Higher Education LGBT
Articles Digest #143
#2
Cavalier Daily, September 2, 2003
University of Virginia, Newcomb Hall, Charlottesville, VA, 22901
(E-Mail: cavdaily@cavalierdaily.com )
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=16463&pid=1032
GROUP AIMS TO CREATE GAY FRAT AT U.VA.
By Mary Pumphrey, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Date functions at the University might
have a new spin next year with
the potential addition of a new fraternity to the University.
"Out on Rugby," a
probationary fraternity, hopes to promote the
interests of male homosexual University students while offering its members
the benefits of Greek life associated with mainstream fraternities.
The group, whose membership now stands
at nine, is designed to create
a new social space for homosexual students.
"It was something that various
people had been thinking about for a
long time," said Luke Ward, Queer Student Union president and
co-founder of
the new group. "We thought it would be a good way of diversifying
what's
typically seen as the mainstream social scene here."
In order to establish a new fraternity
or sorority at the University,
interested students must first apply for CIO status and be recognized by
Student Council as a group with the explicit purpose of bringing a
fraternity or sorority to the University. Next they apply for
sponsorship
from one of the four Greek governing councils.
"Out on Rugby" completed both
these steps and was granted "interest
group" status by the Multicultural Greek Council at the beginning of
this
semester.
"As an interest group they have
been sponsored by MGC to research
fraternities that they might want to bring to the University," said MGC
President Melody Han.
During this probationary period, the
group should act as if they are
an established group with programming and service, she said.
"Out of Rugby's" president
and fifth-year Education school student
Anthony Whitten said the group is prepared to do just that.
"We'll have philanthropies and
parties and the other things that go
along with being a Greek organization, just not a national title yet,"
Whitten said.
There are several national fraternities
committed to promoting the
interest of homosexual males, including Delta Lambda Phi. The
fraternity
was formed in 1986 and has 18 chapters, including one at Old Dominion
University.
After a four-month research period,
"Out on Rugby" will make a
presentation to the presidents of the seven member organizations who will
then vote on whether to accept the proposed fraternity into the MGC.
While there are homosexual members of
IFC fraternities, IFC President
Ryan Ewalt acknowledged the difficulty homosexual university students may
face when attempting to participate in mainstream Greek life.
"I have no idea how many
homosexual men are in IFC fraternities
specifically but I think it would be a difficult environment," Ewalt
said.
"I think that because the majority of men in IFC fraternities are not
homosexual I could see that as being an uncomfortable situation for both
homosexual and heterosexual men, but I think that's reflective of
society,"
he said.
Until now, there has been no formal
attempt to push homosexual
university students to participate in rush.
"The IFC has neither encouraged
nor discouraged homosexual men or any
other minorities from rushing," said Ewalt, noting a change in policy
that
will see the IFC attempt to reach out to minority students this year.
"We're very hopeful that minority
rush numbers will increase this
year," he said.
Aaron Laushway, associate dean of
students and director of fraternity
and sorority life, however, said while previous generations of minority
students had worked to integrate themselves into mainstream Greek life,
"Out
on Rugby" may be further evidence of a trend toward building Greek life
around ethnic and cultural differences.
"In the same way that up until
very recently Asian-American and
Hispanic students had been part of the mainstream Greek system, we have an
emerging new world of ethnic fraternities and sororities," Laushway
said.
"I see this as yet another step in enriching the fraternity and
sorority
system at the University."
While the MGC was designed to make the
Greek system more inclusive,
"Out on Rugby," is an expansion of the definition of diversity for
MGC
member organizations, who until now have officially been comprised only of
ethnic minorities.
"The MGC has more broadly-defined
culture with the petition of 'Out
on Rugby,' for membership," Han said. "In our mission
statement it states
that we are committed to diversity but it doesn't say of what sort.
Han added that he thought "the gay
community at U.Va. is entirely
underserved. The guys from 'Out on Rugby' might just be the kind of
Greek
leadership that's needed."
#3
Cavalier Daily, September 2, 2003
University of Virginia, Newcomb Hall, Charlottesville, VA, 22901
(E-Mail: cavdaily@cavalierdaily.com )
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=16466&pid=1032
EDITORIAL: GOOD RIDDANCE TO 'NOT GAY' CHANT
Saturday's football game against Duke
was a landmark event for the
University. As many fourth years will remember, it was just a few
years ago
that many at the University were confounded by how to eradicate "not
gay"
chant (which had been shouted after the line in the Good Ol' Song
"where all
is bright and gay"). Alumni had complained, administrators were
concerned
at such a widespread display of intolerance, and many students felt
unwelcome even at their own home football games.
On Saturday, however, the chant was
barely audible. Though traces
could still be heard in some areas of the stands, it is far from the audible
embarrassment that could be heard on national broadcasts of home games mere
years ago. This is so starkly different than the prior situation that
it is
worth noting the efforts toward change that impacted this University for the
better.
The eradication of the "not
gay" chant can be credited almost
entirely to the efforts of a Student Council ad hoc committee created to
address this problem. Members of the committee, led by Sarah Jobe and
Niko
Schutte, gave presentations to various groups on the different perspectives
on the chant, and facilitated discussions between group members. Over
the
span of two years, the Student Council ad hoc committee "talked it
up,"
meeting with various organizations around Grounds in order to inspire
dialogue on this issue.
In this way, the ad hoc committee
exemplified how powerful an effect
discourse can have on the University community. It was almost
universally
recognized among thoughtful individuals that the "not gay" chant
was an
intolerant and shameful practice. However, the chant didn't die out
because
of administrative efforts to silence students, or through any attempts to
stifle student speech. Rather, it was due to tireless student-led
efforts
over the course of two years to stimulate discussion that led to the end of
one of the most embarrassing traditions at the University.
