Queer News On Campus

QNOC Digest 2011.02.06

2011-02-07T15:36:00.002-05:00

Queer News On Campus [QNOC] Articles Digest
For the week ending 2011.02.06

Brought to you by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. http://www.lgbtcampus.org

Archives of the QNOC Digest can be found at http://queernewsoncampus.blogspot.com

Reminder: If you come across articles that should be included in the digest, please email a link to the article to articles@lgbtcampus.org

1. Inside Higher Ed - Quick Takes: Hope College Issues Statement on Sexuality
2. Blue & Gold (Centralia College) - Homophobia in America
3. The Bell Ringer (Augusta State University) - Gay-Straight Alliance Strives for Equality, Education and Support
4. The Tufts Daily - Impact on ROTC of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal unclear
5. The Signal (Georgia State University) - ‘Queering His Dream’ highlights social activists
6. The Daily LSU Reveille - Website launches system to rank schools by LGBTQ-friendliness
7. The New York Times - Chick-fil-A Protests at N.Y.U. Are Muted
8. The Advocate - Ivy Leaguers Fight ROTC for Trans Rights
9. The Wellesley News - College appoints new LGBTQ advisor
10. The Ithaca Journal - Tompkins Entertainment watch: LGBT film series at Ithaca College
11. The Harvard Crimson - ROTC Faces Uphill Battle
12. The Huffington Post - Gay Rights and University ROTC Policy
13. The McGill Daily - BSN and Queer McGill event addresses race, sexuality
14. The Windsor Star - Dan Savage bringing It Gets Better message to University of Windsor

1. Inside Higher Ed, January 31, 2011
1320 18th Street NW, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/31/qt#249781
Hope College Issues Statement on Sexuality
Unknown

Hope College's board has adopted a new statement on sexuality that affirms the legitimacy of scholarly examination of sexuality, even if that examination does not adhere to the teachings of the Reformed Church in America, with which the college is affiliated. "Hope College promotes the indispensable value of intellectual freedom and recognizes that there are Christians who take scripture seriously and hold other views. Hope College affirms the scholarly examination and discussion of all issues surrounding human sexuality even if they differ from the institutional position," says the statement. The board studied the issue and released the statement amid criticism over the college's decision last year to block an appearance on campus by Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter for the film "Milk" and an advocate for gay rights.

While the new board statement affirms the right of professors to examine issues of sexuality, it is not clear that student groups could invite someone like Black to appear on campus. The board statement says: "Sexuality, including longing and expression, is a good gift from God and a fact of our existence affirmed in the Christian scriptures and by the Church throughout the centuries. This biblical witness calls us to a life of chastity among the unmarried and the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.... Accordingly, Hope College will not recognize or support campus groups whose aim by statement, practice, or intimation is to promote a vision of human sexuality that is contrary to this understanding of biblical teaching."

2. Blue & Gold (Centralia College), January 31, 2011
http://www.ccbluegold.com/homophobia-in-america-1.2452963
Homophobia in America
By Sarah Peterson, B. Eric Stak

It is impossible to know how many people in the US are homophobic. Many people are homophobic without even realizing it. Of course many people also are outspokenly homophobic. And there is the age-old self-justification for discriminatory remarks, "I hate gay people, but I'm not homophobic. I have a gay friend, Bob, the guy down the street." In other words, many are socially programmed to dislike a certain type of people, but when they actually meet that type of person they find that the person is not as bad as the social programming leads them to believe. Even so, knowing a person demonized by society is often not enough to change one's behavior, speech patterns, or attitudes.
So, does it bother you to hear a comment about someone being gay? For instance, the phrase, "That's so gay!" People often make these comments with no regard for how it makes others feel.
How do you feel when you see a flamboyantly gay person? What do you think? Many people feel uncomfortable; perhaps even "homophobic."
When people have a "phobia," it usually means they are afraid of something; so one can assume the definition of homophobic is a person who is "afraid of gay people." Wrong! Most people aren't really "afraid" of homosexuals, the way the word is used today means to "hate" gays.
Last year, nine out of ten LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender) students reported that they were harassed during school. According to thinkb4youspeak.commore than one-third of LGBT are physically assaulted.
"My children are gay and it's me who doesn't feel safe," a young mother stated. "My daughter lost her job because people at work were harassing her, and I kept calling to have something done about it."
"And my daughter was almost raped by her roommate because he believed that it would make her choose men over women," lamented the young mother.
On another occasion, the local paper came to Centralia's Gay Pride Parade and interviewed a young man. They published his picture and the fact that he was gay without permission. His family did not previously know about his sexual orientation, so that "public outing" caused a lot of grief for him and his family.
Situations like this need to be taken seriously because there are people who might take an opportunity like this to hurt gays. Many gay people publically exposed like that end up hurt, or even dead.
Last year, in just three weeks, five teens committed suicide because they could not handle the stress and harassment from being gay; and those are only the cases that made headlines! There is no way to tell how many gays have actually taken their lives.
"People need to learn how to deal with homophobia and why it is offensive," Genesis Leal, Director of Social Issues at Centralia College, said.
Leal believes the problem with most homophobes is the need to be more open-minded. "People are entitled to disagree, but they need to be more respectful of others feelings, not just their own," she said.
"I feel that people who make derogatory comments toward gays are basically ignorant. They have not been taught to accept people who are different from them. They think it is okay [to think that way] because they are what society considers normal. I think it is pretty disrespectful in the end," a young man who preferred to remain anonymous, said.
It is unfortunate that due to the circumstances of the times and setting, most of the individuals interviewed did not want their names to be used in this article because they are afraid it will only increase the constant harassment they receive.
One person said he understands that when people say things like "That's so gay!" they just mean that "something is stupid."
"Even though I know what they are talking about, it is still hurtful," he said.
Many around campus feel that it is wrong when people are treated differently because they are gay.
"The only difference, in my opinion, is that they can't make babies," Rebecca Painter, a CC student, said.
The Student Activities Admissions Team recently held a "Chat-N-Chow" titled, "That's So Gay!" Seven staff members and fourteen students attended, and everyone had helpful comments and felt the meeting went well.
"We chose to discuss ‘That's so Gay' because we believe that the campus needs to have an open table concerning this issue; a time to sit down and talk about this problem," Genesis Leal said.
Sara Kaiser, a student attendee added, "In the ‘now' generation, when we say something like ‘That's so Gay,' it is because we are looking for something to describe how we feel, but we don't think about how it will make someone else feel."
Dani Chang directed the Chat-N-Chow. She is the Student Director of Student Activities from Green River Community College. She held a presentation at the NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) and the SAAT team found her to be very motivating and a clear speaker.
Chang emphasized, "Education is Key!"
"You won't know how to handle a situation or how it really makes someone feel when you say gay comments unless you put yourself in their shoes. It is common sense," Chang said.
Gay people who feel hurt by someone making rude comments regarding gays should confront them (in a safe environment). Using calm language can help prevent retaliation and taunting. Never bully back and stoop to that level of ignorance, which can only make the problem worse.
Using any type of vulgar language can be hurtful; but making comments directed toward the LGBT community is without question inappropriate. Ugly comments hurt people. People should take a moment to consider how they treat others, and most importantly, think before they speak.

3. The Bell Ringer (Augusta State University), February 1, 2011
http://www.asubellringer.com/2011/02/01/gay-straight-alliance-strives-for-equality-education-and-support/
Gay-Straight Alliance Strives for Equality, Education and Support
By Shawna Freeman

Campus club lambda Alliance offers support to homosexual students while promoting equality for both gay and straight individuals.
Lambda Alliance is an on-campus club with a mission to promote equal rights for both gay and straight students. It is often referred to as the Gay-Straight Alliance.
“We believe that rights are even rights, no matter who you are,” said lambda Alliance club treasurer Julie Hudson, a public administration graduate student. “You don’t have to be gay to believe in gay rights. There are all kinds of issues that affect every facet of the community, but disproportionately affect gay people.”
Robert White, the club secretary and a freshman early childhood major, is homosexual, and said he told his family about his sexual orientation when he was in middle school.
“It felt like a big burden on my shoulders- a secret that I had to tell someone,” White said. “So I eventually got up the nerve to write my mother a letter… and I taped it to my bedroom door… And eventually, I came out to everyone, and it felt so great not to have that burden on me.”
White said that although he and his partner of seven years have encountered some stares over the course of their relationship, his experience at Augusta State University has been largely accepting.
“I think ASU is pretty accepting of homosexuals,” White said. “I took a speech class and all of my topics were about homosexuality. I am very open about my homosexuality… Many people need to know that homosexuality is not a choice, contrary to popular belief.”
Hudson, who is heterosexual, said she initially joined lambda Alliance to show support for her nephew who was having trouble coming out of with his homosexuality. In the process, she said the club was able to help him feel more comfortable and unashamed of his sexuality.
“To see his face and how happy it made him to see that there are other people (like he is) was amazing,” Hudson said. Hudson said the environment of the club on campus is what really stood out to her and kept her an active member. According to Hudson, people on campus are mature and welcoming about the club and its values. “We found that everyone who joins lambda Alliance is already out,” Hudson said. “But they all have their stories; they all have their struggles.”
Lambda Alliance also participated in community events like the Augusta’s first official Pride Parade in 2010. White and Hudson expressed that they hope to be able to reach more people on campus and in the community.
“I would really like to do outreach into the school system,” Hudson said. “I think that’s really important because of things like the recent events of kids killing themselves from bullying. Of course kids before that and after that are still being picked on. Whether they are gay or straight, they are because they don’t prescribe gender roles. They should have every right to be who they want to be without going home everyday and feeling bad about who they are.”
Following the club’s first meeting of the semester on Jan. 26 in the JSAC, White and other members encouraged students to attend the Parents, Families and Friends of lesbians and Gays (PFlAG) meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta on Jan. 29. According to White, the new Augusta chapter of PFlAG is an “advocacy, education and support organization” that shares “similar core values and goals” with lambda Alliance.
Hudson and White both said they hope to see membership rise even higher this semester and they are always sure to remind people that lambda Alliance is a club for the gay, straight, tall, short, black, white and all between.
“I really want people to remember that no matter who you are, be who you are,” Hudson said.
For more questions about lambda Alliance and its events, contact Julie Hudson at jhudson7@aug.edu and Robert White at rwhite17@aug.edu.

4. The Tufts Daily, February 1, 2011
PO Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155
http://www.tuftsdaily.com/features/impact-on-rotc-of-don-t-ask-don-t-tell-repeal-unclear-1.2454088
Impact on ROTC of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal unclear
By Sarah Strand

While many Americans were preparing for holiday festivities, the nation's lesbian, gay and bisexual community had another reason to celebrate: President Barack Obama on Dec. 22 signed into law the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT), the policy barring service of open homosexuals in the United States military.
With preparation for the implementation of the repeal slated to begin as early as this month, questions remain about the policy's nationwide impact on Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program, the college−based officer−commissioning program that requires a post−graduation active duty commitment. The military grants ROTC participants merit−based scholarships or living expense stipends.
In addition to prohibiting gay and lesbian soldiers from serving openly, DADT created significant tension between the military and colleges across the United States; many universities — though not Tufts — banned on−campus ROTC battalions and courses during the Vietnam War and have cited DADT as a factor preventing the program's restoration.
Part of being an ROTC member in the greater Boston area includes completing training and taking classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which serves as the host institution for the Paul Revere Battalion, encompassing close to 90 cadets from the ROTC programs at Tufts, Harvard University and Wellesley College, among others.
For Tufts, the lack of a separate ROTC battalion and courses is strictly a logistical and fiscal issue, according to Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences James Glaser, though both Massachusetts law and Tufts policy prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
"The military isn't interested in establishing a separate unit here on campus," he said. "It's cost−effective that way."
Glaser added that Tufts does not offer cross−registration with MIT, preventing students from procuring credit for ROTC courses taken there.
Despite the lack of direct relation between the DADT repeal and Tufts' ROTC program, Glaser supports the policy's abolition.
"I have been a supporter of ROTC all along, but I didn't like ‘don't ask, don't tell,' and I'm glad it is in the past," he said.
Some colleges that previously banned their own ROTC battalions have now expressed willingness to reconsider. In a statement to the Boston Globe, Harvard President Drew Faust said that she "look[s] forward to pursuing discussions with military officials and others to achieve Harvard's full and formal recognition of ROTC."
Administrators at Yale and Columbia Universities have publicly expressed similar sentiments.
What remains to be seen is whether the opportunity for gays and lesbians to serve openly will impact nationwide ROTC interest and enrollment.
"ROTC develops and trains cadets and commissions officers … to serve as officers in the Army. We have a proven leadership development program. I do not see that changing," Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Hall, commander of the Paul Revere Battalion, said in an e−mail to the Daily. "As far as participation goes, the choice to serve is deeply personal. I have no way to predict whether there will be more participation or not."
Glaser saw a possibility for increased ROTC involvement on the part of gay and lesbian Tufts students who had never previously considered military service as a feasible option given the sacrifices mandated by DADT.
"Maybe more of our students will find the military to be a career path because they won't have to compromise their identity to be a part of it," he said.
Sophomore ROTC cadet Sam Chapin was indifferent to the impact of DADT on the Paul Revere Battalion.
"Personally, it won't really affect me or those I'm around," Chapin said. "I think it has been made more important by the media than it really is."
Senior Sean O'Loughlin, also an ROTC cadet, noted that the distinction between ROTC and actual military service renders DADT somewhat irrelevant to active ROTC cadets.
"We live in ‘cadet land,' not the life of an actual soldier." O'Loughlin said. "We are students first, and it creates a different culture that might not be true to the army as a whole."

5. The Signal (Georgia State University), February 1, 2011
44 Courtland Street, Suite 200, University Center, Atlanta, GA 30303
http://www.gsusignal.com/campus-life/queering-his-dream-highlights-social-activists-1.2454483
‘Queering His Dream’ highlights social activists
By Suchi Sajja

As a part of the 2011 MLK Se ries, Georgia State's student organi zation, BlackOUT, designed a display entitled "Queering His Dream." The display highlighted activists such as Angela Davis, Audre Lord, Marlon Riggs, and Gloria Wakins, also known by her pen name bell hooks. Located on the first floor of the Student Cen ter, the display will stay up from Jan. 21- Jan. 31.
Angela Davis was a political ac tivist and author who associated her self with the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s. Davis joined the Communist Party in 1968, following Dr. King's assassination. She focused on promoting women's rights and ra cial justice.
Audre Lord, a writer, identified herself as "a black feminist lesbian mother poet." Her work focused on racial issues and lesbian feminism.
Marlon Riggs was a poet, film maker and gay rights activist. Best known for his documentaries, his films discussed homophobia and confronted racism. The National En dowment for the Arts, a government agency, sponsored Rigg's works, while many people protested them. Riggs died of AIDS in 1994.
Gloria Watkins, also known as Bell Hooks, was a writer as well. Watkins focused on the idea that race, class, and gender were inter connected and that they needed to be dealt with together.
"Queering his Dream" is a time line that highlights a trajectory of activists who have not only worked for racial and economic justice, but also gender and sexual liberation," said Onyekachi Ekeogu, a member of BlackOUT. "In effect, the display will acknowledge how gender, sexuality, and race influence inequality and in tersect in ways that continue to influ ence the lives of minorities such as queer people of color."
BlackOUT is comprised of lesbi an, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, and questioning students of African descent," said the Women's Studies Institute webpage. According to their Facebook page, BlackOUT aims "to create a safe space on the campus of Georgia State University for Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, questioning people and their allies, foster dialogue that promotes consciousness-raising, par ticularly around the intersections of racial, sexual, and gender identities and oppression, develop program ming that fosters understanding and awareness of the culture(s) of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning people, and to promote social and academic justice through collabora tive efforts with other groups who are engaged incomparable goals and objectives for the betterment of the campus of Georgia State University and the downtown community."
"The concept of the wall was to offer a trajectory of critical activism that has influenced Black queers," said Lamont Riggs, a member of BlackOUT who helped create the display. "We focused on folks who have struggled for racial/economic justice as well as gender/sexual lib eration. The project is far from being complete, so BlackOUT has decided to make "Queering His Dream" a se mester-long project.

