regionally. In short, The University of Southern Mississippi strives for
excellence."
When will we make this strive for
excellence more than nice words on
a page? We do not demand respect because we are gay, women, or South
Asian,
but because we are students, citizens and human.
. This is a guest column of opinion by
Michael C. Ide sophomore,
sociology major.
#10
Concord Journal, April 17, 2003
150 Baker Ave Ext, Ste 305, Concord, MA 01742
http://www.townonline.com/concord/news/local_regional/con_covcocaitlin04172003.htm
ANSWERS SOUGHT IN 16-YEAR-OLD'S ASSAULT
STUDENT RECOVERING AT HOME
By Maureen O'connell and Betsy Levinson, Staff Writers
After participating in the second annual
Concord-Carlisle High School
Day of Silence in support of gay, lesbian and transgendered rights,
16-year-old Caitlin Meuse was beaten unconscious and found bleeding in the
street near her Prescott Road home Thursday. She is currently at home
recovering from her physical wounds, including missing teeth and facial
lacerations.
Police Chief Len Wetherbee said his force
has been working constantly
to find the person responsible for Meuse's beating since the call came in at
7:13 p.m. last Thursday.
"We're in constant contact with the
family," said Wetherbee, "and
we're not going to leave any stone unturned until we get to the bottom of
it."
Boston newspapers and television stations
were quick to link the
assault to Meuse's participation in CCHS's Day of Silence, but Wetherbee
said his department has other leads they are pursuing as well.
"Are we looking at this as a hate
crime? It's one of the
possibilities, but by no means the only one. Certainly, when you have an
incident that occurs during school hours, then a little after 7 that night,
there's this assault... We're certainly looking at that and will
continue
to look at that, but we're also seeking parallel investigations at this time
that have nothing to do with the high school."
According to an impassioned school
principal, there is "not one shred
of evidence" to link Meuse's participation in the Day of Silence to the
beating later that evening.
"There were scores, maybe even
hundreds, of students that
participated in the Day of Silence," said Arthur Dulong.
"There is just no
reason to think the two events are related. None at all."
He said a "large number of
students" have created get-well cards for
Meuse, and earlier this week he said the student body worked on a
community-wide get well banner that is hanging up in the school guidance
department and will be delivered to her in due time.
"Some students may make the
connection, and I can't help that," said
Dulong. "But people who have known me for 30 years know that I
would never
cover up something for any reason."
Dulong said he has stressed, in recent
days, the need to insure the
safety of everyone.
"We are all responsible to each
other," he said.
Assistant Superintendent Nadine Binkley
said it is "unfortunate" that
so many people link the beating to a homophobic act. She said the Day of
Silence is organized by the national Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education
Network.
"There are a lot of rumors at this
point," said Binkley. "Nothing is
substantiated by fact. Unfortunately people are trying to make a tie
between the two events."
She said approximately a third of the
roughly 1,000 students at the
school participated. One scenario pointed to a verbal altercation, maybe
a
physical assault, between Meuse and another student, but Binkley said there
are several differing accounts of the hours preceding the attack.
"There was no altercation,"
said Binkley, pointing instead to a
"20-second" conversation in a social worker's office between Meuse
and two
other girls.
Meuse's brother, Brian, 29, said his
sister, though not gay, speaks
out for causes she believes in.
"She's not gay, but very
open-minded," said Brian Meuse. "If she
believes in something, she believes in it 100 percent. If she could do
it
again tomorrow, she would."
Binkley emphasized that the Concord
schools do a "good job" of
promoting tolerance around different lifestyles.
"We teach tolerance from early
on," said Binkley. "It's in our
curriculum in health, in social studies, we try to give a responsible view
of what community is like."
She said Meuse attended Alcott elementary
school as a youngster, then
left to enroll at a private Catholic school in Cambridge before returning to
CCHS last November. Binkley said Meuse's family has lived in Concord for
many years.
The assault
Meuse was walking home from her friend's
house, also located on
Prescott Road, around 7 p.m. Thursday when she was attacked.
"It seems as though someone was
watching her while she was at my
house," said Jessica Young, whose house she left before heading home.