One other point of note is that,
according to numerous reports, the
remnants of the chant were coming not from the student section, but from the
alumni section. On one hand, it's fairly discouraging to see our
alumni
behaving in such a manner - and certainly is a reminder that our
University's past isn't as untainted and tolerant as we would have hoped
(even in regard to recent history). Alumni should display a little
more
maturity and respect when saluting their alma mater.
On the other hand, it's extremely
heartening to see that current
students have almost wholly rejected the "not gay" chant.
This complete
about-face by the student population on the chant is the hallmark of an
inclusive and understanding university.
The focus of discussion at the
University is often on the myriad
problems that seem to exist within our community. So it's encouraging
to
look back at a problem that seemed insurmountable just three years ago, and
see the monumental difference that students have made in making the
University a more tolerant and accepting community.
#4
Wired, September 2, 2003
660 3rd Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94107
(E-Mail: newsfeedback@wired.com ) ( http://www.wired.com )
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,60035,00.html
CHANGE CHANNELS, CHANGE MINDS?
By Kristen Philipkoski
Increasing numbers of solidly
heterosexual males across the country
seem to be giggling at Bravo's new hit show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Stunned family members can't help but think: "Wow. The power of
television."
But does television really have the
power to transform people's
views? Or does it simply reflect attitudes already prevalent in
society? A
Kansas State researcher studied about 200 relatively sheltered rural Kansas
college students and found that popular TV shows dramatically improved their
attitudes toward gays and lesbians.
Richard Harris, a psychology professor
at Kansas State University,
asked the students (who have had little contact with gay people) to share
their thoughts about homosexuals. After considering gay characters
they
perceived to be portrayed in a positive light - Ellen DeGeneres and Will
from Will and Grace were two examples - their attitudes toward gays and
lesbians in general were significantly more positive.
"These are highly rated shows in
the top 10 and have huge exposure,"
Harris said. "Here's a case where Will, for example, is a
character from a
group that a lot of people have very negative views about. But this
character is portrayed in a very positive light and that influences our
attitudes to be more accepting towards gays."
Harris interviewed three groups of
about 60 students each. The first
was asked to think of a gay or lesbian character on TV who was portrayed in
a positive light. Twenty-eight percent chose Will, 18 percent picked
Ellen
DeGeneres, 9 percent chose Jack from Will and Grace, and the rest selected
various other characters.
The study participants rated the
characters on a scale of one to
seven based on whether they thought they were, for example, serious or
funny, responsible or irresponsible, moral or immoral. Then Harris
asked
them to rate themselves on a series of 40 statements on their attitudes
toward gays and lesbians such as: "I think male homosexuals are
disgusting,"
or "male sexuality is merely a different kind of lifestyle that should
not
be condemned."
The study participants' attitudes
toward gay and lesbian people were
significantly more positive than a control group and another group that were
asked to consider a character that they thought was portrayed negatively.
The findings prove television's
importance to creating tolerance in
remote and isolated populations, Harris said.
But critics of the study said this type
of research can't answer the
question of whether television content is actually the cause of such change.
Those intolerant of gay and lesbian people aren't likely to watch Will and
Grace in the first place, they said.
"Although gays in the media have
some effect, it is more that these
shows reflect the opening that is happening in society as a result of the
spread of higher education, growing secularism and political activism,"
said
James Hughes, associate director of institutional research and planning at
Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
Some wonder about the longevity of the
media's potential influence.
"The findings suggest that
people's attitudes in the short run are
highly malleable, but that does not mean that they would answer the same way
the next day or next month," said M. V. Lee Badgett, research director
at
the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies.
Life experiences are much more
effective than television shows when
it comes to changing beliefs, she added.
"Ongoing interactions with real
people are more important than brief
encounters with fictional characters, as other attitude research
suggests,"
Bladgett said.
Nevertheless, Harris believes gay and
lesbian advocacy groups could
follow the lead of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which has
partnered with the producers of ER for an episode to encourage cancer
screening. Prime time TV reaches far more people than a public service
announcement, he said.
While organizations like the Gay &
Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation, or GLAAD, may have not worked with television to develop
specific episodes, they have been working for several decades with various
media, especially TV and movies, to encourage positive and more accurate
portrayals of gays and lesbians, said Mary Ann Tolbert, executive director
at the center for lesbian and gay studies in religion and ministry at the
Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. She agrees that
television has a powerful effect on social attitudes.
"I certainly support that work
because I have always thought what
this study seems to confirm: that popular media shows and figures can have
enormous influence on the general public's opinions about social
issues,"
Tolbert said.
A representative from GLAAD did not
respond to requests for comment.
But Hughes said the approach could
prove to be counterproductive.
"It tends to underestimate the
intelligence and agency of the
viewers, who see through overly blatant and simplistic moralizing," he
said.
"It can backfire, as the Bush anti-drug warriors found when they tried
to
get Hollywood to script more anti-drug messages."
Harris performed the study before Queer
Eye for the Straight Guy
aired its first show and quickly became a national phenomenon, but Harris
predicts it will have even more Kansans clipping their nose hairs and
reconsidering their choice of boxers or briefs.
#5
Cavalier Daily, September 5, 2003
University of Virginia, Newcomb Hall, Charlottesville, VA, 22901
(E-Mail: cavdaily@cavalierdaily.com )
RETHINKING GAY CIVIL UNIONS
By Danny Eaton, Cavalier Daily Columnist
Legalizing civil unions among gay
couples will destroy this nation.
Or maybe it will finally acknowledge gay rights and treat gay people as they
should have been treated all along: like equals. Whatever your
position on
gay rights in all walks of life, it can't be denied that the issue of gay
civil unions has arrived suddenly at our front door.