6. The Daily LSU Reveille, February 1, 2011
http://www.lsureveille.com/news/website-launches-system-to-rank-schools-by-lgbtq-friendliness-1.2454703
Website launches system to rank schools by LGBTQ-friendliness
By Kate Mabry

A number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students are beginning to choose their school based on its LGBTQ-friendliness rather than the school's academic reputation.
Campus Pride, a national non-profit organization established in 2001, recently launched its "Campus Climate Index," which ranks some of the country's highest and lowest LGBTQ-friendly colleges.
According to the index, Emory University in Atlanta was ranked the top LGBTQ-friendly school in the South. However, many schools, including LSU, have not submitted any information to the website yet and have not been added to the database.
Chaunda Allen, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said she wasn't familiar with the index but thought the concept was interesting.
"We'd definitely be interested in looking into completing a questionnaire and seeing what the website has to offer for our students," Allen said.
Elaine Maccio, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, said she believes students are better off knowing more information about their school choices before enrolling.
"LSU would be doing a great service by providing as much information as possible, and all colleges should want students to find their best-fit school," Maccio said. "However, it's also important to consider the credibility of the website, who runs it and what their intentions are."
Spectrum, an activist and support group for LGBTQ students as well as questioning students and their supporters of the LSU community, is one of the largest student-run LGBTQ organizations on campus.
Spectrum's goal is to create an inclusive and social environment for LGBTQ students to network while also leading activist and educational projects that identify the needs of the LGBTQ population at LSU, said Kat Barry, Spectrum president and English senior.
"We have monthly meetings, social activities, political activism and education and outreach opportunities," Barry said in an e-mail. "We also work very closely with the Office of Multicultural Affairs while providing individual students with support and resources through programs like First Contact, where new students are paired up with a peer mentor."
Spectrum is currently working on an assignment with Residential Life and Multicultural Affairs to begin a residential community project. The main goal will be to help students connect in their living communities and to increase the level of support and protection in ResLife policies, Barry said.
"For example, we want to ensure transgender-friendly housing policies. Something like this has never been done at LSU, and it will be an important connection of departments and organizations across campus," Barry said.
The University has made a lot of progress, and there is a momentum of students being out and being active as leaders in the community, Allen said.
However, while Spectrum does what it can for students, many feel it's the University's responsibility to invest more in the safety and growth of its LGBTQ students.
"While LSU is not an openly hostile environment for LGBTQ students and we have a very active and enthusiastic student organization and strong support from the Office of Multicultural Affairs, LSU could do a lot more to protect and support LGBTQ students, faculty and staff in official and institutional ways," Barry said in an e-mail.
Barry said the most important next step for the LGBTQ student population at the University is to have a full-time staff member devoted to queer issues, and the OMA is working on a new LGBTQ initiative that will launch this semester.
"We are hopeful that this project will include a staff position because only then will the adequate levels of LSU-wide support begin to surface at LSU," Barry said in an e-mail. "These are the sorts of steps that must be made before we see something like an LGBTQ resource center in the future."
The University includes sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy, but Barry said gender identity and expression are not included in the policy, which means transgender employees are not protected at all from discrimination based on those identities.
Even many conservative colleges include domestic partner benefits, but in this case, the University is "behind the curve, and we'd like to see it change," Maccio said.
Maccio said she thinks there's still room to grow.
"We could always use a group for LGBTQ graduate students, LGBTQ students of color, or even LGBTQ students within colleges or even individual departments," she said.

Contact Kate Mabry at kmabry@lsureveille.com

7. The New York Times, February 2, 2011
620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/chick-fil-a-protests-at-n-y-u-are-muted/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Chick-fil-A Protests at N.Y.U. Are Muted
By Patrick McGeehan and Meredith Hoffman

On some college campuses, students are agitated about the presence of Chick-fil-A, a purveyor of Southern-style chicken sandwiches that has run afoul of some proponents of same-sex marriage. But at a New York University cafeteria, the only place in the city where a craving for Chick-fil-A can be sated, the squawking has been limited.

Some N.Y.U. students have complained to the university’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Student Center, said John Beckman, a university spokesman. And a Facebook group Remove Chick-fil-A from NYU (and thus NYC!) is up and running.

But so far, the food court in Weinstein Hall continues to serve the chain’s fried-chicken nuggets, sandwiches and waffle fries, he said.

Elsewhere, gay-rights advocates have stoked opposition to Chick-fil-A since one of its outlets in Pennsylvania lent support to marriage seminars, scheduled for next week, that were arranged by a group that has been outspoken against same-sex marriage. At Indiana University’s campus in South Bend, a student group persuaded the university to ban Chick-fil-A products briefly. On Monday, that university’s chancellor invited Chick-fil-A to return to campus on Wednesday.

The president of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, has said that the company was not endorsing the seminars, merely providing food at them.

At N.Y.U., JJ Bishop-Boros, a member and former officer of the university’s Queer Union, said the group had decided against pressing a boycott “that focuses only on Chick-fil-A and gay marriage.” Instead, he said, Queer Union hopes to meet with other campus groups to examine the practices of each food distributor on campus, from the wages they pay workers to environmental issues.

“If we only criticize Chick-fil-A, we’re almost justifying other businesses’ practices,” he said. “It would be hypocritical.”

In the dining hall, students who were lined up for Chick-fil-A food said they were unaware of the controversy.

“Chick-fil-A’s great, and it’s the only one in New York City, which makes it even cooler,” said Morgan Ingari, a sophomore, as she reached for a bag of waffle fries.

But behind her, J. P. Borum, a writing professor who was making her first foray to Chick-fil-A, reversed course after hearing about the flap. “I’m gay and Episcopal,” she said, opting instead for a salad from another station. She said she had “never heard a peep about this from students.”

At N.Y.U., the complaints have not been brought to the university senate for discussion, Mr. Beckman said. He said that the products of another Atlanta-based company, Coca-Cola, had been banned from campus for a few years after students protested against the company’s labor practices.

The station serving Chick-fil-A’s food has been a popular part of a food court in the dining hall on University Place in Manhattan since the fall of 2004, Mr. Beckman said. Chick-fil-A won out in a student taste test when the dining hall was being revamped by its operator, Aramark, he said.

Mr. Beckman said the food court was open only to students and others with university identification cards, but as food bloggers have written, this policy does not seem to be heavily enforced, and on some food-oriented Web sites like Yelp.com, outsiders have shared tales of their incursions spurred by serious cravings for fried chicken and pickles on a buttered bun.

“Thank God for this hidden treasure!” one reviewer wrote on Yelp. “Yes it’s in an N.Y.U. dining hall. But if you feel too weird eating with students you can get plastic bag and take it to Washington Square Park.”

8. The Advocate, February 2, 2011
P.O. Box 4371, Los Angeles, CA 90078
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/02/02/Ivy_Leaguers_Fight_ROTC_for_Trans_Rights/
Ivy Leaguers Fight ROTC for Trans Rights
By Michelle Garcia

Students at Stanford and Harvard are taking a stand to keep the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) away from their campuses until the military is completely inclusive and allows transgender people to join its ranks.

Alok Vaid-Menon, President of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation, said in a statement, that now was the time to make such demands, as the U.S. military prepares to repeal the ban on openly gay and lesbian troops.

“A re-introduction of ROTC on college campuses (including Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia) that include ‘gender identity’ in their non-discrimination clause is a fundamental violation of policy and an endorsement of discrimination,” Vaid-Menon said.

The group from Stanford and the Harvard Transgender Task Force wrote a joint statement to their college administrators asking them to consider not being so fast to welcome the ROTC back after a moratorium during the enforcement of "don't ask, don't tell."

The Transgender American Veterans Association released a statement Tuesday in support of the students' efforts.

"Allowing military recruiters and ROTC programs back on university and college campuses would not further equality under the law," the statement read. "This is because that along with sexual orientation, most universities and colleges have non-discrimination policies that include gender Identity and/or gender expression. Allowing ROTC programs back on university and college campuses before allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military services would violate the intent of antidiscrimination policies these universities and colleges currently have in place to protect transgender people from discrimination.

9. The Wellesley News, February 2, 2011
300 Billings Hall, Wellesley College, 106 Central St., Wellesley, MA 02481-8201
http://www.wellesleynewsonline.com/news/college-appoints-new-lgbtq-advisor-1.1957468
College appoints new LGBTQ advisor
By Lesley Thulin

Dr. Leah Fygetakis has been appointed the new Director of LGBTQ Programs and Services. She began work this January.
Fygetakis holds a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the Ohio State University and a graduate certificate from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Fygetakis worked as a trained psychologist at Boston University for the past 18 years and served as the director of the University's Counseling and Wellness Center for 14 of those years.
Student-led LGBTQ organizations Spectrum and Wellesley for Equality each had at least one representative involved with the hiring process for the new Director of LGBTQ Programs and Services.
"We are very happy to say that we were able to say who would best fit our needs," Spectrum president Ariana Zarate '11, said in an e-mail. "Because we got to read through and vote on the applicants and meet finalists, we feel that Leah's appointment as the new LGBTQ adviser was an example of administration and students working together."
As Wellesley's Director of LGBTQ Programs and Services, Fygetakis expects to collaborate with the administration and student organizations to create programs "in a model of celebrating diversity for all." Fygetakis also plans to reach out beyond the LGBTQ community to raise awareness of LGBTQ issues.
"Leah is very perceptive and will be meeting with students, faculty and staff here at Wellesley to make her own observations about the needs of our community," Director of Residential & Campus Life Kristine Niendorf said. "The ultimate goal is to reach as many students as possible, and I know she will have creative ideas to do this work."
Fygetakis has committed to regularly holding open office hours for students. "I want students to tell me what they think the campus needs and what they need," she said. "I'd [also] like to hear from faculty and staff," she added.
According to Zarate, the best way to determine the campus needs is through a survey. Mission Change, an LGBTQ organization made up of both Spectrum and Wellesley for Equality members, conducted a survey two years ago that Zarate believes should be replicated.
Moving forward, Zarate has at least one other specific goal in mind: she hopes to work with Fygetakis to deal with how the Admissions Office handles LGBTQ issues. "The people with whom I've spoken feel like the Admissions Office tries to ignore or downplay the gay community at Wellesley," she said. "As Leah familiarizes herself with Wellesley and listens to the concerns of the students, I think that eventually we will be able to work together on this conflict."
Fygetakis also recognizes that some students face "extra layers of challenge."
"I know that our students of color [who identify as LGBTQ] sometimes face this split in their identities," she said. "It's hard to feel that you belong in either community." She hopes to work with Harambee House and the Assistant Dean of Latina Students.
Fygetakis can attest to struggling with identity from personal experience.
"I was very challenged when I came out to myself in being Greek and being a lesbian," she said. "I have a profound appreciation for what it's like when one strongly identifies with their ethnicity and [the ethnicity's] culture is not open to the concept of sexual orientation. It's a work in progress. You have to move through the world with that full identity and be prepared for disappointments and surprise within [your] ethnic community."
According to Fygetakis, people expected it to be easy for her to come out as a Greek lesbian. Citing Sappho, they would claim that Greeks practically "invented homosexuality."
But that is "hardly the culture at all." According to Fygetakis, 97 percent of Greeks identify as Greek Orthodox, including herself. Fygetakis experienced conflict with the highly traditional Orthodox Church while she was writing a chapter for a book about Greek-American lesbians' coming-out process. While she wanted to directly quote the Orthodox Observer, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America's monthly newspaper, she needed permission to exceed the word quota for her published article. When she contacted her editors, however, the issue turned from simple mechanics to the content of her publication.
"It went from editor to supervisor to the archbishop himself," she said. "Ultimately the editor told me, ‘I'm sorry, but you cannot quote from our paper.'"
Fygetakis' intent was not to paint the Church in a bad light. "I didn't want to interpret the article. That's why I directly wanted to quote it."
Fygetakis described the experience of getting refused as "deeply difficult." She experienced similar difficulty when organizing the baptism of her twin sons through the Greek Orthodox Church. "I wanted to do it with full understanding [of the structure of her family]." But this understanding quickly proved evasive.
"I can't tell you how many doors were shut on me," she recalled. Fygetakis eventually found a Greek Orthodox priest in Portsmouth, N.H., who welcomed her.
Outside of Wellesley, Fygetakis works part-time as an executive coach in leadership development with the Social Innovation Forum, a philanthropy program of a consulting firm that mobilizes non-profit organizations. Since her appointment as Director of LGBTQ Programs and Services, she has been impressed with the leadership opportunities open to students on campus.
"Students [at Wellesley] are empowered," she said. "If [they] want to do something, it seems that you just start it up and do it and staff are here to help support in any way. There doesn't seem to be a lot of layers of bureaucracy."

10. The Ithaca Journal, February 3, 2011
123 W.State St., Ithaca, NY 14850
http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20110203/ENT/102030356/Tompkins+Entertainment+watch++LGBT+film+series+at+Ithaca+College
Tompkins Entertainment watch: LGBT film series at Ithaca College
Unknown

The eighth annual "Out of the Closet and Onto the Screen" film series continues at Ithaca College with screenings throughout the spring semester.

Sponsored by the Ithaca College Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Education, Outreach, and Services, the film series this year explores the theme of History and Heroes of the movement.

The series will present a total of six films during the spring semester. All are free and open to the public with shows beginning at 7 p.m. and held in Textor 102. Information about the screenings is available at http://www.ithaca.edu/sacl/lgbt/events/sfs10/

-Feb. 16: a double feature screening in observance of Black History Month. First, at 7 p.m. "Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @100", followed at 8 p.m. by "Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin"

-March 9: "Word is Out"

-March 23: "The Times of Harvey Milk"

-April 6: A double feature in celebration of Math Awareness Month. First, at 7 p,m. "Decoding Alan Turing", followed at 7:20 p.m. with "John Nash: A Beautiful Genius"

For more information on the series, contact Lis Maurer at 274-7394 or at lmaurer@ithaca.edu.

11. The Harvard Crimson, February 3, 2011
14 Plympton St., Cambridge, MA 02138
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/2/3/rotc-harvard-military-dont/
ROTC Faces Uphill Battle
By Tara W. Merrigan and Zoe A. Y. Weinberg

It is unlikely that Harvard will be able to boast a full Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program in the next three to five years, according to Chairman of Harvard Advocates for ROTC Capt. Paul E. Mawn USNR (Ret.) ’63.

Many observers expected Harvard to officially recognize ROTC after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but the University has not publicly recognized the military training program.

The University must take several steps and overcome obstacles if it wants to host the ROTC’s three programs—Army, Navy, and Air Force—Mawn said.

University President Drew G. Faust met with Admiral Mike Mullen in November shortly before the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prohibited gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military, while he was visiting the Institute of Politics, University spokesperson John D. Longbrake said.