A neighbor found Meuse in the street,
unconscious and bleeding from
the face. Another neighbor, Debbie Bier, said considering where Caitlin
was
found, it's fortunate that she is alive today.
The corner of Arrowhead and Prescott
roads, Bier said, "is a blind
corner. We're really lucky she didn't get run over."
Bier said it's common for cars to come at
higher speeds around the
corner.
"It could have been so much more
serious than what has already
happened to her," said Bier.
Wetherbee said there were no eyewitnesses
to the assault.
"I was eating dinner. I only
saw the flashing lights of the
emergency vehicles. No one heard any screeching," said Bier.
"We're (the
neighborhood) physically close in that we don't have large properties.
So
it's surprising that no one saw anything, and it's very unfortunate."
Police and fire crews were called
immediately after Meuse was found
unconscious. She was taken by ambulance to Emerson Hospital, and taken
by
Medflight to Boston Medical Center. She was released Monday.
"Our worst fears were not realized.
There's no brain injury," said
Brian Meuse.
Her father, Carl, said over the weekend
Caitlin had been joking about
her injuries and kicking herself for missing a party Friday night.
The aftermath
CCHS substance prevention counselor Kelli
Kirshstein said the school
is returning to normal in the aftermath of the crime
"There is a sense of shock and
concern for Caitlin, certainly," said
Kirshstein, "but for the most part, the kids are relieved to know she's
OK."
Kirshstein described the high school as a "very functional
community" where
teens and adults talk over their concerns in an open, "healthy" way.
"The majority of kids are not
thinking about this as a hate crime,"
she said. "Mostly they think it's awful she got hurt. This
place is no
Nirvana, but the culture here is about as good as a high school could
be."
Bier said residents in the Prescott Road
neighborhood are trying to
be as supportive as needed to the Meuse family, who has lived in the
neighborhood for decades.
"The neighborhood is really in
mourning and upset. I've watched her
(Caitlin) grow up since she was about 4. She's a very sweet girl, a very
pretty girl, a really quiet child."
Neighbors are a bit more vigilant about
what's going on around them,
Bier said. Since Thursday's assault, television and newspaper reporters
have been camped on Prescott Road.
"It's been stressful on the
neighborhood," she said. "It's so
important that neighbors know each other and watch each other. It's a
perfect example of how knowing each other can be helpful. Taking care of
each other, and not looking away."
. Franci Richardson of the Metrowest
Daily News contributed to this
report.
#11
Vancouver Sun, April 17, 2003
200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3 Canada
(E-Mail: sunletters@pacpress.southam.ca ) ( http://www.vancouversun.com )
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/news/story.asp?id=7FB7D5D8-900E-4089-9625-0ECA7017CE35
CANADIAN TEACHER FACES SUSPENSION FOR REMARKS ON GAYS
CHRIS KEMPLING SAYS HE'S APPEALING TO SUPREME COURT
Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun, jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com
The B.C. College of Teachers has told a
Quesnel teacher it intends to
suspend his teaching certificate for one month as punishment for letters he
wrote to the local newspaper criticizing homosexuality, the teacher said
Wednesday.
But Chris Kempling said he doubts the
college will force him out of
his school without pay on the date specified - May 1 - because he is
appealing to B.C. Supreme Court on the grounds that the decision violates
Charter of Rights protections of freedom of expression and religion.
Kempling, a Christian who is a teacher/counsellor
at Correlieu
secondary school, said he will also argue that no professional regulatory
body has ever punished members for off-site conduct that had no demonstrable
impact on their work.
College registrar Doug Smart refused to
comment on the case because
the college has not yet made public its decision. Kempling said the
decision was made earlier this month.
The college found Kempling guilty of
unbecoming conduct late last
year, saying his letters to the editor, a research paper and other
correspondence contained "discriminatory and derogatory statements
against
homosexuals."
Specifically, the college was disturbed
by his statements that
homosexual relationships are unstable, gay sex poses health risks and many
religions consider homosexuality immoral.
"Homosexuality is not something to
be applauded," Kempling said in
one letter.
The college had planned earlier to give
him a five-month suspension,
noting he had not demonstrated any remorse, Kempling said. In an
interview,
he indicated he does regret some of his strident words and unkind language.