Before daring to twist the doorknob, it
would be prudent for us to
look through the peephole - not because we're in Texas and we need to fear
sodomy laws, but because we could benefit by re-examining the entire concept
of gay civil unions. When we do, we will see that they might not be so
non-traditional, after all. This will considerably help to clarify the
national debate.
Ask Bradford Wilcox, assistant
professor in the Department of
Sociology, about marriage across cultures, and this is what he will tell
you:
"Heterosexual marriage is a
virtually universal social institution,
both across cultures and through time," Wilcox said in an email
interview.
He also gave a quote from the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, who
wrote, "The most important moral and legal rule concerning the
physiological
site of kinship is that no child should be brought into the world without a
man - and one man at that. I think this generalization amounts to a
universal sociological law."
Wow. If heterosexual bonds turn
out to be universal rather than just
Western norms, this debate dramatically changes.
Wilcox continued, "[Malinowski]
found that most societies
institutionalized this father role through marriage, whereby the biological
father was publicly bound to the mother of his children through a range of
social ties and normative sanctions. Subsequent anthropological
research
has largely vindicated Malinowski's view of the function of fatherhood and
marriage in societies around the globe."
In reading Wilcox's and Malinowski's
ideas, one might want to
consider if recognizing gay civil unions is such a good idea. Perhaps
there
is a reason, ingrained in the nature of human society, why legitimizing gay
relationships is not common in human history.
This issue is commonly introduced in a
moral context, but forget
about morality for a second and just consider human nature. Maybe
homosexuality is considered taboo for a reason.
No matter what you think about the
morality of gay civil unions, keep
in mind that elevating them to the same plane as heterosexual relationships
is a dramatic change for the society of mankind, not just the Western world.
Still, we must not limit ourselves to
one point of view. So ask
Richard Handler, professor in the department of anthropology. Over
email,
he claimed that plenty of kinship systems around the world exist in which
the "father-mother" relationship is not central.
Handler also pointed to a famous essay
on "The Nayars and the
Definition of Marriage." In this Indian caste, women are married
to
husbands they almost never see again. They are then free to enjoy
multiple
husbands and lovers and their children are raised by women's matrilineal
relatives. Handler claims the Nayar case is just one among many
examples we
know in which what "we Westerners consider to be the 'normal' and
'natural'
form of marriage has no relevance to what other people believe and do."
There may be many examples of societies
that eschew the bonding of a
man and women for other forms of societal glue.
The Oneida community, founded in 1848
by John Knoyes in Vermont,
shared a giant mansion and practiced polygamy. Every man was married
to
every woman. Everyone's kid was everybody else's kid. The
traditional
institution of marriage was eschewed, but children still had a support
structure to enjoy. Today the Oneida community is no more, though
their
common brand of silverware still shines in many homes.
The Oneida community wasn't alone in
living differently from we do
today. The Spartans of ancient Greece, along with many of their Greek
neighbors, certainly thought being gay was a good thing - but even they
didn't institute gay marriage.
Perhaps gay civil unions are neither
good nor bad from a sociological
point of view, but just something that gay people deserve after all these
years. One must seriously wonder, however, exactly what the reason is
for
the obvious lack of recognition for gay civil unions throughout world
history.
. Danny Eaton's column appear Fridays
in The Cavalier Daily. He can
be reached at deaton@cavalierdaily.com
#6
The Post & Courier, September 4, 2003
134 Columbus St., Charleston, SC, 29402
(Fax: 803-937-5579 ) (E-Mail: editor@postandcourier.com )
( http://www.postandcourier.com )
http://www.charleston.net/stories/090403/loc_04transgender.shtml
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON WEIGHS MINOR IN GAY, LESBIAN STUDIES
As film and lecture series opens, faculty plans to develop program that
could be first in state
By Seanna Adcox of The Post and Courier Staff
A yearlong film and lecture series on
gay and lesbian issues kicks
off tonight at the College of Charleston as professors consider creating a
minor on the topic.
The series, open to the public, starts
with the showing of the 2000
documentary "Southern Comfort," which records the last year of a
female-to-male transsexual dying of ovarian cancer. It corresponds to
a
sociology course, "Southern Sexual Identities & Communities,"
taught this
fall and a philosophy class, "Lesbian and Gay Rights," offered
next
semester.
Universities across the nation are
offering courses on gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender issues, but few schools have developed a minor in
the subject. In the South, North Carolina's Duke University provides a
six-course certificate program in the "study of sexualities."
A minor in gay and lesbian issues at
the College of Charleston could
be a first for South Carolina, long considered a conservative bastion.
Officials stress that the proposal is in its preliminary stages but say the
upcoming film series and this year's classes make sense for the school.
"We've had a fairly active
lesbian-gay contingent for quite some
time," said Christine Hope, the chairwoman of the sociology and
anthropology
department. "Charleston is somewhat different from the rest of
the state.
We get more students who are interested in the arts, who aren't quite so
conventional. It's a good idea to have it here, whether other schools
have
such a program or not."
Faculty members, in consultation with
the student group Gay Straight
Alliance, plan to develop a minor program this fall and present it to the
school's curriculum committee next spring. If approved, students could
choose to minor in the topic as early as next fall, Hope said.
The consideration brought criticism
from Robert Baker, the bishop of
the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, which includes the entire state.
"I'm surprised that a
state-operated university would offer a course
that does not reflect the sentiments of most of the taxpayers of South
Carolina in its moral content," he said in a statement.
"Such would not be
intellectual freedom, but intellectual tyranny. What about a course in
the
history of stable, monogamous, heterosexual marriages in the state?"