Despite the University’s expressed interest in bringing back the program—which withdrew from Harvard’s campus in 1969—“nothing concrete has been done yet,” according to Mawn.

The unit’s return to the University faces a series of hurdles including questions over funding and whether—despite the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”—the military might still be in violation of Harvard’s non-discrimination policy.

Openly gay and lesbian individuals are expected to be able to serve after top government officials certify the policy’s repeal, but transgender and intersex-identified individuals are still not permitted to enlist because the military considers gender identity disorder—the psychological classification that describes transgenderism—and intersexism to be medical disqualifications.

Members of the Harvard queer community have said that the University—with its policy of non-discrimination—would be taking a hypocritical position if it allowed ROTC to return to campus.

“I think it’s wonderful that gay and lesbian folks can serve openly and can take on their right to serve, but ROTC and the military still openly violate Harvard’s non-discrimination policy,” said Harvard College Queer Students and Allies Co-Chair Marco Chan ’11. “Harvard needs to uphold our fundamental ethic of equal opportunity.”

Additionally, the lack of student interest in ROTC poses a major challenge for the unit’s return to campus because low enrollment would not justify having a unit on campus, said Isaiah T. Peterson ’12, who is in Air Force ROTC.

“Harvard needs to open up dialogue about what it means to train leaders,” said Associate Professor Kevin Kit Parker, who is a Major in the active US Army Reserve and a combat veteran.

In order to increase student interest, Mawn said that Harvard would have to refocus its admissions policies by actively recruiting and prioritizing students who exhibit an interest in military service.

But Parker said that this is the wrong way to increase ROTC enrollment at Harvard.

“I don’t think that we should re-look at the way that we admit. Harvard should endeavor to have the best ROTC program as part of endeavoring to be the best university. We will draw the very best ROTC students if we have the very best program,” Parker said.

Attempting to bolster the level of student interest in ROTC raises larger questions about the role of military service in the lives of Harvard undergraduates, who, Mawn says, do not consider the military a form of public service.

An attitude shift needs to occur and “Harvard has to show good faith in the process,” Mawn said.

ROTC may also face resistance from the faculty because of concern that military courses would not meet Harvard’s academic standards. A school that hosts ROTC is obligated to accept into the faculty any military instructors that are chosen by the Pentagon, according to Mawn.

Nathaniel G. Butler ’68, a Navy veteran and board member of the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, believes that this opposition may simply be an attempt to delay the return of ROTC.

But Mawn does not foresee this as a significant hurdle, in part because many of the dissenting faculty are preparing for retirement, he said. “We can work around that.”

Though the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” passed last November, the measure is unlikely to be implemented until next fall as the Pentagon puts in place a plan to roll out the new policy without detracting from military readiness.

Staff writer Tara W. Merrigan can be reached at tmerrigan@college.harvard.edu.

Staff writer Zoe A. Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.

12. The Huffington Post, February 4, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-r-cole/gay-rights-and-university_b_818268.html
Gay Rights and University ROTC Policy
By Jonathan R. Cole

In lauding the legislation that ended the "don't ask, don't tell" [DADT] policy that will allow gay and lesbians to serve openly in the American military, President Barack Obama in his second State of the Union address called "on all our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and ROTC. It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation." While the legislation that ended the hypocritical DADT policy was surely welcome and a step forward, and although legislation already existed (the 1994 Solomon Act) that forced universities to open their campuses to military recruiters, the president made a mistake in equating (even implicitly) an end to an opprobrious military policy with basic equal civil rights for gay and lesbian Americans.

In fact, even the DADT policy left many inequalities between gays and straight members in the military. But more broadly, the legislation failed to address the broader inequalities that continue to haunt gay couples in America. As one who would like to see the military be able to recruit the brightest young people interested in entering the armed forces or intelligence services, and thus hoping to see the day when programs like ROTC might return to Ivy League and other campuses, I continue to believe that moment has not arrived because basic civil liberties that conflict with fundamental university anti-discrimination policies continue to haunt our military and our nation.

Most universities like Columbia University have broad anti-discrimination policies. It is one of its core values. Columbia's states, for example:

[Columbia] does not discriminate against or permit harassment of employees or applicants for employment on the basis of race, color, sex, gender (including gender identity and expression)... or any other legally protected status.
The problem is that gay couples simply have not achieved equal protection under the law and they suffer sharp disparities from not being permitted to marry- which until relatively recently was a matter left to individual states. Consider only a few in the military and more widely in the general society. A former marine who commanded troops in the Battle of Fallujah in Iraq, Zachary J. Iscol, reminds us that, "Without repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA]... the spouses of gay and lesbian troops are ineligible for military benefits... gay spouses will remain ineligible for death benefits or for extension of citizenship to surviving spouses of those killed. They ... also will not be entitled to the same medical benefits or the extension of emergency leave to visit an immediate family member.... [If your gay spouse or partner] is killed in combat, [w]ill someone even bother to knock on your door?"[1] In short, the idea that the Domestic Partners and Obligations Act, which repeals DADT, produces true equality even in the military is simple false.

But the inequalities between married couples and gay couples continue in almost all laws involving marriage passed by the federal government. Spouses of married couples who are federal employees can receive Social Security benefits for retirement and survivor benefits, gay couples cannot; those who file joint federal income tax returns have advantages over those who must file individual returns. Since DOMA does not recognize the traditional domain of control by states over marriage, it determines who is eligible for federal benefits. Consider a few other of these. Under the Family Medical Leave Act, the federal government grants up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for one's spouse. This is not available for gay couples. Gay individuals are often refused entry into hospitals to see their ill partners, which is never denied married couples. In matters related to raising children, same-sex couples have virtually no guarantees. The federal government will not permit gays or lesbians to sponsor their partner for immigration purposes. Most states are not much further along in their legislation than Congress. Some, for example, forbid gay couples from adopting children. If a gay person is in a relationship with another who has a child by a previous relationship, the legal status and rights of both parents and children are very much in limbo. As far back as 2004 the U.S. Accounting Office cataloged 1,049 federal statutory provisions under the United State Code that were "contingent on marital status or in which marital status is a factor."[2]

In sum, we are far from achieving minimal guarantees of "equal protection" under the laws for gay and lesbian couples. While universities have made progress over the past decade in providing health and other benefits to gay couples on an equal footing to married couples, there continue to be many ways in which gays and lesbians do not have equal rights on our campuses. We need to get our own house in order as well as demand that the federal government repeal DOMA and explicitly guarantee gay couples the right to marry with full benefits from the states and federal government. The federal government has the right to deny certain benefits to people, but it should not be able to discriminate against one class of people in doing so. That is the situation that we continue to face today as we press toward true equal rights for gay couples.

Accordingly, I think it is entirely premature to provide the nation with the false impression that the repeal of DADT has satisfied the fairness and anti-discrimination values that are held by our our universities and colleges. The Obama administration and Congress have taken a first step. Now we need to do the right thing: repeal DOMA and assure gay and lesbian couples equal protection that ought to be explicitly acknowledged as part of their constitutional rights. In fact, university professors who believe that fundamental rights of gay couples remain abridged should become actively involved in pressing their own universities for full equality and the Congress for equal protection legislation. It would be nice to have extremely bright university graduates in the military and particularly in the intelligence services -- and some of those can be supplied through ROTC. But it remains unwise to acquiesce to President Obama's call for us to forget past battles and "move forward" until the United States Congress and the President really move us forward toward equal protection for gay couples.

[1] Zachary J. Iscol, "Pause for Celebration." Source: The Huffington Post blog entry posted on December 23, 2010.
[2] Letter from Dayna K. Shah to Senator Bill Frist, Majority Leader, United States Senate. Shah was the Associate General Counsel, United States Accounting Office, Washington, DC 20548, January 23, 2004

Jonathan R. Cole's latest book is: The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected (Public Affairs, 2010). He is the John Mitchell Mason Professor at Columbia University and was its provost and dean of faculties from 1989-2003.

13. The McGill Daily, February 5, 2011
3480 McTavish St. Rm. B-24, Montreal QC, H3A 1X9
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/02/bsn-and-queer-mcgill-event-addresses-race-sexuality/
BSN and Queer McGill event addresses race, sexuality
By Erin Hudson

The Black Students Network (BSN) and Queer McGill (QM) co-hosted their first joint event, “Is it Dark in the Closet?” last Wednesday evening.

Featured speaker Rinaldo Walcott, a Sociology and Equity Studies professor from the University of Toronto, spoke about the need for “anti-racist queer politics” to address black queer history. He asked the fifty-person audience to consider black queer people as “a part of a much longer history of black disenfranchisement and marginalization.”

Rojarra Armbrister, a BSN executive member, explained the idea behind the event’s focus on homosexuality within the black community.

“There is a lot of homophobia within the black community itself, and people want answers. We don’t know where it stems from,” Armbrister said.

She noted that homophobia is present in “this generation especially,” and explained why she felt last night’s event could contribute to finding answers.

“It’s more [about] educating ourselves and educating those around us about where this comes from and what we can do to fix it,” Armbrister added.

About fifty people attended the event. Gisele Ishema-Karekezi, a McGill student originally from Rwanda, also noted the uniqueness of the event.

“This is the first time they brought up the gay issues in the black community, so I was very excited,” said Ishema-Karekezi. “It’s not really talked about in the African community.”

According to Ryan Thom, a QM co-administrator, a long discussion between BSN and QM was devoted to, “How the space will be shaped so that it [would] be a place that both racialized black students could imagine themselves at and a place where queer students who aren’t necessarily black could also imagine themselves having a place at.”

According to Thom the discussion was “delicate but really productive.”

“We don’t always have the experience or perspective to come at [issues of race], and that’s something that all the progressive organizations, including Queer McGill, work toward,” Thom said. “That’s why we have these collaborations, that’s why we work together – to draw in a different audience.”

BSN will be collaborating with QPIRG for an event this week, and will be running several events in honour of Black History Month.

“I do anticipate that you will be seeing a lot more of these events.” Armbrister said regarding the club’s future plans.

14. The Windsor Star, February 6, 2011
Postmedia Network Inc., 167 Ferry Street, Windsor, Ontario N9A 4M5
http://www.windsorstar.com/technology/Savage+bringing+Gets+Better+Project+University+Windsor/4233759/story.html
Dan Savage bringing It Gets Better message to University of Windsor
By Jeff Bolichowski

WINDSOR, Ont. -- It’s a message of hope for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children that’s spreading swiftly across the Internet.

Chin up, guys — once you get beyond the bullying, life gets better.

The words of support have come from hundreds of contributors on YouTube, but the brains behind the It Gets Better Project is U.S. columnist and author Dan Savage. He’ll bring his message to the University of Windsor Tuesday night for a free lecture.

Sure, almost every kid gets bullied, Savage said. But for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children, it’s often tougher to cope because many have fewer places to turn.

“Geeks and nerds aren’t dragged off to churches on Sunday where they’re told that God hates geeks and nerds,” he said. Often the bullying follows LGBT children home, where parents who don’t accept their sexuality are the worst bullies of all.

The consequences of bullying can be lethal, he said. LGBT kids are four to six times more likely to commit suicide than straight kids, and eight to ten times more likely when they’ve come out to their family and been rejected. Many are thrown out of their homes by furious parents.

“Trying to bully your kid into accepting heterosexuality is a dangerous presumption,” said Savage. “You’re really playing with your kid’s life.”

Savage, who is gay, authors the syndicated sex advice column Savage Love. He kicked off the It Gets Better Project in September after an Indiana teen, Billy Lucas, killed himself in the face of homophobic bullying at school.

Since its inception the project has drawn hundreds of videos assuring LGBT children that life improves eventually. Most are posted by everyday people who have faced homophobia and bullying in school, but even U.S. President Barack Obama has contributed.

In Canada the project has spawned videos featuring a handful of openly gay notables, among them satirist Rick Mercer and former deputy premier of Ontario George Smitherman.

But Savage said it’s the videos from regular people that hold the most power.

“For the kids to see all these lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults backing up what their parents are telling them really helps,” he said.

Some of those stories, he said, are being organized into book form.

Even Windsorites have jumped in on the action. One video, posted by Windsor man Brett Ashley, recounts his struggles with growing up gay.

“I remember seeing guy friends just being buddy-buddy and joking around as some guys do, and I thought to myself, ‘I’m not going to be able to be like that,’” Ashley, now living in Vancouver, says in the four-minute YouTube video posted in October.

But his eyes were opened, he says in the video, when he went to Toronto and met an openly gay man with a boyfriend and an apartment, living a normal life.

“Things will improve. You’re going to be okay.”

Savage said things are a little better in Canada, where same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since 2005, than in the U.S. But homophobia is still there.

Among the first steps to clamping down on homophobic bullying, he said, is cutting out casual racism — in particular the comfort some feel in saying flagrantly homophobic things when with their friends.

He said people should challenge homophobia when they see it.

Still, things are improving, Savage said. More and more schools are hosting gay-straight alliances — many started by straight kids — where those in need can turn for support.

“It doesn’t get perfect,” he said. But even when it gets average, he said, that’s better than facing bullies.

“It gets better even when there are challenges. You move through them.”

jbolichowski@windsorstar.com or 519-255-6882 or @WinStarBoli

_______________________________________________________________
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 regarding fair use of copyrighted work, this material is distributed without profit for information, research, and educational purposes. The Consortium has no affiliation whatsoever with the originators of these articles nor is the Consortium endorsed or sponsored by the originators.

QNOC Digest 2011.01.30

2011-02-07T15:32:00.001-05:00

Queer News On Campus [QNOC] Articles Digest
For the week ending 2011.01.30

Brought to you by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. http://www.lgbtcampus.org

Archives of the QNOC Digest can be found at http://queernewsoncampus.blogspot.com

Reminder: If you come across articles that should be included in the digest, please email a link to the article to articles@lgbtcampus.org

1. SMU Daily Campus - LGBT visitation rights in effect for federally funded hospitals
2. The San Diego Union-Tribune - Palomar College to open LGBTQ center Wednesday
3. University Press (Florida Atlantic University) - Gay & Mad: LGBTQ students and faculty say there’s bullying at FAU
4. The Cornell Daily Sun - Ivies Reconsider ROTC After 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repealed
5. Inside Higher Ed - The Same Boxes to Check
6. The Stanford Daily - ROTC debate comes to Undergraduate Senate
7. ESPN - On homophobia and recruiting
8. WSBT - Chick-fil-A removed from IU South Bend campus
9. Pride Source/Between The Lines - U-M to host country's largest LGBTQA college conference
10. Inside Higher Ed - Change of Heart at Belmont
11. The New York Times - Despite Obama’s Call, No Rush in R.O.T.C.’s Return to Campus
12. The Washington Post - Milan offers Italy's 1st gay studies course
13. The Post (Ohio University) - Post Modern: Defining the 'T' in LGBT
14. The Brown Daily Herald - Norris-Leblanc '13: The ROTC Question

1. SMU Daily Campus, January 23, 2011
3140 Dyer St. #314, Dallas, TX 75275
http://www.smudailycampus.com/news/lgbt-visitation-rights-in-effect-for-federally-funded-hospitals-1.1913501
LGBT visitation rights in effect for federally funded hospitals
By Sarah Kramer

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) visitation rights went into effect Tuesday for all hospitals that receive federal funding, which includes Medicare and Medicaid payments.
These new regulations were initiated last April after President Barack Obama heard about a situation in which a woman was not allowed to visit her partner before she died.
Southern Methodist University senior Cameron Silva, who is gay, said, "I have always been shocked that this is even an issue. No matter what the makeup of a family consists of, everyone should have the right to have their loved ones at their side when they need them the most. Denying a patient access to his or her family is a clear violation of human rights."
Under the new rights, patients are now allowed to decide visitation rights as well as designate whomever they trust with making medical decisions on his or her behalf in the case of an emergency.
President of College Republicans Chad Cohen supports the passage of the new LGBT rights, believing that these regulations affect more than just the LGBT community.
"This law represents both an effort to respect the fundamental humanity and dignity of gay people everywhere, while at the same time ensuring that the tradition of personal freedom in this country remains intact," Cohen said.
Federally funded hospitals in Dallas include Parkland Hospital and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Hospital.
Miriam Sibley, the senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Parkland Hospital, said, "Parkland will continue to offer an open visitation policy to all patients and their family members. Research has shown that patient care is greatly enhanced by the more time a family spends with the patient."
Ordinance 24927 in the city of Dallas, which passed in 2002, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment and public accommodations.
UT Southwestern's policy states, "The hospital prohibits discrimination based on age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression."
It furthers by stating, "When and where appropriate, each patient shall be provided with a written statement of patient rights and a notice of privacy practices. These statements include the rights of a patient to make decisions regarding his or her medical care and a patient's rights related to his or her protected health information maintained by the hospital."
Silva believes minorities in general are being given a bigger voice in society today and that important issues such as these are being heard.
"The new regulations regarding hospital visitation rights are a huge step forward for the LGBT community," Silva said. "The widespread support for these changes really parallels the progress that the LGBT community has made in recent years."