"But it's an important principle in
the whole concept of free speech
in our society that when a citizen feels strongly about a matter that they
be able to present their arguments in a public forum . . . without having
their employment put in jeopardy. Especially when no evidence whatsoever
was ever presented that there was harm or impact on the job."
The college admitted it had nothing to
suggest "a poisoned school
environment" but said such proof was not essential.
"It is sufficient that an inference
can be drawn as to the reasonable
and probable consequences of the discriminatory comments of a teacher."
The writings show Kempling doesn't accept
the core values of the
education system, "which recognize that homosexuals have a right to
equality, personal dignity and respect," the college said.
The restrictions that can be imposed on a
teacher's freedom of
expression were affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in its ruling
against Malcolm Ross, a New Brunswick teacher who published anti-Semitic
books and pamphlets, the college noted.
Kempling rejected any comparison between
himself and Ross, noting
Ross's writings generated dozens of protest letters to the school board and
complaints from students that his writings had upset their learning.
"None of that ever happened
here," Kempling said. "There has never
been a letter of complaint by any parent, student or staff about what I
said."
He suggested a one-month suspension was
particularly harsh since
teachers convicted of threats, assault, theft and flashing have only been
given letters of reprimand.
Neil Worboys, president of the B.C.
Teachers' Federation, wouldn't
comment on the case because he said he hadn't seen the college verdict.
Although the union paid for Kempling's lawyer to ensure due process, "his
views are antithetical to our position about the inclusion of gays,
lesbians, transgendered and two-spirited people in our society," he
added.
Kempling doesn't have the backing of the
B.C. Civil Liberties
Association either.
President John Dixon said earlier he
doesn't think Kempling should be
dismissed from his school, but he should be removed as a counsellor because
he favours his religious conscience over his professional duties.
Dixon said it doesn't matter that the
college found no specific
impact on his students. "If there are gay students in that school -
and you
can bet your bottom dollar there are - they're going to keep their heads
down and they certainly are not going to resort to Mr. Kempling for
advice."
Kempling said he has received substantial
support from his religious
community, including $30,000 in donations.
#12
The Ithacan, April 17, 2003
267 Roy H. Park Hall, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY 14850
(Fax: 607-274-1565) (E-Mail: ithacan@ithaca.edu )
( http://www.ithaca.edu/ithacan )
http://www.ithaca.edu/ithacan/articles/0304/17/news/0flag_theft_s.htm
FLAG THEFT STUNS LGBT GROUPS [AT ITHACA COLLEGE]
Kate Sheppard, Staff Writer
The gay pride flag was stolen for the
second time in the three years
it has flown on campus for the celebration of Gaypril.
Public Safety Patrol Officer Dirk
Hightchew, who is investigating the
theft, determined that the rope had been cut on both sides of the lock box
holding the rope to the flagpole. The last time the flag was seen flying
was during the 5 p.m. campus tour Saturday.
"It is a disappointment that someone
or some people would resort to
stealing a flag that's purpose was to raise awareness of the societal
marginalization and stigmatization of sexual minorities," said Lisa
Maurer,
coordinator of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender education, outreach
and services.
Maurer said the theft illustrates the
reasons for flying it quite
well - fear, shame and marginalization.
"I felt I could be out here on
campus, that it was OK to be out and
that the flag signaled it was a safe place and people support me,"
freshman
Joshua Redman said.
Redman, secretary of BIGAYLA, discovered
that the flag was missing
Sunday afternoon.
Early Monday, signs were posted near the
flagpole to alert passers-by
to the theft. But by Tuesday, phrases like "It shouldn't be
up," "Ha ha"
and "Someone beat me to it" had already been scrawled on the signs,
prompting further upset in the campus LGBT community.
Hightchew said late Tuesday that there
were no leads in the case.
Any new leads would most likely come from a witness report or from officers
finding the stolen flag during a residence hall search, he said.
The new pole on which the flag was flying
had been put in place on
the Academic Quad in February. A plastic guard to prevent access to the
rope was still on back order when the incident occurred, said Sybil Metz,
assistant director of the Campus Center and head of solicitation.