The South Carolina Christian Action
Council had no position, but its
executive minister, Brenda Kneece, said: "I would affirm people
learning
about other people. I feel the more we know, the greater is our
understanding of the issues and the challenges we all face."
At the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor, a course this fall titled
"How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation" prompted a
backlash from
the state branch of the conservative American Family Association.
Warren Redman-Gress blames that
controversy on "someone's attempt to
get a catchy phrase for the course."
"I have never met anyone who has
learned to be gay," said the
executive director of the 300-member Alliance for Full Acceptance in
Charleston. As for the College of Charleston's consideration of a
minor
course of study in gay and lesbian issues, he said: "Why not? The
role of
every institution is really to broaden people's minds."
Richard Nunan, part of the committee
researching the College of
Charleston's possible minor, has taught a gay rights course twice, last fall
and in 1999, without any hullabaloo. The classes seemed to be filled
with a
mixture of gay and heterosexual students, he said.
Nunan, a professor of philosophy and
religious studies, doubts that
the school's film and lecture series will generate much criticism either.
"I think attitudes in our culture are evolving about human
sexuality," he
said.
This semester's sexual identities
class, which filled to its
30-student maximum soon after its posting, gives a historical perspective,
said its professor, James Sears. According to his syllabus, the class
examines the evolution of gay experiences in the South in the 1900s by
focusing on "three generations of lesbian, bisexual, gay and
transgender
Southerners, with particular emphasis in Charleston."
The college hired Sears, a University
of South Carolina English
professor and the author of several books on gay issues in the South, to
teach the course and organize this fall's film series. In the spring,
Nunan
will hold a film and discussion series on sex, politics and the law.
The school has held periodic lectures
on gay issues, but this is said
to be the first organized, yearlong series.
"Beyond the broad intellectual
appeal, a series on lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender identities ... teaches about tolerance, acceptance
of diversity, and learning to look beyond gender differences and choices to
everyone's common humanity," said film series coordinator Catherine
Evans.
Sears, a Charleston-area resident,
discounts the idea that the
college is breaking new ground in South Carolina. He points to a
lecture
series at Furman University and a social work course at USC this fall on gay
and bisexual issues.
. "Southern Sexual Identities" Series
Tonight: "Southern Comfort",
film, 6 p.m., Education Center, 25 St.
Philip St.
Sept. 10: Playwright Kate Bornstein,
dramatic presentation on life as
a transsexual, 7 p.m. Physicians Auditorium
Sept. 16: Author Rita Mae Brown,
lecture, 3:30 p.m., Physicians
Auditorium
Sept. 25: "It's In The
Water," film, 6 p.m., Education Center
Oct. 2: "Reflections in a Golden
Eye," film, 6 p.m., Education Center
Oct. 9: Documentary filmmaker Dan
Griffin, lecture and excerpts from
"Carson McCullers: A Southern Biography", 6 p.m., Simons Center,
44 St.
Philip St.
#7
Indiana Daily Student, September 5, 2003
Ernie Pyle Hall, Bloomington, IN, 47405
(E-Mail: letters@indiana.edu ) ( http://www.idsnews.com )
http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=17959
[INDIANA UNIVERSITY] PROFESSOR'S SITE TAKEN OFF IU SERVER
STUDENTS, STAFF UPSET BY MESSAGE ABOUT HOMOSEXUALS
By Maura Halpern
A Web log created by a business
professor to express views on
homosexuality and other issues has been removed from an IU server, after
causing controversy and angering some on campus.
Professor Eric Rasmusen, who teaches
multiple courses in the Kelley
School of Business, was asked to take his opinions off a University Web page
by Kelley School of Business Dean Dan Dalton, Thursday.
In his Web log, which was accessible to
students and staff, he
expressed his views about why homosexuals should not be teachers, elected
officials and doctors. The log also discussed issues relating to the
death
penalty, war in Iraq, religion and affirmative action, among others.
In his log posted on the IU server,
Rasmusen stated: "A second reason
not to hire homosexuals as teachers is that it puts the fox into the chicken
coop. Male homosexuals, at least, like boys and are generally
promiscuous.
They should not be given the opportunity to satisfy their desires.
Somewhat
related is a reason not to hire a homosexual as a doctor even though you
would hire him as a lawyer: you don't mind if your lawyer has a venereal
disease such as HIV or hepatitis, but you do mind if your doctor is in a
class of people among whom such diseases are common."
The material in question posted on the
IU server angered students,
faculty and staff both in the business school and around the University.
Doug Bauder, coordinator of the Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgender services, said a staff member called the GLBT office and brought
the site to his attention.
"It's not an easy Web page to look
at," Bauder said. "From what I
read, it is very offensive. I'm glad people in the business school are
responding to this."
But Rasmusen said his position is not
that unusual, especially
outside a college environment.
"I did not know it was so
controversial to provide arguments for why
homosexuals should not be employed as school teachers, but it seems that
people at universities get excited about opinions that are common, perhaps
even the norm, elsewhere in the United States," Rasmusen said in an
e-mail
sent to the IDS.
After Rasmusen spoke with Dalton
Thursday afternoon, the professor
agreed to remove the materials immediately from the IU Web site, Dalton
said.
"Most important, the content of
the Web log does not reflect the
attitude of the Kelley School of Business," Dalton said.
"Any individual
has the right have his or her opinion on a personal Web site, but I am not
certain about that right extending to an IU site."
Dalton said the school does not wish to
deprive anyone of his or her
rights, but instead wishes to look into the rules regarding what can be
posted on IU's state-funded server.
"I regret that it appeared on an
IU Web site," Dalton said. "With
the advice of others at IU, we will fully investigate and determine an
individuals' rights and responsibilities associated with IU Web sites and we
will proceed from there."