2. The San Diego Union-Tribune, January 24, 2011
P.O. Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112-0191
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jan/24/palomar-college-open-lgbtq-center-wednesday/
Palomar College to open LGBTQ center Wednesday
By Carl Ciaramella

Palomar College will hold a grand opening ceremony for its new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Resource Center from 1-4 p.m., Wednesday on campus.

Palomar Superintendent/President Robert P. Deegan and other officials will be on hand to celebrate the opening of the center, which is the first of its kind on a Southern California community college campus.

The event is free and open to the public. The LGBTQ Resource Center is Room ST-72 on the San Marcos campus.

3. University Press (Florida Atlantic University), January 24, 2011
FAU Boca Raton, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431
http://www.upressonline.com/gay-mad-1.2445637
Gay & Mad: LGBTQ students and faculty say there’s bullying at FAU
By Sergio N. Candido

When Ryan Ebanks lived in the University Village apartments during the fall of 2009, his roommate would never use the same silverware or plates he had used. It wasn't because the utensils were dirty or because Ebanks was sick — it was because Ebanks was gay.
"It becomes a part of your life," said Ebanks, who has suffered bullying since an early age. "I get teased and mocked all the time: ‘Oh your voice is so high-pitched, oh you walk funny, oh we know you are gay.'"
At FAU, police records show no hate crimes were committed in the last three years, but the gay community says heads turn, faces scowl, and profanity fills the air at the sight of a seemingly homosexual person.
On top of that, until recently, the university hasn't provided them with the resources gay students say they need on campus: advice for students who aren't open about their sexuality, a safe place where they can feel comfortable, and more widespread education about gay issues to decrease discrimination, according to Jenna Beckwith, health promotion coordinator in the Today and Beyond Wellness Center.
Bullied everywhere
Peter Cava does not look like your average professor: He wears a black dress accompanied by earrings, sky- blue eye shadow and a light-red shade of lipstick that stands out on his pale skin. At 6 feet 3-and-a-half inches, the lanky instructor towers over most of his students, but that doesn't stop him from getting bullied.
"We certainly do have [bullying] here, I've experienced it," said Peter Cava in a soft-spoken voice. He teaches transgender studies, which examines the roles of transgender individuals from cross-cultural, historical, sociological and psychological perspectives.
"I hear about it from my students and other instructors as well that there's been some problems."
He said strangers shout curse words every time he walks on campus. And even though some students come up to him asking for advice on how to cope with harassment, others in his class decide to bash him mercilessly on the Internet, Cava said.
"I've had situations with my own students posting comments online about my gender," said the 28-year-old instructor from New York. "Or making sexually inappropriate remarks about me and my genitalia."
The comments were posted on ratemyprofessor.com, a website used by college students to rank faculty and classes. The comments were later removed by the website's administrators, Cava said.
Like Cava, students also suffer harassment on campus.
FAU student Amanda Dier, president of Lambda United, a student organization that provides social support and promotes events for LGBT students on campus, said somebody had posted a letter with the word "Gaylord" written in rainbow colors outside the dorm room of an openly gay student last semester.
According to Dier, the girls who had written the derogatory message quickly apologized after they were told they could face hate crime charges for the incident.
Despite these cases of harassment based on sexual orientation, the FAU Police Department Crime Statistics from 2007 to 2009 show a list of zeroes for every campus under "hate crimes," according to its website, www.fau.edu/police/clery.php.
Neither the FAU Counseling Center nor the office of Equal Opportunity Programs has encountered bullying victims in the last 10 years, officials from both offices said.
"The thing with the Counseling Center is that a lot of people think that if you go there it means something is wrong with you," Dier said.
Ryan Ebanks said incidents happen so often that reporting them will not solve anything. He ended up moving off campus after one semester because he couldn't stand his roommate's attitude and now shares an apartment with a group of European women who he said are accepting of his sexuality.
But for Ebanks, the bullying hasn't stopped. He said he's also bullied by a group of African-American males in the Breezeway, who mock him when he walks by.
The harassment is generally mild, from imitating his gestures to making sounds as he walks by, but it still hurts, Ebanks said.
"We have to deal with that all the time, so we have gotten so used to it," Ebanks said.
But Cava believes the reason incidents are kept unreported lies elsewhere.
"A whole lot of people who are sexually variant have had bad experiences with the police," Cava said. "Maybe what happens with the police could just be as traumatizing as what could have happened in the hate crime."
He said campus police are not trained to deal with these type of situations and when confronted with a case like this, officers can't grasp the sensitivity of the incident, asking questions that can make the victim feel "embarrassed" for what happened to them.
"You are like under a microscope, that's why there are a lot of teens that try to commit suicide," Ebanks said. "I've gotten depressed where I've thought about stuff because I was that depressed."
Professor Sameer Hinduja said he knows why people engage in bullying.
"Reasons for bullying tend to range from insecurities — the need to push other people down in order to build oneself up to the fact that some bullies are subject to power, control and abuse in their homes or other spheres of life and they are attempting to achieve some equilibrium by doing the same to others," said Hinduja, who also included boredom, peer pressure and teens' obsession with technology among the reasons.
Bully territories compared
Although FAU is located in South Florida — which has one of the largest gay communities in the country according to The Advocate, a well-known LGBT-interest magazine — its resources are limited.
Before January, the resources FAU offered best compared to the University of Southern Indiana, a historically conservative place, where the Klu Klux Klan achieved great political power in the early 20th century.
"One of the things that caught my eye was that there's very little when it comes to resources for LGBT on campus," said Stephanie Young, adviser for Spectrum, the gay-straight alliance student organization at USI.
Besides the student club and a safe zone program, where faculty and staff display a triangular rainbow-colored logo on their office door to indicate they are supportive of gay students, there is little USI offers to their gay community.
"It's still a work in progress. We want to create a better campus climate for LGBT students," Young said.
Until the FAU resource center opened on Jan. 10, the university had exactly the same resources as the University of Southern Indiana, according to FAU's website.
"There's been nobody doing this job at FAU," said Jenna Beckwith.
At Florida International University, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students have more options.
FIU has four student organizations, a resource center, LGBT seminars for students and professors, and the Stonewall Center, which provides students with a library of gay and lesbian literature and videos.
"Our focus is in programming for the university," said Bridgette Wynn, graduate assistant for LGBT Initiatives at the FIU resource center.
Wynn said FIU wants to have more events for gay students on campus so that they can feel like part of the school.
Another plan FIU has, according to Wynn, is to increase housing to accommodate LGBT students in an atmosphere where they feel more comfortable, especially transgender students, who are often housed in dorm rooms that don't match their sexual identity. With the coming of FAU President Mary Jane Saunders, the university created an LGBTQ task force to specifically address the gay community on campus.
After working for more than a year, the results of the task force came in the form of a new LGBT resource center, which opened on Jan. 10, and is housed in the office of Multicultural Affairs above the Breezeway.
According to Lauren Walleser, the graduate assistant hired to manage the center, renovations are still going on. The plan is knock down a wall to have more space to create a lounge where students can hang out, Walleser said.
Volunteers, who can be graduate or undergraduate students, are also being trained to help run the place.
Walleser said the center has LGBT magazines and informational brochures, but she wants to stock the center with gay and lesbian literature. Events are also being planned for the semester. When all the renovations are complete, the center will have its grand opening "sometime in February," Walleser said. The current hours of operation are Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Student Government House Speaker Boris Bastidas, who is part of the LGBT task force, is trying to bring change from a legislative standpoint. In 2009, he co-wrote a resolution to include the phrases "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to FAU's Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Regulation 5.010
The policy currently mandates that the "University community shall be permitted to work or study in an environment free from any form of unlawful discrimination or harassment that is based on a legally protected class, including race, color, religion, age, disability, sex, national origin, marital status, veteran status or any other basis protected by law."
"On my view, you can't have a resource center if you don't have a university policy that includes sexual orientation. I think it's unacceptable," Bastidas said.
Bastidas said that the Board of Trustees might pick up the legislation to vote on it this semester.
The Student Code of Conduct, the rules which indicate what students can and can't do on campus, also protects LGBT students from unlawful discrimination and harassment.
Although she's happy about the creation of the new resource center, Dier believes that in order to gain respect for gay students, FAU needs to provide more and better education about the topic to the entire community.
"It would help if the school did like a generalized diversity training explaining that we have people from different cultures here," said Dier, who has seen people purposely knock down stuff from the Lambda United table in the Breezeway.
Cava supports Dier's position to inform FAU's student body about the LGBT community.
"I think that it would be really valuable if there was more widespread education in terms of an awareness for all students about LGBT students, how to be respectful with them," Cava said.
Despite their efforts, most gay students, faculty and staff agree that it will take a long time before the LGBT community is fully integrated in society.
"Culturally we mutate into a better society because it becomes less of an issue," said Edward Rowe, associate director of the office of equal opportunity programs, who also serves as adviser for Lambda United. "It is a flaw in humans, but it is in human nature to look for someone to be less than you so you can feel superior.
"It's something that's engrained in us and it's unfortunate, but as long as we are aware of it we can always work to try to combat it.
THE MINDS BEHIND BULLYING
In different parts of the country, some student victims of bullying who aren't able to cope with the harassment think they know a way out: committing suicide.
Last year, several high school and even college students killed themselves because they were bullied at school.
In September, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge in New York City after his roommate at Rutgers University broadcasted Clementi's sexual encounter with another man on the Internet.
Around the same time, Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old gay student at Jacobsen Middle School, hanged himself from a tree in his backyard in Tehachapi, Calif., after being bullied.
FAU researchers, psychologists and counselors pointed out several reasons that may affect LGBT students' decisions to commit suicide.
"Bullying and cyberbullying do not directly lead to suicide," said Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and professor of criminology at the Jupiter campus. "Bullying was just one additional stress that broke the camel's proverbial back."
Rhonda Seiman, psychologist and counselor at the FAU Counseling Center, said that LGBT students tend to have less family support, which, combined with limited legal rights, makes them feel like they do not belong in society.
"This population tends to feel unsupported, trapped, hopeless and maybe even purposeless," Seiman said. "If people think, ‘Well I can't get married, I'll never have a family, I'll never be able to adopt … I'll never find a partner,' all of those things are tremendous stressors."
Psychology professor David Perry, who is currently doing research on aggressive behavior in elementary and junior high school children, thinks LGBT students might sometimes blame themselves for the harassment they receive.
"If they think there's something wrong with them, or that they caused it, they are more likely to internalize the victimization experience as something that they deserve," Perry said. "That creates depression."
Ryan Ebanks, who was born in Jamaica, "one of the most homophobic places in the world" according to a 2004 article in the British newspaper The Guardian, lived first-hand what it means for a gay youngster to be rejected by his own family. When he was 17, his stepfather read his private diary and kicked him out of the house.
"Being gay, you are put into the spot where you are morally wrong," said Ebanks, whose mother, according to him, is very religious. "You are fighting yourself, your own existence as a person being that you are like bad, you are an abomination to God."
At times, before going to therapy, he said he had considered ending his life.

4. The Cornell Daily Sun, January 25, 2011
139 W. State St., Ithaca, NY 14850
http://www.cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2011/01/25/ivies-reconsider-rotc-after-dont-ask-dont-tell-repealed
Ivies Reconsider ROTC After 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repealed
By Max Schindler

After the Dec. 22 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — a policy that prohibited gay or lesbian from serving openly in the armed forces — schools across the Ivy League are reconsidering their four-decade-old bans on the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps participation on their campuses.

As the only Ivy that hosts all three main ROTC chapters — Army, Naval and Air Force — Cornell never banned the ROTC program despite prevailing anti-Vietnam sentiment among higher education institutions from the late 1960s to early 1970s. As a land-grant institution, the University would lose all public funding from such a move.

With the repeal of DADT, ROTC no longer contradicts Cornell’s Prohibited Discrimination Policy.

Representatives of the University Counsel’s office were not available to comment on the changing legal environment.

Instead, the new dynamic will be the emergence of a possible relationship between the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community and the ROTC program, according to Lt. Colonel Stephen Alexander, professor of military science and head of the Cornell Army ROTC program. Alexander acknowledged that he would be receptive to LGBT cadets serving in Cornell ROTC.

“Support for LGBT kids [in ROTC] needs to be developed over time. It’s breaking out over time and we need to develop new policies,” Alexander said. “We’re down here waiting for the [DADT] implementation plan that’s supposed to come out in February.”

Matt Carcella, director of the LGBT resource center explained the gay community’s new opportunity to reach out to Cornell ROTC.

“I would like to see ROTC reach out to me and the LGBT resource center,” Carcella said. “Most likely in the near-future, I will contact them.”

Due to the discriminatory nature of DADT, it was previously impossible to have a dialogue, Carcella said.

The policy remains on the books until military leaders certify that repeal will not affect combat readiness.

“Ever since the repeal of DADT, LGBT service members, whether they’re cadets on campus or not … have been very wary of coming out. I think people are moving cautiously and don’t want to put themselves in a situation where the policy could be reenacted,” Carcella added.

Matt Danzer ’12, the LGBTQ S.A. Rep. anticipated an outreach on both sides of the fence.

“With the repeal of the DADT policy I hope that a new relationship will emerge before the LGBT and ROTC communities,” Danzer said. “But a lot of the relationship that will form between the ROTC and LGBT communities will take place behind the scenes.”

Program Status at Other Ivies

Brown, Columbia, Harvard and Yale currently bar ROTC from operating on-campus and students at these schools receive no academic credit for coursework completed elsewhere. Of the remaining four Ivy League institutions, only Cornell and University of Pennsylvania offer credit for certain military classes; Dartmouth and Princeton host training programs, but classes are not accredited towards graduation.

Columbia withdrew recognition of ROTC in 1969, so cadets have to travel to Fordham University or Manhattan College to participate in the nearest program, according to the university’s student organization website. A University Senate vote in 2005 and a student referendum in 2008 to bring back ROTC have both failed.