The part is expected to arrive soon, Metz
said, and until then the
Office of Student Affairs and Campus Life is working with the Physical Plant
to get a coated rope, which would be much more difficult to tamper with.
"We're taking measures to try and
make it such that future flags
cannot be stolen, flags of any type," Metz said. "In the
future, it will be
much more difficult."
Brian McAree, vice president for student
affairs and campus life,
said that by stealing the flag, someone in the community has shown their
ignorance and close-mindedness.
"I'm appalled and disappointed that
another rainbow flag has been
stolen," he said.
While McAree said the college is not
responsible for replacing the
stolen flag, Metz said she volunteered her own flag to fly once the pole is
fixed until a replacement can be delivered.
Senior Meredith Stone, publicity chair of
BIGAYLA, said it was
frustrating to have the flag stolen again after it flew uninterrupted last
April.
"I thought people had gotten over
stealing it," she said. "But I
guess not."
#13
New York Times, April 18, 2003
229 W. 43rd Street, New York, NY, 10036
(Fax: 212-556-3622 ) (E-Mail: letters@nytimes.com )
( http://www.nytimes.com )
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/18/national/18GRAN.html
CERTAIN WORDS CAN TRIP UP AIDS GRANTS, SCIENTISTS SAY
By Erica Goode
Scientists who study AIDS and other
sexually transmitted diseases say
they have been warned by federal health officials that their research may
come under unusual scrutiny by the Department of Health and Human Services
or by members of Congress, because the topics are politically controversial.
The scientists, who spoke on condition
they not be identified, say
they have been advised they can avoid unfavorable attention by keeping
certain "key words" out of their applications for grants from the
National
Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those words include "sex workers," "men who sleep with
men," "anal sex" and
"needle exchange," the scientists said.
Bill Pierce, a spokesman for the health
and human services
department, said the department does not screen grant applications for
politically delicate content. He said that when the department singles
out
grants it is usually to send out a news release about them. But an
official
at the National Institutes of Health, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said project officers at the agency, the people who deal with grant
applicants and recipients, were telling researchers at meetings and in
telephone conversations to avoid so-called sensitive language. But the
official added, "You won't find any paper or anything that advises people
to
do this."
The official said researchers had long
been advised to avoid phrases
that might mark their work as controversial. But the degree of scrutiny
under the Bush administration was "much worse and more intense," the
official said.
Dr. Alfred Sommer, the dean of the
Bloomberg School of Public Health
at Johns Hopkins University, said a researcher at his institution had been
advised by a project officer at N.I.H. to change the term "sex
worker" to
something more euphemistic in a grant proposal for a study of H.I.V.
prevention among prostitutes. He said the idea that grants might be
subject
to political surveillance was creating a "pernicious sense of
insecurity"
among researchers.
Dr. Sommer said that if researchers
feared that federal support for
their work might be affected by politics, whether it was true or untrue, it
could take a toll. "If people feel intimidated and start clouding
the
language they use, then your mind starts to get cloudy and the science gets
cloudy," he said, adding that the federal financing of medical research
had
traditionally been free from political influence.
At the National Institutes of Health, for
example, grant applications
are evaluated and rated by a panel of independent reviewers. The grant
application is then given a score.
In another example of the scrutiny the
scientists described, a
researcher at the University of California said he had been advised by an
N.I.H. project officer that the abstract of a grant application he was
submitting "should be 'cleansed' and should not contain any contentious
wording like 'gay' or 'homosexual' or 'transgender.'"
The researcher said the project officer
told him that grants that
included those words were "being screened out and targeted for more
intense
scrutiny."
He said he was now struggling with how to
write the grant proposal,
which dealt with a study of gay men and H.I.V. testing. When the
subjects
were gay men, he said, "It's hard not to mention them in your
abstract."
The titles and abstracts of federally
financed grants are available
to the public on a computer database maintained by the national institutes.
The database, called CRISP, is also frequently read by Congressional staff
members on the lookout for research on topics that are of concern to the
politicians they work for. Over the years, studies on cloning, abortion,
animal rights, needle-exchange programs and various types of AIDS research
have been criticized by members of Congress.