Rasmusen said he hopes the situation
won't impede faculty, staff and
students with certain views from expressing their opinions on campus.
"It will be interesting to see how
this plays out in terms of the
amount of political discussion allowed at IU," Rasmusen said in the
e-mail.
"I hope the desire of some people to shut down discussion they dislike
will
not translate into loss of political diversity here on campus, or discourage
conservative students and faculty from voicing their views."
Joe Boes, an academic adviser in the
business school, said he found
the material offensive because of the threats it poses to the GLBT
community.
"I am hoping this is an isolated
incident because I have always felt
supported by the Kelley School of Business and [Dean Dalton] in regards to
my own sexual orientation," Boes said. "I respect other
people's opinions,
but when they are expressed on IU's server, I do not think it is
appropriate."
Boes said although he supports free
speech, the nature of the log
intimidates students who are already apprehensive about coming out.
"When [students] are exposed to
this type of opinion it pushes them
further into the closet," Boes said. "This is an unfortunate
incident, but
Dean [Dalton] is handling the situation appropriately."
. Contact staff writer Maura Halpern at
mhalpern@indiana.edu.
#8
The Daily Journal, September 6, 2003
891 East Oak Road, Vineland, NJ, 08360
(Fax: 609-691-2031 ) ( http://www.thedailyjournal.com )
http://www.thedailyjournal.com/news/stories/20030906/localnews/200606.html
STUDENT WANTS SCOUTS OFF CAMPUS [AT CUMBERLAND COUNTY COLLEGE]
GAY VINELANDER CONTENDS COLLEGE CAN'T HOST DISCRIMINATORY GROUP
By Miles Jackson, mjackson@thedailyjournal.com
VINELAND - When Kyle Brandon
arrived for classes at Cumberland
County College one night last spring, he didn't expect to come face to face
with dozens of members of the Boy Scouts of America.
But that's what happened when
Brandon, a 36-year-old openly gay
Vineland resident, walked into the college's Frank Guaracini Jr. Fine and
Performing Arts Center. The stress of witnessing the start of a Boy
Scouts
award ceremony for the college's president, Kenneth Ender, was so intense
that he broke out in cold sweat, Brandon said.
In the months since that day in
April, Brandon's experience has
brought the national debate on the Boy Scouts of America's policies toward
gays and atheists to the college's pine tree-shaded campus. And school
officials are taking the debate seriously.
In a complaint filed with the
school's Board of Trustees last month,
Brandon asks that the Boy Scouts be banned from CCC's campus because of the
organization's refusal to extend membership to atheists and gays.
"The (U.S.) Supreme Court
said the Boy Scouts have the right to
discriminate," Brandon said. "But that doesn't mean an
institution that
receives state and federal funding should open their doors to them."
Brandon also questions how Ender
can justify his decision to accept
an award on campus from an organization that discriminates against some
members of society when the college has diversity and nondiscrimination
policies in place.
Although he has kept his
complaint between himself and the college,
Brandon said he might take his case to court should the Boy Scouts be
allowed to meet on campus again.
Brandon's reaction took Ender by
surprise. The former Eagle Scout
said he never thought the award ceremony by the organization's Southern New
Jersey Council would tap into a national controversy.
"I had no idea I would be
facing this issue," Ender said Friday. "I
knew that there was a national issue with the Boy Scouts, but I didn't think
it had anything to do with this ceremony."
Ender noted he had taken steps to
make sure there was no conflict of
interest with the ceremony honoring him as the council's Citizen of the Year
by paying all expenses for use of the college's facilities out of his own
pocket.
Topic for debate
In the coming months, Ender said,
he wants to foster the debate on
the Boy Scouts' policies and whether those rules preclude the organization
from use of the college's facilities.
"At some point, I have to
address the Board (of Trustees) on how to
handle this student's complaint," Ender said. "It's my
responsibility to
make sure we have a climate at the college where this issue can be debated
freely by all parties involved."
As an Eagle Scout during his
youth, Ender said he never considered
the Boy Scouts an organization that discriminated. As an adult and a
college president, Ender said, he believes he has fostered an atmosphere of
tolerance and diversity on campus.
But if the Board of Trustees or a
court decision goes against the
Boy Scouts, he said, the organization and other groups deemed to have
discriminatory policies could be banned from the campus.
Any such decision, however, would
be made only after extensive
debate, Ender said.
"I know this issue is not
going to go away," he said. "But we're
not going to rush to judgment."
Brandon's complaint also has been
forwarded to Frank Basile, the
college's attorney, who will make a legal determination on the issue, Ender
said.
Contacted last week, Basile said
the issue requires extensive
research of rulings by the N.J. Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court and a
reconciliation of each court's different opinions.
A 1999 state Supreme Court ruling
complicates the issue for New
Jersey's public institutions, said David Buckel, a senior staff attorney at
Lambda, a civil rights organization that tried the case.
In that case, a gay Rutgers
University student successfully kept the
Boy Scouts off campus because of the organization's policies toward gays.
But the U.S. Supreme Court in
part overturned the state court's
decision, saying the Boy Scouts' policies were within the organization's
rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association.
"The Boy Scouts can get away
with discrimination because of the U.S.
Supreme Court ruling," Buckel said.
But because New Jersey's top
court ruled against the Boy Scouts,
Buckel said, the state's public institutions should take a careful look at
any association with the organization's activities.
Would ban be discriminatory?
David Perry, executive director
of the Southern New Jersey Council
of the Boy Scouts of America, said the organization does not consider its
policy to be discriminatory. Banning the group from returning to
Cumberland
County College, however, would be a form of discrimination, he said.