Since the DADT repeal was signed into law, the Student Affairs Committee at Columbia announced a Task Force on Military Engagement to explore the possibility of bringing ROTC back. University Senator Ron Mazor ’09, J.D. ’12, chair of the new Task Force, said the organization will gather information through surveys and hearings, and report back to the University Senate, Columbia’s policy legislative body, in March.

“From what I understand, [the past failed efforts] were mainly caused by ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Mazor said. “Since the main focus of discussions were based off DADT, [my] understanding is that if the … policy was to change, that would be a reason to reexamine the issue.”

One Columbia student government representative, Jose Robledo ’12, an ROTC candidate and veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2006, thinks the program’s revival goes beyond the principle of equal treatment.

“Ever since the the 70s ... there has been a decline of military involvement at university across the country,” Robledo said. “There needs to be a re-engagement of communities [with the military] … so reexamining ROTC at Columbia goes beyond just the university … it will serve the entire city.”

At Brown--which phased out the military training program in 1971-72--the original decision to drop ROTC was “centered on academic issues,” according to an e-mail statement from Sarah Kidwell, director of news and communications.

The university intends to conduct a review to visit the question of inviting ROTC back to campus.

“President Ruth Simmons is forming a committee to consider how to respond to the repeal of [‘don’t ask, don’t tell’] … [and the committee] will submit recommendations to the faculty and the administration,” Kidwell said.

At Harvard, President Drew Faust has been an active advocate of repealing DADT and formally endorsed the return of ROTC after the repeal was signed into law, according to The Harvard Crimson.

However, the Crimson also reported on Nov. 19 that the military program’s return is, “highly uncertain due to low levels of enrollment, limited Pentagon funding, and logistical hurdles.”

Concurrently, discussions at Yale exude signs that ROTC reestablishment is more likely.

According to Yale Daily News, Yale College Council found that almost 100 students are interested in joining the candidate training program if it was on campus. The Daily News also reported that President Richard Levin had positive talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to establish an ROTC unit.

5. Inside Higher Ed, January 26, 2011
1320 18th Street NW, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/26/common_application_rejects_new_questions_on_sexual_orientation_and_gender_identity
The Same Boxes to Check
By Scott Jaschik

The Common Application has rejected a proposal that it add optional questions on sexual orientation and gender identity. The board of the organization issued a statement suggesting that colleges have other ways to indicate support for applicants who are gay or who don't identify with traditional gender categories, and that adding the questions could pose problems.

Advocates for such students have been pushing the Common Application to add the questions, with the hope that doing so would send a powerful message to the students who apply to the 414 colleges that are members, a group that includes many of the most prestigious colleges in the United States.

Advocates said that just as colleges use information that students volunteer on their ethnicity, academic interests, socioeconomic background and many other factors, they should invite students to consider sharing information about sexual orientation and gender identity, so that colleges can offer relevant information and so they see the growing number of such applicants who want to attend supportive institutions.

The statement adopted by the board of the Common Application left open the possibility that the questions might yet be added at some point in the future, calling for an additional review "later this decade" that would evaluate, among other things, "evolving cultural norms."

The board document cites several reasons for rejecting the new optional questions. "Many admission officers and secondary school counselors expressed concern regarding how this question might be perceived by students, even though it would be optional. One common worry was that any potential benefits to adding the question would be outweighed by the anxiety and uncertainty students may experience when deciding if and how they should answer it," says the statement.

Further, the Common Application notes that it has just added -- under a menu of activities that students could indicate they participated in while in high school -- a category of "LGBT," so students can indicate their activism on behalf of gay rights. Such activism is growing in high schools, frequently through gay-straight alliances, and the Common Application statement acknowledges this.

"While advocacy falls short of confirming an applicant’s sexual orientation, it will help members identify applicants who may benefit from targeted outreach efforts. Applicants also have the opportunity to report personal information of any kind in their application essays and/or the Additional Information section," the statement says.

On the issue of gender identity, the rejected proposal would have continued to ask students to report their legally defined gender, but would have also given applicants the chance to indicate if other terms more accurately described them, so that students who identify as a different gender than is on their birth certificates, or who identify as transgender or without a traditional gender, could indicate as much.

The Common Application statement says that the addition of other categories would "disrupt members’ abilities to comply with federal reporting guidelines" and that very few colleges have sought the information. However, the statement says that the organization will add a new question box (a feature throughout the application that provides additional information for applicants on questions they might have) that would specifically tell applicants that they are welcome to provide additional information elsewhere about their sex or gender identity, beyond what is collected for federal reporting requirement.

To arrive at its decision, the Common Application board hired an outside consultant to review applications of colleges inside and outside the United States, held many meetings, and surveyed its membership (and received a 75 percent response rate).

Shane L. Windmeyer, the founder of Campus Pride, a national group that works on behalf of gay students and sponsors college fairs at which gay students can meet college representatives, criticized both the process and the outcome of the Common Application's consideration of the issue. Campus Pride formally requested the changes and was the most vocal proponent of them.

"The Common Application is acting like a parent of the 1950s," he said. Windmeyer stressed that the proposed new questions were optional, so any applicant made uncomfortable could simply avoid them. And he also said that it would be possible -- by asking a second question on gender after one about birth certificates -- for colleges to meet reporting requirements while still reaching out to students with a range of gender identities.

Windmeyer said that at the college fairs his group organizes, there are many high school students who are comfortable with their identities, who have faced harassment in high school, and who want to be certain that they are looking at colleges that will be welcoming. "This is about allowing students to be who they are as they apply to college, and for them to see that they can find a safe place," he said.

By asking students about race and ethnicity and many other topics, but not asking about sexual orientation and gender identity, college applications send a message, he said. "They are out of touch with the needs and concerns of LGBT students," he said.

Windmeyer noted that the board's statement about revisiting the issue suggested an awareness that asking such questions will some day not be seen as a big deal. "It's just a matter of time," he said.

6. The Stanford Daily, January 26, 2011
456 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA 94305
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2011/01/26/rotc-debate-comes-to-undergraduate-senate/
ROTC debate comes to Undergraduate Senate
By Margaret Rawson

The ASSU Undergraduate Senate heard from representatives of the Faculty Senate’s ad hoc committee on ROTC at its weekly meeting Tuesday evening and discussed the issue of ROTC’s possible return to campus.
Student representatives from Stanford Says No to War and Stanford Students for Queer Liberation (SSQL) attended and contributed to the debate.
“It’s your party,” said psychology professor Ewart Thomas, chair of the ad hoc committee on ROTC, welcoming questions from the senators.
Thomas outlined some of the central issues surrounding ROTC’s potential return to campus, such as academic freedom and academic quality for ROTC students.
Holding a copy of the San Jose Mercury News, Thomas referenced a Jan. 24 opinion piece by Stephen Zunes, a politics professor at the University of San Francisco. Zunes said he takes issue with a Dec. 8 ROTC memo prohibiting student use of classified information from WikiLeaks for course assignments, a policy he regards as sacrificing academic freedom.
“What this looks like is, censorship could be imposed on a class that Stanford has a hand in managing,” Thomas said. “This, I think, would be problematic.”
Sam Windley L.L.M. ‘11, president of Stanford Says No to War, also commented on the opinion, describing “a slippery slope” when a university allows an outside institution, such as the military, to determine what is appropriate course material.
“Academic freedom is something Stanford should, and does, place a lot of emphasis on,” Windley said.
“This is an issue affecting us in a larger context than just ROTC,” said Hester Gelber, committee member and professor of religious studies, in reference to students interested in diplomacy careers being advised to avoid looking at WikiLeaks documents.
Senator Ben Jensen ’12 raised the issue of class disparity in military service and referenced his own experience. He weighed a career in the Air Force against coming to Stanford.
“Stanford students are going to be future leaders of the country and the world,” Jensen said. “I hope there’s a careful eye in the way that we look at this.”
Committee members said open discourse with the Stanford community will inform their final decision.
“The issue of discrimination has been front and center,” said Eamonn Callan, committee member and education professor.
“The fact-finding phase is a phase during which we have a responsibility to keep an open mind,” Callan added when asked more specifically about the committee’s findings thus far. “It’s our responsibility to listen, and that’s why we’re here tonight.”
Senator Juany Torres ’13 quoted President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, when he said, “Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving the country they love because of who they love, and with that change, I call on all our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and ROTC. It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation.”
Gelber said the president’s remarks reflect the “university grappling with changing perspectives,” along with the country as a whole.
Janani Balasubramanian ’12 of SSQL later questioned whether Obama’s “one nation” includes those who are transgender.
Student representatives from SSQL raised the issue of military discrimination against transgender individuals.
“We feel that bringing back ROTC, a program that specifically says transgender people are not allowed, is a violation of [the University’s] non-discrimination policy,” Balasubramanian said.
“We are appalled at how this debate is being moved away from an issue of discrimination, which it fundamentally is,” said Alok Vaid-Menon ’13, president of SSQL.
Gelber urged the senators to remember that there will be “some pain for some constituencies” passionate about ROTC regardless of the committee’s findings.
The committee is expected to report is findings in May.
The Senate passed two bills Tuesday evening, one to expand the responsibilities of the Communications Committee to include technology and another altering the conflict-of-interests section in the Senate rules of order, no longer requiring senators to report their officer titles in student groups but accepting membership as a bar to assess conflicts of interest.
All funding bills for the evening were passed.

7. ESPN, January 26, 2011
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?id=6060641
On homophobia and recruiting
By Luke Cyphers and Kate Fagan

On every top recruit's college visit, there comes the moment of the final pitch, when the head-spinning hoopla finally gives way to the business of basketball, when the high school girl steps away from the rah-rah of all the games and the ego-stroking of all the VIP intros to sit down with the head coach. During one teen's big moment, a heart-to-heart with Iowa State's Bill Fennelly, the decorated coach of 23 years sang an insistent refrain. "He kept drilling that 'this would be a family,'" says the player, who asked not to be named. "'You should come here,' he said, 'because we're family-oriented.'"

To the recruit, those seemingly comforting words cloaked a deeper meaning. Two of the four schools she was considering were purported to employ lesbians on their staffs. Her stop in Ames, in fact, was on the heels of a trip to one of those allegedly "gay programs." There, coaches avoided discussing anyone's off-court lives. Iowa State, in contrast, pushed the personal hard. "They threw it out constantly," says the player, who became a Cyclone. "'Iowa has morals, and people who live here have values, wholesome values.'" The implication, to her and to another former Cyclone who confirmed her account, was that at other schools, "there's something going on you don't know."

The messaging continued after she joined the Iowa State squad and started to help recruit younger players. Coaches told all the Cyclones to emphasize their "environment" to any visiting recruits: married head coach, straight assistants, kids running underfoot. "Tell them we're family- oriented," the player recalls. "According to the coaches, it needed to be said."

Why, exactly, depends on whom you ask. Gay rights activists, coaches and players speak at length about what they see as a longtime and underhanded recruiting tactic in women's sports: Pitches emphasizing a program's family environment and implicit heterosexuality are often part of a consciously negative campaign targeted at another program's perceived sexual slant. In a survey of more than 50 current and former college players, as part of The Magazine's seven-month look at women's basketball recruiting, 55 percent answered "true" when asked if sexual orientation is an underlying topic of conversation with college recruiters.

Heather Barber, a sports psychology professor at the University of New Hampshire who has studied this topic extensively, says "family focused" recruiting is used as a subtle weapon against programs led by unmarried female coaches: "When coaches say things like, 'We're a family,' one aspect of that is 'We support each other,' and that's good. But it crosses the line when programs talk about 'family values,' then put a definition on what families look like. That becomes code for 'We reflect a straight program.'"

Fennelly, on the other hand, says he pushes Iowa State's familial spirit because that's what he has to sell. It's all positive, and anyone who thinks otherwise is distorting what he and his school stand for. "I think what's happening," he says, "is, in an odd way, my staff is being penalized because they're married and have families." The coach, one of the few in the women's game willing to speak on the record about the subject, denies that he or any of his staff has ever used the term "wholesome" to recruit a player. But, Fennelly adds, "if using the word 'family' is viewed as negative recruiting, then we're guilty, because we say that. I don't think it's negative. Maybe I'm the only one in America who thinks that's ridiculous to say."

He isn't, of course. Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma says that if people are agitating to "tone down" the focus on family when it comes to recruiting, "everyone in this business ought to shoot themselves in the head." He adds, "If that's the direction people want to take it, they've lost their grip on reality."

But others argue that homophobic recruiting is more than a disagreement over language. Long an issue, the practice -- and the suspicion of it -- has without question created a toxic atmosphere in the highest-profile women's college sport.

Negative recruiting is even whispered in answer to the game's toughest riddle: Why don't the sport's two top programs, Tennessee and UConn, play each other anymore?

Auriemma says he still doesn't know why Pat Summitt, Tennessee's legendary coach, nixed their annual showdown in 2007. But he's heard the rumor that has circulated since: UConn used antigay recruiting tactics against the Lady Vol program. "If someone is saying that's the reason," Auriemma says, "they're more out of their minds than I think they are." Summitt declined to be interviewed for this story.

To be sure, negative recruiting plagues men's sports, too -- this school is headed for probation, that campus is unfriendly to African-Americans, that coach will bail with the next decent job offer -- but homophobic pitches are unique to women's games. They are an open secret in college hoops, almost as open as the fact that there are lesbians who play and coach. But few want to talk about the issue on the record, and trying to define what constitutes antigay recruiting, let alone identifying victims and culprits, devolves into an exercise in avoidance, denial and fear. "It's a paradoxical notion," says Beth Bass, CEO of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. "Although women's athletics can break down barriers, be it racism or sexism, sometimes we're the last place ignorance can still exist. Sometimes, we're the slowest on these underbelly issues." So as acceptance of gay rights continues to grow in American society at large, recruiting against sexual orientation not only continues to take place, but it also pressures many players, regardless of identity, to shun "gay programs" and drives gay women out of coaching.

Kathy Marpe, who coached at the University of San Diego from 1980 to 2005 while closeting her homosexuality throughout, is certain that more than one recruit was steered away from her program by accusation and innuendo. As a rule, recruits are deterred by subtle code phrases: A school's climate is "unhealthy" or "not family friendly." But Marpe recalls one case in particular in which the negative pitch was far more blunt. "A kid's high school coach told me that another college coach said, 'You know, they're gay.' The player ended up not coming."

There are no data showing how many recruits are swayed by these negative characterizations. But there is plenty of anecdotal evidence, enough to have spurred the NCAA to co-sponsor a 2006 think tank on the subject with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The NCLR and the Women's Sports Foundation released a paper in 2009, written by Helen Carroll and Pat Griffin, on how to recognize and erase the practice of antigay recruiting. In the end, though, this is a crime without a body. "Negative recruiting creates a hostile environment for all coaches regardless of their sexual orientation," the paper states, "but because they are not in a position to deny the allegations, the largest impact is on lesbian, gay and bisexual coaches." To cope, the paper concludes, lesbian and bisexual coaches are forced to hide their identities or details of their personal lives.

Even that strategy may not be able to outflank a rumor mentioned discreetly by an opposing coach or booster to a recruit. And that is both a competitive and job-security issue, because one player can be the difference between March Madness and an April pink slip. "Coaches aren't worried about getting fired for being lesbian," says Barber, the sports psych professor, "but they do worry about being fired for not being able to recruit successfully because of it."