But researchers said they feared that the
concerns of individual
members of Congress were now being taken more seriously by the health and
human services department.
John Burklow, a spokesman for the N.I.H.,
said project directors at
the agency were responsible for "providing advice and guidance on myriad
issues related to grant applications," but he did not confirm or deny
that
the project officers were cautioning researchers about the language they used.
He said that the health and human
services department "from a
management perspective has a right to oversee N.I.H. affairs" but that
department officials "have not interfered with the awarding or renewing
of
any N.I.H. grant."
#14
Yale Herald, April 18, 2003
P.O. Box 201653, New Haven, CT 06520
(E-Mail: editor@yaleherald.com ) ( http://www.yaleherald.com )
http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=2087
CHALLENGES ROUSE GAY COMMUNITY AT YALE
Students respond to Reverend Phelps, domestic partnerships furor.
By Claire Gagne
"Don't go to hell for lack of
flossing!" Katie Burghardt, BR '05,
admonished the laughing crowd. "We believe that poor oral hygiene
is
leading to the sad plight of many souls," Will Tauxe, ES '05, added.
These two students were part of the
fictitious Yale Christian Dental
Network that staged a spoof protest on Monday morning, at the corner of Elm
and College Streets. The subjects of their ridicule stood across the
street, holding fluorescent signs that bore messages such as "God Hates
America" and "Matt, Four Years in Hell." The second is a
reference to
Matthew Shepard, the college student from Laramie, WY who was murdered in
1998 for being homosexual. They represented the Westboro Baptist Church
(WBC), a congregation based in Topeka, Kansas whose motto is, "God Hates
Fags."
"God loves some and hates
others," Fred Phelps, Jr. explained. "He
condemns homosexuality." Although his father, the Reverend Fred
Phelps, who
is the head of the WBC, was not in attendance on Monday, three of Phelps
Sr.'s 13 children and at least three of his grandchildren traveled to New
Haven to hold the protest.
Beyond decrying campus homosexuality, the
precise purpose of the WBC
visit was not made clear. The church asserted that it was not aiming to
win
converts, facing sentiments such as Kate Crandall's, CC '06, who felt
"physically ill" at the opinions expressed by its congregation
members.
Neither did they stay long, arriving past 9 and leaving by 10:30 a.m.
New
Haven was in fact the third WBC picket of the morning - less than an hour
before, WBC members had staged similar half-hour pickets in Hartford and
West Hartford.
In a Sat., Mar. 22, press release, the
WBC stated its disapproval of
Yale University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, who they say is leading
the student population into a life of sin against God. "I'd like to
think
the students here are smarter than they seem to be," Phelps Jr. said.
"This
isn't complicated stuff."
His sister, Shirley Phelps-Roper, claimed
that her message to
students was, "There is a God. There is a day of judgment."
One of her 11
children stood next to her, holding a sign that read "Prepare to meet thy
God." When asked why he joined his mother in the protests, the
seven-year-old responded, "Because it is good."
Relatively few Yalies attended the
45-minute affair. Some college
Masters had earlier asked students to ignore the WBC's activity because the
organization is known to use its message to incite passersby into shouting
matches and violence.
However, some students disagreed with the
Administration's approach
to the issue. "If you have an organized, nonviolent response, I
don't see
the problem," a graduate student said. She held a cardboard sign
that read
"The greatest of all is Love. 1 Corinthians 13:13." Of those
present, the
sentiment appeared supportive of the queer community at Yale. The
sidewalk
along College Street was decorated with positive comments, including "God
is
love" and a large rainbow with the words "Welcome to New Haven, No
Hatred
Allowed."
The WBC claims to have conducted over
22,000 similar demonstrations
across America and in some foreign countries. They target areas with
sizable gay communities, such as universities, large cities, and
gay-friendly churches. The congregation is small, consisting almost
entirely of nine of the Phelps children and their families. Four of his
children are estranged, including one daughter who changed her name to
escape association with her family.
Both Phelps-Roper and Phelps Sr. are
lawyers. The WBC has filed
numerous lawsuits against individuals and groups throughout America. In
the
past, violent counter-protesters have found themselves facing the
repercussions of municipal hate crimes laws.