Because the Boy Scouts want to
imbue young people with a deep faith
in God, Perry said, atheists would not be able to meet the organization's
goals. And people who openly profess anything other than heterosexual
orientation are not the role models the Boy Scouts want for its members, he
said.
Besides, Perry said many
organizations, including the Boy Scouts and
Girl Scouts, have restricted membership.
"Any same-sex organization
is, by nature, discriminatory," Perry
said.
Banning the boy Scouts from the
college campus would open a can or
worms that would close the college's facilities to a wide range or
organizations, Perry said.
"If you select to
discriminate against one organization because of
its viewpoint," he said, "you must do the same to all
organizations with a
viewpoint."
#9
Salt Lake Tribune, September 7, 2003
P. O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, UT, 84110
(Fax: 801-257-8950) (E-Mail: letters@sltrib.com )
( http://www.sltrib.com )
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/sep/09072003/commenta/90189.asp
GAY AND LESBIAN MORMONS DECRY APOSTLE'S REMARKS [AT BRIGHAM YOUNG
UNIVERSITY]
By Hugo Salinas
Members of Affirmation: Gay and
Lesbian Mormons are embarrassed and
saddened by recent statements by LDS Church Apostle Russell M. Ballard at
Brigham Young University (Tribune, Aug. 21).
It is difficult to understand how
LDS leaders today could be so
invested in condemning and making illegal an alternative family model when
early Mormon leaders were so persecuted and excluded for practicing another
alternative family model.
Elder Ballard and other LDS
leaders view the prospect of same-sex
unions as nothing short of apocalyptic. But many of us have been
living for
years with same-sex partners, raising children and providing for our
families. And the sky has not yet fallen.
We do not understand how this
aggressive crusade against same-sex
unions will help strengthen families, but we do see daily how the rhetoric
of exclusion helps destroy lives. We see it among many who are
excommunicated from their religious communities and ostracized by their
families; we see it among those who undergo horrific so-called
"treatments"
in order to repress their natural feelings; we see it among those who turn
to suicide in a desperate attempt to alleviate their pain and alienation
from the church.
When Elder Ballard condemns gay
and lesbian families, he is not
addressing some abstract satanic force at play in Canada, or in the
Netherlands, or in San Francisco. He is condemning thousands of Mormon
families here in Utah; condemning your neighbors, your children, and your
siblings; in effect, asking that you reject your own.
. Hugo Salinas is associate
director of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian
Mormons and lives in Salt Lake City. His commentary represents the
organization's executive committee.
#10
365Gay.com, September 7, 2003
http://www.365gay.com/NewsContent/090703profUpdt.htm
[INDIANA UNIVERSITY] PROF'S ANTI-GAY BLOG RETURNS TO UNIVERSITY WEBSITE
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Bloomington, Indiana - A day
after Indiana University ordered the
removal of one of its professors web log that contained anti-gay postings,
it has been reinstated.
A university attorney determined
that the web log, or blog, did not
violate any school policies, and that removing it could be a violation of
Professor Eric Rasmusen's right of free speech.
Rasmusen who teaches business
uses the postings to condemn gays and
calls for gays and lesbians to be removed from jobs as teachers, elected
officials and doctors.
Among the postings is one
equating gays to child molesters.
"Male homosexuals, at least,
like boys and are generally
promiscuous. They should not be given the opportunity to satisfy their
desires," the posting says.
The log created a storm of
controversy with gay students and faculty
calling for its removal from the university server.
Friday it was removed, but
following the legal opinion, the log
returned on the weekend.
IU spokesperson Jane Jankowski
said IU allows students and employees
to create personal Web pages that are available through its Web site, but
the university does not accept responsibility for their content.
"Certainly there are going
to be times when there is going to be
information that some people might disagree with, but that doesn't mean that
information is illegal or violates policy," she said.
#11
Greeley Daily Tribune, September 7, 2003
Box 1138, Greeley, CO, 80631
(Fax: 970-356-5780) (E-Mail: cobler@greeleytrib.com )
http://www.greeleytrib.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030907/NEWS/30907003
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO CLASS PROJECT TAKES LOOK AT
HOMOSEXUALITY
Story by Heather Pitzel
"The fact that I am a
lesbian is not the all-encompassing factor of
what makes me, me. I am a sister, a friend, an employee, a student, a
thinker, a writer and a dreamer. I like to laugh and read and ride my
motorcycle. I have a Bohemian heart that pines for the open road and the
mystery of meeting new people. I bleed. I feel. I don't want to be
judged."
- Victoria Matthews
When a peer suggested
homosexuality as a topic for a college class
project in the spring, Victoria Matthews was surprised. It took a
married
woman in class to suggest it, and it beat out budget cuts for the project.
She thought about homosexuality
as a topic but didn't want to bring
it up, said Matthews, a 30-year-old who graduated from the University of
Northern Colorado in May with a journalism degree. "The majority
of the
class knew I was a lesbian, and I didn't want to seem like a champion of
causes."
Matthews has lived in Greeley for
more than five years, ever since
she moved here with her ex-girlfriend in January 1998. She's had
people
walk up and give her religious pamphlets, trying to save her soul. She
usually takes them and says thanks. An argument is useless, she said,
because she wouldn't change anyone's mind in five minutes.
Instead, she chooses to live as
openly and as honestly as possible
to educate people in her own way.
"If they don't like me
because they make a superficial judgment
about me, or if they can't get over their insecurities or bigotry, it's
their loss," said Matthews, who sports short hair and has tattoos on
her
shoulders. "It's like judging people because of the color of
their skin."