THERE WAS A TIME before this friction was the norm. Until women's basketball began to blossom into the major college sport it is today, few knew or cared about the sexual tenor of the game. Few knew there even was a game. In the 1960s and '70s, the sport's powerhouses were mostly small, since forgotten, schools. In 1972, for example, the final game of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women tournament featured Immaculata and West Chester State. But if it was a minor league world, it was also a woman's world. Back then, more than 90 percent of the teams were coached by women. By 1992, that number had fallen to 72 percent. By 2008, it was down to 64 percent.

Oddly, what forced the turnover was Title IX and lots of money. Title IX, the law that bound any educational institution receiving federal funds to offer equal athletic opportunities for women, pushed big-conference schools to add programs and scholarship money. Then the NCAA lured women's teams away from the AIAW and turned on the cash faucet. Suddenly, a women's hoops coach who could fill an arena and take a team deep into the NCAA Tourney could increase an athletic department's visibility, which meant those jobs gained prestige and started to pay more. Not surprisingly, male coaches noticed and moved in.

But homophobia also greased the declining percentage of female coaches. More than a few coaches, male and female, realized that when they talked to parents, they could highlight the fact that they weren't lesbians -- and therefore couldn't "corrupt" their daughters. Fears of "converting" straight girls into lesbians have long bedeviled women's sports. The high-profile case of Pam Parsons, who in 1982 resigned as coach of South Carolina amid accusations that she had a sexual relationship with a player, made those fears public. And it has had the lingering effect of forcing gay coaches and players deeper into the closet. "Because it was a woman and because of the times," says Carroll, who heads the NCLR's sports project, "the fear became of a 'lesbian coaching my daughter.'"

Those fears continue to taint recruiting, from all sides. Emily Nkosi, who as Emily Niemann hit five three-pointers for Baylor in its 2005 title win against Michigan State, remembers that when recruiters came to her Houston home, as they did by the dozens in 2002, they had to pass a test. "On home visits," Nkosi says, "my dad was assigned the question: 'Do you have a bunch of lesbians on your team?'" Nkosi says her youth coaches abetted the process, vetting programs with their own inquiries about a "healthy climate" and the like. "You know," Nkosi says, "the code words."

This line of questioning was especially fraught for Nkosi because, deep down, she knew she was a lesbian. But she was also a fundamentalist Christian who feared the religious repercussions of that reality. When Baylor coach Kim Mulkey made her visit to the Niemanns', she skillfully evaded the family question. (Baylor did not respond to The Mag's interview request.)

According to Nkosi, Mulkey said she had no idea what her players did away from the gym, only that inside it they were winning games. And that was good enough for Emily, who figured that at Baylor, a Baptist school, she could suppress the truth about herself.

And for a while she did. But after a couple of years, in the months following her Final Four glory, she fell in love with her future spouse, a graduate student named Ashley Taylor. (The two chose the surname Nkosi after reading about a South African child born HIV-positive.) The women fled Waco, believing their relationship would never be accepted there. Says Nkosi, "My internalized homophobia made me believe that if people found out I was gay, they would kill me."

A HOMOPHOBIC ATMOSPHERE infects more than individuals, though. When UConn and Tennessee don't play each other, it costs the game millions of dollars and national exposure. But the negative recruiting rumors that surround the rift take an even bigger toll. It is no wonder that only one Division I women's hoops head coach is openly gay. "I get e-mails from coaches all the time who say, 'I want to be where you're at,'" says Portland State's Sherri Murrell. "But people are afraid for their jobs. They want to be known for their coaching, not their sexuality."

Those who are open about their sexual identity acknowledge the stigma. Sue Wicks, former star of the WNBA's New York Liberty and former assistant at St. Francis College, understands that at the coaching job fair, her background as an accomplished pro is an asset, but her status as an out lesbian is an overwhelming liability.

Google Wicks, and the first page of results reveals her sexual orientation, many times over. "It's so disproportionate to my accomplishments," says Wicks, who also served as an assistant at her alma mater, Rutgers. "I was born gay; I didn't do one drill to get better at being gay. But the basketball, which I had so much pride in, always came second to that."

The culture of the game conspires to drive women like Wicks underground. She was once asked to decline an interview for a gay publication because of how it could affect the program she was working for. "Head coaches are very aware of who is on staff," she says. And the potential for negative recruiting makes them hyperaware of their reputation, of their gay players, even of players' fashion choices. "It's common for coaches to say, 'That's a gay program, that's a black program,'" Wicks says. "People say it as a statement of fact, but what they're doing is negative recruiting."

The takeaway for coaches is clear: Be straight, or, at the very least, act straight. "If it weren't so destructive and awful, it would be laughable," Wicks says, before adding, "Let's see if I ever get another job."

Many lesbians who end up on the sidelines just feel trapped. Marpe says coaches of her generation adopted a persona of asexuality, or of being "married to the job." A few years after she took the San Diego job, Marpe was called into the vice president's office to defend herself against an anonymous charge that she was gay. She was compelled to deny it. "I'm not proud of that," Marpe says now. "But basically you're running scared, scared for your livelihood -- and not only at that school. You fear being blackballed for the rest of your life."

Some women, both at the college and professional level, decide to avoid the drama altogether. Kate Starbird, who spent nine years in the WNBA and Europe, is gay. And she wants no part of the closet. "I never considered coaching," she says. "I didn't want to live my life that way." These days, Starbird is a PhD candidate in technology, media and society at Colorado.

Abby Conklin has also seen firsthand how the game behind the game works, as an All-SEC player at Tennessee, as a former assistant at San Francisco and an academic researcher. Conklin says that an obsession with private lives hinders the development of young female coaches, gay or straight, by putting obstacles in the paths that most other sports rely on to restock coaching pools. For her master's thesis at San Francisco, Conklin sought to explain the diminishing number of female coaches. She isolated two primary factors: a "homonegative environment" and a lack of mentoring. Opening the door to a potential protégé, she explains, is frightening for a coach who resides in a closet. "There is a big fear of letting people in, because they worry about exposing their lifestyle. It led to my frustrations in coaching, and it's part of why I left. It's not an inclusive environment."

MAYBE IT'S TIME for the institutions overseeing the game to take a closer look at negative recruiting. Multiple sources told The Magazine that there needs to be better education about, and enforcement of, recruiting ethics codes, especially on the part of the NCAA and the WBCA. They note that there's never been, to the best of their knowledge, a single sanction handed out to a program for homophobic recruiting. As long as the game's watchdogs do nothing, Carroll says, there's no reason to think the practice will end.

But the WBCA's Bass says change is, in fact, coming. Her organization has created an ethics committee to develop "best practices" for recruiting. Soon, the WBCA will hold seminars at Columbia with its Center for Coaching Excellence. Coaches will gather to discuss, among other things, ethical recruiting.

Ultimately, though, homophobic recruiting will most likely be undone by the inexorable sweep of change in the world beyond the court. Harvard head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith has been attacking homophobia for decades. As far back as the 1980s, she demanded that her team captains be the first defense against whatever fear and closeting existed on the squad. "If I had that conversation now," she says, "my team would look at me like I had two heads."

Former University of Minnesota star and current New York Liberty center Janel McCarville has never before publicly discussed her sexuality, but only because she hasn't wanted the distraction. "Most of the homophobia is derived from older generations," says the 28-year-old McCarville. The fact that she dates women "is widely accepted" among players her age and younger, she adds. "More and more of them are fine with who they are." The cycle is collapsing.

Lauren Ruffin, an attorney and consultant who coached youth teams in the DC area, says attitudes of teenage players are likewise shifting rapidly. "A lot of these kids are coming out early," she says. "If a coach says, 'Don't play for so-and-so because she's a lesbian,' they're going to say, 'It's one more reason for me to go there. And you're an a-hole for telling me that.'"

Meanwhile, Murrell's career has thrived at Portland State. She is 71-42 in her three-and-half seasons there. But frustrations persist. Murrell says she's tired of hearing about programs that lay claim to a "family atmosphere." She and her partner, Rena Shuman, are raising twin toddlers. "It's hard to swallow. There are a lot of great programs with coaches who aren't married and don't have kids who create great environments."

And too many who are married with children who don't.

Luke Cyphers is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine, covering a wide variety of sports, including soccer; Kate Fagan is a contributor.

8. WSBT, January 26, 2011
1301 E. Douglas Road, Mishawaka, IN 46545
http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-chickfila-removed-from-iu-sout-01262011,0,2597395.story
Chick-fil-A removed from IU South Bend campus
By Chad Damp

Click link for video.

Students at Indiana University South Bend may have noticed something missing from their lunch menu. Chick-fil-A sandwiches are no longer allowed to be sold on campus.

The university decided to remove Chick-fil-A as a campus vendor after news that a Pennsylvania franchise will be donating food for an event hosted by a known anti-homosexual group.

"Chick-fil-A's already known as a Christian organization,” said IU South Bend senior Brian Jernigan. “So, I'm not really surprised that they would donate to an organization that's against homosexual values."

News of the ban spread quickly, prompting Chick-fil-A's president to release an online statement defending his company.

"Providing food to these events or any event is not an endorsement of the mission, political stance or motives of this or any other organization,” said Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy. “Any suggestion otherwise is just inaccurate."

Some IU South Bend students don't see things the same way.

"Providing food is equal to donating money,” said IU South Bend junior Erin Rempala. “So you must believe in the cause to donate the food."

The Chick-fil-A sandwiches were only sold on Wednesdays at the Courtside Cafe. Indiana Universityhas full Chick-fil-A restaurants at their Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses.

"I think the university is OK with them,” said IU South Bend senior Justin Samson. “I just think people are just over-reacting with what Chick-fil-A stands for and I just think that they need to settle down and accept that everybody doesn't have to have the same belief."

Many students said they didn't even notice the sandwiches were gone and the university says they don't plan to bring in a vendor to replace Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A's president also said that the company strives to create a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere for all its customers.

9. Pride Source/Between The Lines, January 27, 2011
11920 Farmington Road, Livonia, MI 48150
http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=45144
U-M to host country's largest LGBTQA college conference
By Benjamin Jenkins

This February, the University of Michigan will host the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference, the country's largest conference of this nature, featuring over 90 diverse workshops as well as nationally known keynote speakers and entertainers. This is the first year that MBLGTACC will be hosted by a Michigan university.

The conference, expected to draw over 1,800 students from 211 colleges, was first conceived in 1991 in Des Moines, Iowa, and debuted at Iowa State two years later. Nineteen years later, universities across the Midwest bid on the opportunity to host MBLGTACC. In 2009, the University of Michigan placed a bid and won the 2011 conference.

The university chose to bid specifically on MBLGTACC 2011 because this year it's the 40th anniversary of U-M's Spectrum Center, the country's first LGBTQ student service and resource office.

One of the expected keynotes, according to senior assistant director of the Spectrum Center Gabe Javier, is Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. In addition, Mandy Carter, a pioneering black lesbian advocate and activist, and Pedro Julia Serrano, communications manager of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, are also expected to speak.

But, Javier says, "the big draw is the conference itself, an opportunity for students across the midwest to connect with other students. We're hosting (students from) huge campuses like Michigan State and Ohio State, but also smaller campuses. It's an opportunity for those smaller campuses to meet other LGBTQ college students."

10. Inside Higher Ed, January 27, 2011
1320 18th Street NW, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/27/belmont_bars_discrimination_based_on_sexual_orientation
Change of Heart at Belmont
By Scott Jaschik

When Belmont University faced an uproar over the ouster of a lesbian coach in December, administrators insisted that they did not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. But critics noted that though the university's anti-bias policy prohibited several types of discrimination, sexual orientation was not on the list.

On Wednesday, the university announced that its board has changed the policy and that henceforth, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation would be officially barred. Further, the university added a new preamble to its anti-bias policy stating that Belmont is a Christian university and that the university strives "to uphold Christian standards of morality, ethics and conduct."

Many colleges affiliated with Christian denominations that question sexual relationships outside of heterosexual marriage do not include sexual orientation in their anti-bias policies; the same is true for many nondenominational Christian colleges with ties to such denominations. (Belmont was for many years affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention and today calls itself "a student-centered Christian community with a rich Baptist heritage.")

Belmont has faced intense scrutiny and considerable criticism over its treatment of gay people since word surfaced late last year that Lisa Howe had reportedly been forced out as women's soccer coach -- after revealing that she is a lesbian and that her partner is having a baby. Howe was popular with her players, many of whom were outraged that they were losing a coach because she had been honest, and that their coach was out of a job as she was preparing to bring a child into the world. Numerous protests were held and faculty members joined students in criticizing the university.

Robert Fisher, the president of the university, said in December that the university did not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. But his statements were contradicted by Marty Dickens, chair of the board of the university, who told The Tennessean that the university had the right to enforce clearly stated expectations requiring conduct consistent with the university's values. "We expect people to commit themselves to high moral and ethical standards within a Christian context," he told the newspaper. "We do adhere to our values as Christ-centered, and we don't want to make apologies for that." (He subsequently stated that his quotes were not in regard to Howe's case.)

In his statement Wednesday, Fisher again reiterated that he believed that the addition to the anti-bias policy was a reflection of existing practice.

Howe released a statement in which she said: "I am thrilled for the Belmont University community. This is a great victory for the values of inclusion, human dignity, and respect. I am incredibly proud of the Belmont faculty and students for pushing for this policy. I am also grateful to the Belmont board for recognizing that being gay and being Christian are not mutually exclusive. This is a landmark day."

But Howe went on to state that now "begins the task for Belmont University leaders to make sure that acceptance of LGBT students and staff is not just a written policy but is also reflected in practice, attitude, and behavior. A written policy is the beginning of forming a truly inclusive atmosphere on campus. It is especially important that LGBT students and staff feel safe in being open and honest about their identities and have confidence that they will be treated fairly and with respect. Anything short of this would mean the new policy is merely ink on a page." (NOTE: This article has been updated from the original version with Howe's statement.)

It remains unclear how the new policy will be carried out. Belmont's code of conduct for everyone on the campus states that individuals who commit sexual misconduct are subject to disciplinary proceedings -- and the code's first example of sexual misconduct is "sexual behavior outside of marriage." (Tennessee law does not allow same-sex marriage.) According to the Associated Press, when reporters on Wednesday asked Fisher if the new anti-bias policy means that openly gay people can work at Belmont, despite the code of conduct, he said, "I would put that in the category of a hypothetical."

11. The New York Times, January 27, 2011
620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/education/28rotc.html?src=twrhp
Despite Obama’s Call, No Rush in R.O.T.C.’s Return to Campus
By Katharine Q. Seelye

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Obama called for college campuses to “open their doors to our military recruiters” and the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

This would have been an explosive statement with wide ramifications 40 years ago, at the height of the Vietnam War, but in today’s context, it is basically symbolic. The hostility between universities, many of them now dependent on federal funding, and the military, with the draft long over, is much diminished.

Military recruiters have already been on most college campuses for years. And since Congress last month repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy that banned gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military, most of the elite universities with no R.O.T.C. programs have indicated that they are prepared to bring the military onto campus.

But that is no guarantee that such programs will materialize. For one thing, the military has limited resources for new R.O.T.C. units. For another, the level of student interest is extremely low, with no more than 10 to 20 students at these campuses participating in nearby R.O.T.C. programs now, though that could change if units were more convenient to campus.

“New schools or universities interested in R.O.T.C. programs will each be evaluated” with an eye toward “the most efficient use of these resources,” Cynthia Smith, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, said Wednesday.