Just a few hours later and a block away,
an estimated 300 people
marched in front of the New Haven City Hall to show their support for the
Domestic Partnership Amendment. On Mon., May 5, the New Haven aldermen
will
vote on the proposed legislation, which would allow for official recognition
of same-sex couples.
The goal of this picket was to urge the
Board of Aldermen to vote in
favor of the amendment. In a preliminary vote held on Mon., Mar. 24, 10
of
the 17 aldermen present voted against the legislation. Despite this,
supporters remain hopeful that the amendment will pass.
"I really think the aldermen will do
the right thing," Alyssa
Rosenberg, SM '06, maintained. Rosenberg is a leader of Project Orange,
the
group responsible for organizing the rally, as well as a coordinator of
Yale's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Cooperative (LGBT Co-op).
Project Orange is a coalition of New Haven residents, community members, and
Yale students formed to bring together queer rights activists throughout the
city. Their name is derived from New Haven's Orange Street, which lies
between Church and State Streets.
"Given that [the amendment] almost
passed 10 years ago, I think New
Haven can be one vote more progressive now," Christine Pettett, GRD '03,
said, referring to a similar amendment in 1993 that failed by a single vote.
The Yale community seems to be an
exception to what Pettett described
as a nationwide "pendulum swing toward conservatism." Yale has
long been
recognized for its acceptance of same-sex partnerships among the faculty,
Administration, and workers.
"We had an openly gay dean my
freshman year," Cyd Cipolla, TC '04, a
Co-op coordinator, recalled. "He lived in Trumbull with his partner
and dog
and the school recognized them as a family." Also, under the Yale
Health
Plan, workers in same-sex partnerships receive health benefits. The plan
also provides hormone therapy for people undergoing sex change operations.
The University did face criticism last
fall when it allowed the
military to attend a recruiting session at the Yale Law School. Many
argued
the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is in violation of
Yale's own
policy of non-discrimination. Yale reversed its initial refusal after
the
Department of Defense threatened a withdrawal of $350 million in federal
funding.
Despite that, "the Yale Law School
faculty and administration have
been very supportive of the LGBT students," Lindsay Barenz, LAW '04 said.
Barenz is a member of OutLaws, the LGBT group at the Law School.
For the most part, the undergraduate
experience seems to be a
positive one, with queer students rarely facing open discrimination.
"Blatant homophobia is unacceptable at Yale," Barenz stated.
"It is incredibly easy to be queer
here," Cipolla agreed. "You don't
have to be political; and fundamentally, that's what [being queer] should
be."
Gay student athletes find the sports
community to be less accepting,
with their teammates trying to avoid discussion of the issue. "If
team
members aren't officially out, then the team sort of ignores the issue.
But
some teams have animosity towards members who are openly gay," one
varsity
athlete, who wished to remain anonymous, said. "It makes gay
athletes
quieter and less likely to come out and be known as the gay guy on the
team."
He also acknowledged that in general,
"once an athlete has come out
to his team, he ends up quitting within a few months." However, he
felt
that the issue was less one of concern for personal safety or emotional
well-being and more about keeping the atmosphere congenial. "I
don't want
to make them uncomfortable," he explained. "I just wouldn't
want to deal
with it."
Some students feel that there could be
more measures taken to enhance
the college experience for queer students. For Cipolla, the answer lies
in
more support groups for the gay community. She pointed to the lack
"of
support networks or counseling for newly out people."
Also, Cipolla felt that freshman
counselors, despite the training
they receive, can be underprepared to help with the issues that queer people
face. "I was not comfortable enough with my freshmen counselors to
say,
'Hey, I date girls.' They just assumed I liked guys," she recalled.
Despite pockets of dissatisfaction, most
challenges now seem to come
from the community and not the University in particular. In terms of the
future of gay rights in New Haven, there are "so many avenues we can
pursue.
There are a lot of fronts we can fight on. It's very important to repeal
sodomy laws, for example," Rosenberg asserted. But when it comes to
Yale,
Rosenberg seemed to agree more with Cipolla, who said that, on the whole,
she was content with Yale as it is now: "This place is unbelievably
tolerant. There's nothing left to fight for here."