A typical stereotype is that
homosexuals are trying to convert
straight people, she said, so she picks her battles. And when the
battles
wear her out, she and her friends find comic relief in the joke about there
being a handbook for lesbians and gays. "If I recruit one more, I
get a
toaster oven" is one of the gags.
There is no handbook.
Matthews chose to be a student,
not an advocate of gay rights in
class that day discussing topics for the project. Every student had
responsibilities on the project of either writing, editing, photography or
layout. Classmates said there was only one student who might have had
objections to the topic on moral grounds. At the end of the project,
students had sharpened more than their journalistic skills.
"A couple of students went
in with some knowledge about
homosexuality because they had a friend, a family member or an acquaintance
they knew was gay," she said. "After the project, most of
them understood
the challenges better. They definitely experienced personal
growth."
For her part in the project,
Matthews wrote a first-person account
of coming out at the age of 21 and what it's been like for her. Her
mother
and sister are supportive, but she's had friends who lost their families
when they came out. She writes about how frustrating it is to not be
able
to kiss a girlfriend or hold her hand in public, about how she's endured
snide comments from strangers.
She writes about the insult of
the Colorado state legislature
rejecting a bill to allow same-sex unions while considering a law that would
have raised the status of a domestic pet from animal to companion.
Feeling
discriminated against could have made her bitter.
Instead, Matthews approaches life
open to people and open to
questions. She grew up in Clovis, N.M., which she describes as a small
religious town. To be gay is to not be normal but to be something
disgusting, she said.
So she played it straight.
"I tried to play on those
stereotypes of being straight. I had a
Chippendales calendar in my locker in seventh grade."
She wonders aloud whether she
would have come out if her father, a
military man, hadn't died of liver failure. Matthews was 19 at the
time and
blames youthful pride on not telling him she loved him before he died.
She learned a valuable life
lesson that she said she uses every day:
show kindness and love.
Matthews said she doesn't even
smush spiders and walks around ants
on the sidewalk. So she was concerned she might not like what she
found
when she embarked on her Greyhound bus tour of America this summer.
After
15,000 miles in three weeks, she was surprised at what she learned.
Matthews stayed the optimistic person she was at the beginning of her trip.
She was reassured to find that people are the same all over, if people open
up and talk.
Matthews wants to write a book
about her experiences.
Although she had a buddy
traveling with her for three weeks, she
went solo later in the trip.
She plans to move to Portland
with some friends, where she hopes to
get a job writing.
Some people drove her up a wall
in Greeley, but Matthews said when
she leaves in December, she'll leave as a confident woman who's sure she can
make it in the world.
"Greeley became the place I
stopped running and freed up who I am.
Greeley will always hold a special place in my heart."
About the project
During the spring semester of
2003, students in the advanced news
and feature writing class at the University of Northern Colorado took an
in-depth look at Greeley's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
In consultation with their professor, Lynn Klyde-Silverstein, the students
initiated story ideas, researched the issues, wrote and edited the stories,
took photographs and created informational graphics.
To read the stories, go to the
class' Web site called "reflexions"
at www.unco.edu/jmc/reflexions.
Excerpts:
"I'm a lesbian and I like to
do all the things that non-gay people
do," Greeley resident Sandy Hoffman said. "But when I'm on a
date I can't
kiss my girlfriend in public. I have been out with friends at
restaurants
and heard snide comments like, 'What are they doing here?'"
- From an article by Becky Linenberger
For students questioning their
sexuality, one of the many overlooked
resources that the University of Northern Colorado offers is found in the
course catalog.
A quick search reveals that the
anthropology, sociology and women's
studies departments all offer courses that discuss sexuality and gender.
"Class discussions get issues out in a nonjudgmental context and keeps
it
from becoming personal," philosophy and women's studies lecturer Lisa
King
said. "I have seen some people's ideas change over the course of
a semester
about homosexuality, even though it is rare."
- From an article by Victoria Matthews
In the '90s, colleges and universities began to include
bisexuals in the
gay and lesbian campus organizations. At UNC, the Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual,
Transgender Resource Center includes bisexuals in its title. Yet some
still
question whether bisexuals are just "straddling the fence" or
looking to
experiment.
- From an article by Courtney James
Terri Sparks of Loveland is a
41-year-old civil rights activist.
She said Amendment 2 encouraged activism in Colorado.
"The amendment was
outrageous and it brought rights activists
together," Sparks said.
"Groups got organized and even those
activists who are not gay supported the right to petition the government.
It only made the gay rights organizations stronger."
- From an article by Beth Alles
Doctors may assume patients are
heterosexual and not discuss certain
issues or risk factors.
"They always ask how many
partners you've had. They never ask who
or what. Doctors need to know because it's part of your sexual history
so
they can advise you on what you can do to be safer, so they can give condoms
and dental dams," said Becky George of Denver.
- From an article by Elizabeth Bright and Lani Weaver
At the University of Northern
Colorado, the football team consists
of about 100 athletes. If statistics are true, one if not more of the
players is homosexual. As a stereotypically "macho" sport,
one would think
that this would worry many of the players, but cornerback Mark Teerlinck
doesn't see it that way.
"Who cares? I'm sure
somebody on the team is probably gay. We're
worried about winning games, not about stuff like that," Teerlinck
said.