Diane Mazur, a law professor at the University of Florida, a former Air Force officer and author of “A More Perfect Military,” said: “I would be the most surprised person in the world if the military came back to Harvard or Yale. The military doesn’t have the staffing or the funding, and it’s very expensive to start a new R.O.T.C. detachment.”

She added: “Both sides have to dance to make it work, and the military isn’t in a position to expand these programs.”

The Pentagon says that only two schools — Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vt., and William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul — have barred military recruiters.

But as soon as Mr. Obama and the military certify the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Vermont and William Mitchell will allow recruiters on campus, spokesman for both said on Wednesday. It is not clear when that might happen, but Mr. Obama said in his speech that he expected it to occur “this year.”

At the same time, the elite Ivy colleges that resisted the military in the 1960s and 1970s now say they are ready to welcome R.O.T.C. units.

Shortly after “don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed, Drew Faust, the president of Harvard, said in a statement: “I look forward to pursuing discussions with military officials and others to achieve Harvard’s full and formal recognition of R.O.T.C.”

Richard Levin, Yale’s president, said last month that the university was “eager to open discussions about expanding opportunities for students interested in military service.”

Stanford has formed an ad hoc faculty committee that is considering whether to expand its relationship with the military. The committee, which met Tuesday night as Mr. Obama delivered his speech, is expected to make its recommendations in a couple of months.

Columbia has formed a task force on military engagement. Ron Mazor, co-chairman of the task force and a student at Columbia Law School, said Wednesday that town-hall-style meetings would start next month, as would a student survey on attitudes toward the military. He said the results would be reported to the university senate, of which he is a member, by March 4.

Lee Bollinger, Columbia’s president, said in an earlier statement that repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” “effectively ends what has been a vexing problem for higher education, including at Columbia, given our desire to be open to our military, but not wanting to violate our own core principle against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”

But the universities were forced to carve out exceptions to that policy in the late-1990s and early 2000s, when Congress, backed by the Supreme Court, denied them federal money if they spurned military recruiters. They stood to lose hundreds of millions of dollars, not just in defense grants but from across the federal government. (Vermont has lost about $500,000 a year in grants, a spokesman said, and William Mitchell simply did not compete for certain grants so did not actually lose money, said Eric Janus, its president and dean.)

As for the R.O.T.C. programs, the Pentagon said it had “disestablished” its units on certain military campuses at the height of the Vietnam War. Ms. Mazur, the law professor, said: “The services made the decision, in an era of downsizing, not to adapt their course content or increase the qualifications of instructors in an effort to meet university requirements,” and so they left.

“It wasn’t worth it to the military to wrestle with these campuses” over the academic qualifications, Ms. Mazur said. Instead, the military established R.O.T.C. units at one centrally located university and allowed students from nearby universities to attend. Students at Harvard, for example, participate in the R.O.T.C. program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; students at Columbia go to Fordham.

The military says that at this point, it has 489 R.O.T.C. units with “cross-town arrangements” with 2,400 universities, allowing almost every student in the country access to a program.

As the universities now move toward recognizing R.O.T.C. programs, they still may hit a snag. Some students are arguing that even with the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the military still does not meet the antidiscrimination requirements of the universities because it bars people who are transgender.

At Stanford, Alok Vaid-Menon, a sophomore and president of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation, said his group wanted to keep R.O.T.C. off the campus, though still allow students to participate in programs at nearby campuses, until the military accepted transgender students. He said that he had tried to raise support for this view from students at other universities but that the response so far had been “bleak.”

Mr. Vaid-Menon said there were about 10 transgender students at Stanford, which he said was about the same number of those involved in R.O.T.C.

12. The Washington Post, January 27, 2011
1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/27/AR2011012702470.html
Milan offers Italy's 1st gay studies course
By Colleen Barry/The Associated Press

Giacomo Moro wasn't going to retreat in the face of a stranger's piercing threats because he's gay.

The 23-year-old biology major was hanging a flyer for a gay association event at Milan's state university last summer when the man started hurling insults out of nowhere. Moro was alone in an elevator alcove on campus - but stood his ground.

"He insulted me, said that I was disgusting, that I was human feces," Moro said. Then the man added a threat: "If you hang another flyer, I will kill you."

Shaken, but unharmed, Moro decided to help turn that act of hatred, the first he'd suffered since he'd come out at age 17, into something constructive: Italy's first accredited university course on gay studies on offer this winter at the Milan university school of political science.

"I didn't seek charges against the guy," Moro said, who was the inspiration and one of the promoters of the class. "This person's hatred was born of ignorance. This class is something of a response.'"

While gay studies courses are widespread in the United States and much of northern Europe, often under the heading gender studies to be inclusive of lesbians and transsexuals, such an offering in predominantly Roman Catholic Italy, where church teachings hold homosexual activity to be sinful, is something of a revolution - albeit so far confined to the halls of higher learning.

"In Italy until now, if you spoke of gender on campus, it was in regards to grammar," said Marco Mori, president of the Milan chapter of gay rights group Arcigay.

Gay activists say tolerance needs to start in cultural institutions like universities for it to take hold in society at large.

"Homophobia can't be fought with laws. You do it through cultural institutions, through schools, educating teachers, and at public universities, to put people in the condition to combat discrimination where it arises daily, in families, at school and at work," said Arcigay national president Paolo Patane.

The course is being launched alongside other tentative steps of acceptance on Italian campuses. Some universities have recently allowed transsexuals in the process of changing gender to carry ID using their new name, activists say - so Mario may be officially called Maria. The example may seem banal. But in Italy's bulky bureaucracy, a name as it appears on a birth certificate is all but set in stone from grammar school through working life.

Arcigay also has welcomed as an important victory a national statistics agency decision, pending final approval, to allow homosexual couples who live together to be counted in this year's census.

But gays in Italy have a long way to go for full acceptance. Attempts at legalizing gay marriage, while gathering broad support on the left, have repeatedly failed. Hate crimes against gays go uncounted, as there is no statistical category specifying a crime against a homosexual.

"There is the silence of institutions. If a person who is black or Jewish is attacked physically or verbally, institutions intervene, quite rightly, and this intervention gives a signal to citizens that the gesture is not acceptable," Patane said. "This is missing for homosexuals."

Antonella Besussi, the professor who is coordinating the Milanese university class, said she got a flurry of attention when it was first announced, including some doubts on its merits. "This enormous media resonance has left me a little perplexed," Besussi said.

Still, the class was launched last week with little fanfare and scant media coverage. There also were no hecklers or detractors. Nearly 200 students showed up for the first day and 120 enrolled for credit.

"We are very satisfied," said Fabio Galantucci, who one of the students who helped design the course, seek out guest lecturers from universities throughout Italy for each of the 11 sessions, and get course work approved for credit. "We're going to have to get a bigger room than we anticipated. People are responding very positively to the offer, to get the chance to see the world in a way different than presented by the media."

Course lectures are meant to stimulate "controlled debate," and each student is required to complete a paper elaborating on one of the subjects studied. It is only being offered this semester, though it theoretically could be repeated if there were interest.

Elisa Cutta, a 23-year-old linguistics major, joined the course after seeing a poster for it. "I don't know if it can be useful, but it will be interesting," she said.

Because gay life is not part of everyday life for many, organizers say the course is very basic in its approach to the material and is aimed at discussing gender identity and what that means in an array of contexts, from political to judicial to literary.

Moro couldn't hide his pleasure as the lecture hall filled up last week.

"He found the wrong person," Moro said of his attacker. "I have never had a problem speaking openly about these things. If it had been someone whose parents didn't know, it would be more difficult. Where there is injustice, I try to face it."

13. The Post (Ohio University), January 27, 2011
325 Baker University Center, Athens, OH 45701
http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=33457&SectionID=3&SubSectionID=38&S=1
Post Modern: Defining the 'T' in LGBT
By Jessica Cadle

As a 5-year-old girl, Cory Frederick - then named Michelle Mays - dreamt of being a biological boy. In the dream, Frederick felt happier with a male body.

"I always had the sense that something wasn't right," said Frederick, who graduated from Ohio University last year with a degree in plant biology and geology. "I always felt like I was in the wrong body."

Frederick is a transgender person, which is someone who challenges traditional definitions of male and female gender orientation, according to the OU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender website.

Frederick, specifically, is a transsexual, someone who identifies with a gender different than his or her biological sex. There are approximately 767,500 people in America who identify as transsexual and are often victims of hate crimes, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

"If you are transgender, you are inherently in danger in public," said Kris Grey/Justin Credible, a transgender person who prefers to identify as neither male nor female. "It's totally legal in most states to discriminate based on gender orientation."

Becoming a Man

Transitioning from one gender to the other varies from person to person, but Frederick began hormone treatment - testosterone shots - in 2004. Later that year, he legally changed his first, middle and last names. In 2007, he underwent top surgery to remove his breasts.

The surgery cost $5,500, and his hormones cost $38 every two and a half months. Health insurance has not covered any of his treatments.

"If people saw that trans people clearly need some medical intervention to live a happy and productive life ... it would more likely be covered by health insurance," he said.

For Grey, a second-year graduate student studying ceramics at OU, it took 10 years out of college to decide on his transition. He chose to take hormones and, this past winter, underwent top surgery to further 'queer' his body.

"'Queer' is a word I align with more than any other because it's open," Grey said.

While Grey's top surgery cost about $6,000, he said it could total up to $10,000.

"I have this new feeling of embodiment, which is so amazing," Grey said. "That physical change matched my mental state with my physical state. It's like magic."

In order to undergo any type of top or bottom surgery, a person must live for a year as the gender of their choice during a mandatory waiting period titled "A Real Life Experience," according to a pamphlet put out by Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

The Silent 'T'

As the only letter in the acronym LGBT that deals with gender as opposed to sexual orientation, transgender people have a specific set of problems.

"When I underwent surgery, I lost my visibility as a queer person," Frederick said. "Others can easily identify you when you look like them. ... But now they see me as just a man."

Transgender, as a term, includes crossdressers, intersexuals and transsexuals, so each transgender person is in a unique situation.

"It's important to be visible," Grey said. "What media has represented a trans person in a positive light? Zero."

To increase visibility, Grey created the performance art piece "Ask A Tranny," where he stands in public and answers any and all questions about being transgender.

"Hopefully this kind of visibility leads to greater understanding and action," he said. "It takes a squeaky wheel to get the oil."

Transgender On Campus

With the recent move to gender-neutral housing, the campus is taking steps in the right direction, Grey said.

"I totally applaud that, but I hope it will extend to gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms at the gym," he said.

Hudson Health Center hosts a transgender support group, and the LGBT Center provides a transgender guide online, which gives advice and lists all of the individual bathrooms on campus, said Mickey Hart, director of the LGBT Center.

"I'm lucky, because in (Seigfred), I have two bathrooms I can use," Grey said.

To further include transgender people, members of TransOhio spoke with students during Fall Quarter, said Tiffani Smith, president of Ally and co-president of People Acting for Gender Equality.

Family Support

Frederick's mother, Aleta Polley, an adjunct professor of education at OU's branch campuses and a 1994 graduate, has worked to accept her son.

"I've come to realize ... I'm here to support him because the only difference now is how he looks," Polley said. "This is still my child - my adult child - and I will not be estranged from him because of it."

Polley reached a turning point as she watched him bind his breasts and layer on shirts on a 98-degree day in order to look more masculine, she said.

"Binding for me was a daily activity, like putting on socks," Frederick said.

Polley said it's not difficult to accept her child, but finds it difficult to remember the proper syntax.

"The pronouns are hard," she said. "When I look at him, I still see Michelle."

The Golden Rule

Grey's arms gesticulated as he described his perfect world.

"People would treat individual human beings with the same kindness and compassion that they wished to be treated," he said. "Trans people are people too."

The difficulty with accepting transgender people is they don't fit into the cultural understanding of male and female, Hart said.

Transgender people have many of the same struggles and goals as the rest of society, but experience life a little differently, Frederick said.

"I think we are living in an age where people are challenging the status quo, and they are working to create positive change," he said.

14. The Brown Daily Herald, January 28, 2011
P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906
http://www.browndailyherald.com/norris-leblanc-13-the-rotc-question-1.2450693
Norris-Leblanc '13: The ROTC Question
By Chris Norris-LeBlanc

After 18 years, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was finally repealed by a Senate vote of 63 for and 33 against. This historic legislation marks the end of an almost two-decade period when gay and lesbian members of the armed forces had to face a dishonorable discharge if they divulged their sexuality to their comrades, forcing them to live in secrecy while trying to perform a highly stressful and dangerous job.
The magnitude of this decision has sent reverberations nationwide; however, I would like to talk about how it has reached us here on College Hill. In light of the repeal, President Simmons has decided to form a committee tasked with reevaluating the 1972 ban on all Reserve Officer Training Corps programs at Brown.
To once again allow ROTC on our campus would be to completely ignore the social, political and historical contexts of its original expulsion. My personal feelings about the military aside, the repeal of the policy was a huge victory for human rights and has set an important precedent for future anti-discrimination laws; that being said, discrimination against queer folks in the military will not necessarily die with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and ROTC divestment was an act informed by the sum of many other crimes against humanity perpetrated by the United States military.
Officially, the University instituted the ban on ROTC as a result of the program's unwillingness to rescind its status as an academic credit-bearing entity. However, as we all know, the 1960s were a time of significant student protest, especially at schools like Brown. Starting as early as 1967, there was a "Brown Committee to Abolish ROTC" taking action on campus.
To try and remove Brown's expulsion of ROTC in 1972 from the context of the United States military's violence in Vietnam and at Kent State University is akin to taking any other action out of its historical context. In order to truly achieve a coherent analysis about the initial decision to remove ROTC, we must look at the cultural position of the United States military between the years of 1967 and 1972.
By the official end of the Vietnam War in 1975, an estimated one million members of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong had died defending their country from U.S. invasion. Women, although allowed in the military in the 1960s and '70s, were not given the same job opportunities as men, regardless of their ability or technical proficiency. On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University, four students were killed and nine others were injured at a rally protesting the United States military's foreign involvement.
Although this summary paints just a small picture of the cultural milieu in the '60s and '70s, it helps us to reconstruct the socio-political climate at the time ROTC was expelled from our campus. So, where do we stand now?
The United States military is currently involved in many foreign conflicts, the most prominent of which are taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, an estimated 99,000-108,000 civilians have been killed as a result of U.S. occupation. A 2003 survey of female veterans showed that 30 percent were victims of sexual assault while serving in various branches of the military; furthermore, a 2004 study of female veterans seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder found that 71 percent had been victims of sexual assault while in the service. Meanwhile, the National Guard has been called in on numerous occasions to help suppress protests during G-8 and G-20 meetings held all over the United States. To add insult to injury, the starting pay for a member of the Air Force, Navy, Marines or Army is only 17,604 dollars per year — not very good compensation for risking one's life. Although officer positions certainly pay more handsomely, they are mostly available to students coming from military colleges like West Point.
Given this comparison between the situation in the 1960s and that of the 2000s, I see no reason why ROTC would be any more welcome on our campus than it was 50 years ago. If we look at the two student groups at Brown organizing around this issue, Students for ROTC and The Brown Coalition Against Special Privileges for ROTC, our campus's opinion on the issue is fairly clear; the coalition has 173 petition signatures (including students, faculty and alums) and 10 student groups allied with their position, while Students for ROTC only has a handful of members and virtually no visible support.
In The Herald this week, Undergraduate Council of Students President Diane Mokoro '11 was quoted saying that in regards to the committee members' personal opinions about ROTC, she wants "somebody who's relatively in the middle." Although our instinct at Brown is to always attempt to create a level debate, I think it is critically important that whoever gets chosen for this committee is both invested in the issue and has opinions which reflect those of the larger student body.
My suggestion: Tell Ruth we don't want a committee, and all hail community referenda.