#15
Pitt News, April 18, 2003
434 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
( http://www.pittnews.com )
http://www.pittnews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/04/18/3e9f645b8493d
STRAIGHT WOMEN'S AND LESBIANS' HEALTH COMPARED [BY UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
RESEARCH TEAM]
by Michelle Scott, Senior science writer
Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 cause
of death of all women, but
in the first study of its kind, Pitt researchers are finding out if sexual
orientation makes a difference in a woman's risk for heart disease.
Pitt epidemiologists Deborah J. Aaron,
Nina Markovic and Michelle
Danielson will conduct a study titled "Cardiovascular Disease Risk
Factors
and Sexual Identity in Women." The team will examine the
differences in the
prevalence and patterns of risk factors in cardiovascular disease of 500
self-identified lesbians and 500 heterosexual women in the Allegheny County
Region.
At a clinical site at the Magee-Womens
Research Institute at Pitt,
researchers will gather information about the participants' height, weight
and blood to check for heart disease, along with collecting information
about other risk factors.
Markovic said the 1,000 participants in
the study will all be over 35
years old, the age when the risk for cardiovascular disease becomes
particularly significant and will be matched for ethnicity and socioeconomic
status. The study will be conducted for four years, and is funded by the
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institutes of
Health.
Aaron said as a group of public health
researchers, one of the
biggest issues they face is dealing with health disparities between
different groups. He added that gays and lesbians have not received much
attention with respect to health.
Markovic explained that they developed
their study after Suzanne
Haynes hypothesized about factors that might increase lesbians' risk for
breast cancer. Haynes was a researcher at the National Cancer Institute
and
is now a senior scientist at the Office of Women's Health, Department of
Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. The hypothesized risk
factors
include the fact that lesbians tend to have a higher body weight, exercise
less, and smoke and drink more than their heterosexual counterparts.
Also,
lesbians often do not have children or have them much later in life than
heterosexual women.
In 1999 and 2000, Aaron, Danielson and
Markovic conducted a survey of
1,000 self-identified lesbians in the greater Pittsburgh Area about these
original risk factors in relation to cardiovascular disease. Many of
these
women were in their early 30s, and unlike what Haynes had hypothesized, the
team did not see many cases of breast cancer, according to Markovic.
Their survey did reveal that lesbians do
tend to have higher body
weight, are more educated, have fewer children and have them later in life,
and do smoke and drink more, but they are more likely to engage in physical
activity than heterosexual women.
Though the source of this trend in
lesbian lifestyle habits has not
been identified, Markovic speculated a cohort factor may be involved.
She
said 30 years ago, lesbians may have been less integrated into the social
scene so they would meet one another at strictly lesbian bars.
"When you go to a bar there are more
people drinking and smoking than
if you were to go to another source of women in general," Markovic said.
She added that the new generation of
lesbians might be part of a
different culture than the one in which their predecessors grew up.
The goals of this new study are to get a
larger sample of women to
analyze and evaluate the different factors to see how they affect lesbians'
overall risk for heart disease and compare their risk levels to those of
heterosexual women.
The Center for Research on Health and
Sexual Orientation is part of
Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health and is co-directed by Markovic and
Anthony Silvestre, a professor in Pitt's microbiology department. The
Center focuses on inspiring and engaging in research on sexual minorities'
health and wellness issues, forming networks and exchanging resources among
researchers and non-researcher and providing information for the development
of policy, services and education concerning sexual minorities.
"At this point we are probably one
of the largest and most active
groups of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender researchers," Markovic
said.
#16
Newark Advocate, April 20, 2003
22 N. First Street, Newark, OH, 43055
(Fax: 614-345-1634 ) ( http://www.newarkadvocate.com )
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/news/stories/20030420/localnews/152915.html
VILLAGE ISSUES PERMITS TO ANTI-GAY GROUP [TO PICKET DENISON UNIVERSITY ET AL]
By Drew Bracken, Advocate Correspondent
GRANVILLE - A group of 10 to 15 members
of the Topeka, Kansas-based
anti-homosexual Westboro Baptist Church have been issued permits by the
Village of Granville to assemble on public property.