- From an article by Tony Lee
#12
Bangor Daily News, September 6 - 7, 2003
Maine Weekend Edition, Style section
P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402-1329
(Fax: 207-941-9476 ) (E-Mail: bdnmail@bangordailynews.net )
( http://www.bangornews.com/ )
FROM JAMES TO JENNY
GENDER REASSIGNMENT IS THE TOPIC OF COLBY PROFESSOR JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN'S
NEW MEMOIR
By Alicia Anstead of the News Staff
"I finally am what I
am." - Jennifer Finney Boylan
When Jennifer Finney Boylan
opened the large window in her office,
she hoisted the frame with strong arms and stretched one foot out
ballet-style behind her. Her summer skirt rose slightly, and she
yanked at
it correctively before sitting. With a flip of her long blonde hair,
Boylan
smiled and said that, like a lot of women in their 40s, she has her
priorities straight. She loves her two boys. She loves her
partner, her
friends and her job as co-chair of the English department at Colby College
in Waterville [Maine]. And she loves being a woman.
It's that last priority that is
winning Boylan national attention
these days. She began life as James Boylan, but in 2002 had gender
reassignment surgery and is now Jenny, tall, lithe and female. She's
still
a parent of two. She still lives with the woman she married before the
surgery. And she still loves her friends and job. All that is
the same.
Except now she has a C-cup bra size and manicured nails with pink polish.
Boylan's new memoir "She's
Not There: A Life in Two Genders"
chronicles her earlier life as a man yearning for womanhood and finally
achieving it through the operation that converted her body into the one she
felt she should have been born with. She wanted to talk, to dress, to
move
and to make love as a woman.
Though interrupted from her
pre-semester planning last month,
Boylan, 46, eagerly talked about the big changes in her life and the even
bigger issue that she is, essentially, the same person she was as a man.
She kicked off her sandals and folded one of her long legs under her bottom.
The toes of her size-12 free foot wiggled fancifully on the handle of an
open desk drawer.
"In many ways, the most
important thing is about how much the same
my world is," she said. "That's hard for people to get their
heads around."
Boylan, a native of Pennsylvania,
still likes baseball, plays
keyboards in a rock band, is passionate about literature. She has
written
three novels, scripts for films and a collection of short stories under the
name James Finney Boylan. Under a pseudonym, she has published four
young
adult books. And she is working on her next book.
The only outstanding personal
difference between her life as James
and Jenny, she said, is that she no longer spends any time wishing she were
a woman.
"The best thing is that I
now have what all women have, which is the
great gift of not having to think about it," said Boylan.
"As a guy, I
thought about it all the time. It's not like: Oh, I'm so happy to wear
earrings and thrilled to have a purse. What I have is the ability to
not be
burdened by a constant sense of grief. Now I fit into my skin. I
finally
am what I am."
Boylan, a great fan of comic
writing, paused and chuckled: "I sound
like a transgendered Popeye."
Yet the writer is the first to
admit that, while she has resolved
her own pain, she has caused a considerable amount of agony to others,
particularly her family. For that reason, she won't permit interviews
with
them. Media meetings with her take place at Colby instead of at home.
The
protection is the responsible approach to going public, she said, with a
story that reveals intimate details and strained emotions.
Boylan does, however, direct
attention to another important personal
figure and an inadvertent spokesperson for her journey, Pulitzer
Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo. Russo, who lives in Camden and
formerly taught at Colby, is one of the few characters in the book whose
name was not changed. He knew Boylan as James, and the two had a
lively
friendship of literary banter as men.
As recounted in "She's Not
There," Russo was surprised when his guy
pal described a tormented life as a man and plans for making the radical
alteration into womanhood. Russo swore allegiance to the friendship
but
found himself doubting his own liberality of spirit. In the end, Russo
and
his wife, Barbara, along with Boylan's wife, were in the recovery room with
Boylan when the surgery took place, and Russo's supportive postscript makes
up the final chapters of "She's Not There."
Many readers are likely to come
to the book with a preconceived
notion about it being a freakish sex manual or an account of a man's journey
to his feminine side. Nothing could be further from the truth, said
Boylan.
The book, she added, is not ultimately even about gender; it is about a
personal quest for selfhood. It's akin to classic stories such as
"The
Odyssey" and "Huckleberry Finn" that she teaches at Colby,
rather than to
sex-change porn.
"This is not about being
masculine or feminine. It's not about
affect or about being gay or lesbian. It has nothing to do with sexual
orientation. It's about a physical disconnect between your brain and
soul
and body. Your soul and mind don't match your body. It's
constant agony,"
said Boylan.
As she was speaking, the phone
rang. It was a request for her to be
on a radio sex-talk show in Georgia. Boylan was polite but firm:
Thanks
for the offer but it's the wrong venue for a college professor and a mother
of two. "I'm not the Jackie Robinson of transsexuals," she
said after
hanging up. "But it's still necessary for me to set a good
example."
Living in Maine, Boylan added,
has grounded her in a world in which
responsibility and respect can thrive. It's not a rural backwater
filled
with rednecks stalking her, she said. In fact, her neighbors in the
state
have treated her with acceptance at best and indifference at worst.
"One thing about Mainers is
that they have great respect for
people's privacy," she said. "As long as you're not in their
faces, they
have a real live-and-let-live philosophy. People in rural Maine are
just as
sophisticated as anywhere else. They may not have a Ph.D. in
sociology, but
they know how hard life is. They suffer through winters and learn to
be
patient and hope for the sun. So I think all of that made it a little
easier for me. I was lucky to live where I live."
Boylan's hope is that she can
begin to live her life without
continued attention to her sexual assignment. She prefers to be
thought of
as a teacher, mother, writer.
Her life as a man slowly is
becoming the distant past, and she's
looking ahead now.
"How long will it be before
I have as much female history as I have
male history? Another 40 years," Boylan said. "But
even then I won't be
exactly like other women because I don't have a girlhood. It's not
biology.
It's history that makes me different from other women. I've come to
these
shores and now I've got my green card. I'm naturalized. Perhaps
I'll
always speak with a foreign accent. But I love this gender and like
new
immigrants, I'm more patriotic than the people who were born here."