The group, coming to Granville April
26-28 to demonstrate, received
permits to assemble on public property at or near seven churches in the
village, as well as at Granville High School and the entrance of Denison
University.
Westboro Church attorney Shirley
Phelps-Roper, daughter of
church-leader Fred Phelps, wants her members to stand in front of each
location. However, she said that a compromise has been agreed upon with
village officials.
Phelps-Roper has said Granville was
targeted for the protest because
the church was contacted from someone at Granville High School about the
formation of a gay-straight alliance club at the school. This is the
something that Westboro Church strongly opposes.
Since four of the churches are within
sight of the Opera House Park
downtown, she said her members would assemble there.
"I talked with the police chief and
what I told him was our guys -
and in fact what I put on the permit request - we would be in the park
directly across from the entrance of those churches because, you know,
visibility is what we're after," she said.
St. Edwards, Spring Hills, Denison and
the high school are at other
locations, however. Phelps-Roper said her members still plan to assemble
on
public property near those locations.
Permits are required under Section
311.02(c) of the Codified
Ordinances of Granville, which states in part, "...the Village may, as is
reasonable and appropriate, designate a specific area or areas within the
assemblage area for use by the public for the purpose of public speaking
designed to gather crowds and for free discussion of issues and/or
ideas."
Historically, people with permits were
told that there are two, and
only two, lawful places to assemble in Granville for such purposes:
Opera
House Park and the steps of the village offices.
Police Chief Steve Cartnal said Friday,
however, that those locations
were designated several years ago when a Newark group that included
in-your-face preacher Charles Spingola attended the Granville Fourth of July
celebration. The village ordinance was enacted after that.
The next year, the church group was
limited to the steps of the
Village Offices because the Kiwanis Club, sponsor of the Fourth of July
event, already had a permit for the downtown area.
"If you and your group want to come
into that area and do some public
speaking, the village can tell you where in that area you can do your public
speaking," Cartnal said of that situation.
"If there's not already a permit
scheduled for an area, we can
require them to get a permit, but we can't tell them where on public
property they can do their speaking from," the chief said.
Granville High School Principal Chuck
Dilbone said that when the
demonstrators appear, the school will be prepared.
"We have a group of students and
staff members, a village council
member, some people from Denison and a few community members that are
meeting that are formulating a statement that our school is going to give
about our beliefs and what our philosophy is behind this," he said.
When that statement will be forthcoming
is not yet known, but Dilbone
said it will not be pro-GHS Allies, a gay/straight alliance at the high
school, but anti-hate.
. Correspondent Drew Bracken can be
reached at 328-8821 or
advocate@nncogannett.com
#17
Boston Globe, April 20, 2003
Box 2378, Boston, MA, 02107
(Fax: 617-929-2098 ) (E-Mail: letter@globe.com )
( http://www.boston.com/globe )
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/110/learning/NYU_makes_history_fast+.shtml
Campus Insider (excerpt)
UNEASY ALLIES [ON BOSTON COLLEGE'S NEW GSA]
Boston College may have made history last
week when it granted
official recognition to a support group for gay, bisexual, and transgender
students, but no one is likely to accuse the Catholic university of hoisting
high the rainbow flag.
The new group, made official by the Rev.
William P. Leahy, BC's
president, after years of student lobbying, will be called ''Allies,'' a
name that avoids any mention of sexuality.
Members will be allowed to discuss sexual
orientation ''in the
context of the University's Jesuit, Catholic tradition,'' according to its
constitution; they may hold public forums, but protests and petitions are
off-limits. (An earlier draft of the constitution reportedly banned the
group from holding dances, but administrators relented.)
Tim Carraher - codirector of LGBC, the
university's still
unrecognized 30-year-old gay students' group - said the official nod should
make gay students more at ease on the Newton campus, though the ambiguous
name shows a ''basic discomfort'' on the part of the administration.
Embarrassed student leaders bore down
hard on Leahy last fall after
BC appeared on a Princeton Review list of colleges unfriendly to
''alternative lifestyles,'' another euphemism for gay students.