Chris Norris-LeBlanc '13 is from Rhode Island. He can be contacted at chris.norris.leblanc (at) gmail.com.

_______________________________________________________________
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 regarding fair use of copyrighted work, this material is distributed without profit for information, research, and educational purposes. The Consortium has no affiliation whatsoever with the originators of these articles nor is the Consortium endorsed or sponsored by the originators.

QNOC Digest 2011.01.23

2011-01-27T14:10:00.001-05:00

Queer News On Campus [QNOC] Articles Digest
For the week ending 2011.01.23

Brought to you by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. http://www.lgbtcampus.org

Archives of the QNOC Digest can be found at http://queernewsoncampus.blogspot.com

Reminder: If you come across articles that should be included in the digest, please email a link to the article to articles@lgbtcampus.org

1. The Emory Wheel - Plans for Gender-Neutral Housing Announced
2. Delaware Online/The News Journal - 'A great first step': UD paying medical costs for domestic partners
3. The Florida Times-Union - Talking about UNF's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Days
4. The New York Times - More Students Seek Avenues to Gay-Friendly Colleges
5. The Harvard Crimson - A Stepping Stone to Equality
6. The Washington Post - Report details warning for fired Mich. asst. AG
7. Windy City Media Group - Stanford students fight ROTC's return based on trans bias

1. The Emory Wheel, January 17, 2011
Emory University, Drawer W, Atlanta, GA 30322
http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=29153
Plans for Gender-Neutral Housing Announced
By Jordan Friedman

Emory will offer a gender-neutral housing pilot program for the 2011-2012 academic year, a move that will allow juniors or seniors to request a roommate of any sex or gender.

The gender-neutral housing program will take place in approximately 60 two-bedroom apartments in the F Building of the Clairmont Residential Center (CRC). Residence Life and Housing will honor only mutual roommate requests.

Andy Wilson, director of Residence Life and assistant dean for Campus Life, said the pilot program will consist of approximately 120 students. Residence Life and Housing selected the F Building because it contains two-bedroom units, Assistant Director of Residence Life and Operations Joni Tyson explained.

“When you go beyond two bedrooms, it gets complicated,” Tyson said. She noted that two students can reside in each of the two bedrooms in the F Building apartments, but not in apartments with four bedrooms. This makes it easier for Residence Life and Housing to place any leftover students in need of housing.

“[Students] in two-bedroom apartments would have the option of pulling in another roommate, or we could place them with a same-gender roommate, which is in accordance with our standard policy,” Tyson explained.

Tyson said that up until this point, students either had to petition for gender-neutral housing or live off-campus. Residence Life and Housing has granted these requests as exceptions in the past.

Director of Clairmont Campus Frank Gaertner wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that this program will enable students to “live with a roommate they most prefer, without limiting it to someone of the same biological sex.”

“We know that students can live off-campus with any other student they choose, and we’re happy to give them this same option here on campus,” Gaertner wrote.

Wilson noted that other colleges’ and universities’ successes with gender-neutral housing partially inspired this pilot program. The National Student Genderblind Campaign website, genderblind.org, lists more than 50 other colleges and universities with similar policies.

“Other schools have done this, and it’s important for us as an institution to offer the same kinds of options in our residence halls,” Wilson explained.

Gaertner, who wrote the proposal for the program, said he read over other schools’ proposals beforehand, which helped him create Emory’s own proposal. The proposal needed — and ultimately did receive — the approval of Vice President and Dean of Campus Life John Ford, as well as of University President James W. Wagner’s cabinet before it could be implemented.

Gaertner wrote that the policy is “responsive to student needs and issues.” For example, he noted, transgender students have had to make special appeals to the assignments coordinators if they desired to live with a student of a different biological sex. The new policy will allow them to live with whomever they wish without the special appeals process, Gaertner wrote.

Student inquiries played a major role in the administration’s decision to implement the new policy, Gaertner explained. According to Gaertner, Emory Residence Life and Housing worked closely with representatives from the Residence Hall Association (RHA) and the Student Government Association (SGA) to formulate the program.

SGA President and Goizueta Business School senior Beth Brandt wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that last semester, SGA produced its own “ideal proposal.”

Brandt added that initiating the conversation about gender-neutral housing was a part of her campaign platform when she ran for SGA president.

“Fortunately for everyone, Residence Life [and Housing] was also interested in restarting these conversations,” Brandt said.

According to Gaertner, Residence Life and Housing asked a question in its annual Educational Benchmark, Inc. (EBI) survey about gender-neutral housing.

Sixty-one percent of student respondents said they were moderately to very interested in living with a student of a different biological sex.

Interest was greatest in juniors and seniors, a finding that, according to Gaertner, was part of the inspiration to administer the pilot in the CRC, which only houses juniors and seniors.

In addition, because the University has only recently been notified of the pilot program, Wilson said it is too early to determine the specific number of students actually interested in the pilot but added that this pilot will ultimately enable Residence Life and Housing to better understand students’ interests for the future.

Gaertner said that if successful, Residence Life and Housing will likely expand the program to other buildings.

Interested students can sign up for the gender-neutral housing program through the regular housing selection process.

2. Delaware Online/The News Journal, January 17, 2011
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110117/NEWS/101170326/-A-great-first-step-
'A great first step': UD paying medical costs for domestic partners
By Wade Malcolm

In 2002, Jack Baroudi was a valuable addition to the University of Delaware’s faculty.
He had earned a doctorate from New York University’s prestigious Stern School of Business and held a top job at Morgan Stanley. During the recruitment process for an associate dean position, Baroudi learned UD didn’t offer medical benefits for domestic partners. It shocked him.

Single at the time, Baroudi accepted the job anyway. Since then, his family situation has changed.

“If I had been in the situation then that I’m in now, with a domestic partner and two children, I wouldn’t have come here,” said Baroudi, a Faculty Senate officer and chairman of UD’s LGBT Faculty and Staff Caucus.

At the beginning of this year, the university started a policy to eliminate what Baroudi called “inequitable treatment.” UD now pays for the medical benefits of domestic partners of its gay and lesbian employees, joining more than 300 other schools around the country offering similar benefits.

At least two Delaware private schools – Wesley College and Widener University – provide medical coverage for domestic partners. UD is the first public institution in the state to offer the benefits. Delaware Technical & Community College includes domestic partners in its medical leave and free tuition policies but not insurance coverage.

UD officials expect 25 to 50 partners of employees to request the benefits during the open enrollment period, said J.J. Davis, vice president for finance and administration.

But UD will not provide coverage, only finance it. The university will pay employees with partners a maximum stipend equal to the amount it spends for covering a spouse, plus an extra percentage added to account for taxes deducted from the stipend. It will add up to a maximum of about $9,000 per person per year, Davis said.

UD must use that method because its employees participate in the state employees' health insurance policy, which does not allow domestic partners to obtain insurance. Baroudi believes UD's efforts represent "a great first step" but that the state ought to do more.

Several large state universities in nearby states -- including Penn State, Temple and Rutgers -- offer partner benefits. And nearly all of the top-tier research universities that UD aspires to emulate offer the coverage, said Lori Messinger, a University of Kansas associate professor of social work who has studied same-sex benefits.

"If you aspire to be in the top 20 public schools, you need to jump on board," she said. "And that's what everyone seems to be saying to their boards of trustees: 'Look, we have to do this to be competitive.' "

Wesley added domestic partner benefits six years ago. The college spends about $1.5 million per year on medical benefits, with $65,000 of that on benefits for domestic partners, said Eric Nelson, vice president of finance.

"We were looking for ways to make ourselves more friendly to different constituencies, and that's one of the things we wanted to do," he said. "And it wasn't that expensive."

Getting those benefits can be challenging for public schools because of politics and "where the money comes from," Messinger said.

Not long after Patrick T. Harker took over as UD's president, the university's administration started quietly advocating for same-sex benefits. In a 2008 survey of 471 professors, nearly 70 percent said they "agreed" or "strongly agreed" with the faculty union's efforts to bargain for domestic partner benefits. When contract negotiations began, the faculty found the new administration "very cooperative" on the issue compared to the previous one, union president Joan DelFattore said.

Then at a General Assembly Joint Finance Committee hearing in February, Harker asked legislators to grant domestic partners the same access to the state's health care as employee spouses.

"It's the one benefit that people worry about the most," he said at the hearing. "If you look at the majority of universities that we compete against, we are losing very good faculty and staff to other institutions -- they don't come or we lose them because it is a non-trivial benefit."

During the 2010 legislative session, state Rep. Terry Schooley, D-Newark/Chapel Hill, proposed a bill that would cover domestic partners of all state employees. The controller general's office estimated the benefits would cost the state as much as $1.5 million in the first year, sinking its chances of gaining much momentum, Schooley said. The bill was later amended to allow partners to buy into the plan, paying the full premium out-of-pocket. That option left the state with about $66,600 in extra administrative costs, according to the controller general.

"The support was just not there, especially with the fiscal note attached," said Schooley, who hasn't decided whether she'll propose the bill again this session. "Whether it was a fiscal argument and that was something they could use or there were philosophical reasons for being against, I don't know."

Particularly when it comes to the less expensive bill, Baroudi considers fiscal consideration a false argument, and he believes Gov. Jack Markell should do more to publicly advocate for partner benefits.

"As much as I respect Gov. Markell and appreciate his efforts ... I think the economic situation has tied his hands even when it shouldn't," he said.

Markell spokesman Brian Selander said the governor would consider such a bill if presented with it.

"The idea behind the legislation -- giving same-sex partners the option to buy their share of insurance -- is a good one," Selander said. "We will want to review the bill if submitted to ensure that the approach it takes does not come with significant administrative costs."

UD's policy -- and the proposed legislation -- covers only gays and lesbians. The couples must fill out an affidavit pledging to be in a committed relationship and show some sort of shared asset -- a mortgage, apartment lease or joint accounts, for example -- to qualify for the stipend, which must be used for medical purposes only.

House Minority Leader Greg Lavelle, R-Sharpley, said his caucus has not discussed the topic. But he wondered whether it would be equitable to include only gay couples in such a change and not men and women who choose not to marry. Any new state benefits would be difficult in the current budget situation, he said.

"Given the fiscal situation in the state and the employment situation in the state, those are the things we should be focusing on right now," he said.

3. The Florida Times-Union, January 20, 2011
P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231
http://jacksonville.com/community/southside/2011-01-20/story/talking-about-unfs-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender
Talking about UNF's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Days
By Beth Reese Cravey

The University of North Florida will hold a series of workshops next week to highlight Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness (LGBT) Days. Natalie Nguyen, program assistant at the university's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center, talks about the event.

What is the purpose of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Days?

To show that LGBT individuals face a different set of struggles and that there is an accepting community of individuals (allies). Many may not realize that a person who identifies as LGBT may face physical harassment, uncomfortable work environments, discrimination in housing or employment, or that a person who is not "out" may feel isolated if there is a perception that the community is not safe or accepting. There are things that people sometimes take for granted without even realizing that others do not have the same luxuries, such as having friends and family members who accept you for who you are, being able to go out without fear of physical harm, being able to dress in the clothes that fit your gender expression without fear of harassment and so on.

The schedule of workshops and activities includes a wide range of topics. Describe them.

The "Fearless" exhibit by Jeff Sheng is to promote athletes, both high school and collegiate, who are open about their sexuality and have found acceptance from their coaches and teammates. The exhibit is also used to help break the stigma of homophobia within athletics and to show that there's no way to "tell" if an athlete is gay or not ...

The "gay? fine by me" T-shirt campaign brings visibility to friends, classmates, co-workers and allies who are accepting. When a large community of people wears the T-shirts, it shows that there are people out there who are accepting, which is important for those who are struggling to find acceptance and safety in the community and in their everyday lives.

The "Bullied" documentary is very timely, especially with the string of youth suicides last fall. The documentary is a great way to open up dialogue about what it means to create a safe space for all students and that harassment, of any kind, is not only unhealthy but can also be dangerous. We hope to bring a lot of teachers, school administrators and students to not only view the documentary but discuss how to create a safe environment for students who are LGBT or even perceived to be LGBT.

The dialogue "Queers in the Spotlight" is a discussion on how LGBT individuals are portrayed in the media: either as overly sexual, confused, overly effeminate men (or overly masculine women) and how these portrayals create stigma and are a hindrance to the LGBT movement. If someone is coming to terms with their sexual identity or gender orientation, these media images can be very confusing.

The last discussion, "Out in the Workplace," will talk about the struggles of either being out, open and honest about your sexual orientation (or gender identity) in the workforce, what it could mean to your work environment, safety (both physical safety as well as secured employment) and chances for promotion. When I first started looking for employment, I was hesitant about different work environments and their level of acceptance (or lack thereof), so I often created duplicate copies of my resumes and cover letters: one that included my work within the LGBT community and one that did not for fear that I would not be hired based on my sexual orientation or my gender expression.

Will there be follow-up sessions?

Jeff Sheng will be available Monday to speak to students and community members about his work and his inspirations for the exhibit. Sheng will also visit with student-athletes to talk about his exhibit and how students can create a safe environment for their fellow teammates and how coaches can promote team unity and inclusion. There will also be a question-and-answer session after the "Bullied" documentary to talk about the importance of derogatory language, acceptance and safety.

Who would most benefit from attending? And how can LGBT members and supporters reach those people who should attend, but do not?

All community members would benefit from attending, especially those who are seeking community support if they are "coming out" ... and friends/family members who want to support those who are "out." Our allies are just as important to show that there is acceptance beyond those who self-identify as LGBT, but a lot of friends and family members may not know how to show their support or be aware of the struggles that LGBT people face. As far as reaching those who should attend, I would encourage dialogue and hope to promote acceptance and understanding. School administrators, faculty, staff and parents of students who are bullied at school would benefit the most from the "Bullied" documentary, not just to protect LGBT students but all students.

Tell us more about the Resource Center, its mission and how people can help.

The UNF LGBT Resource Center provides valuable education and resources for the entire campus community with a commitment to advocacy, equality, respect and support for the LGBT students, faculty and staff. Community members can help by attending events, donating to support the center's programs, facilitating dialogues, volunteering at the center and listening to their friend, family or colleague who may be looking for acceptance without judgment.

For more information, go to unf.edu/dept/lgbt.

4. The New York Times, January 20, 2011
620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/gay-friendly/
More Students Seek Avenues to Gay-Friendly Colleges
By Sergio N. Candido

Blogger’s Note: The following article was prepared through the New York Times Student Journalism Institute, a workshop that was recently held in Miami. Mr. Candido is a student at Florida Atlantic University. –Jacques Steinberg

When Jamesly Louis chooses the university he wants to attend next year, he’ll be looking at two things: the theater program and how safe the university is for gay students.

He had a bad experience in high school, where he said some students told him “that homosexuals should go to hell.”

Mr. Louis, 19, is not alone. The number of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students seeking a university that is “gay friendly” is increasing, driven by Web sites that rate schools on how supportive they are of gay students.

“It’s definitely a phenomenon,” said Luigi Ferrer, the director of programs and grant development at Pridelines Youth Services, a Miami Shores, Fla., nonprofit where he works with Louis, a counselor. “Students are sometimes prioritizing [LGBT] resources even over the academic reputation of the school or the financial aid they can get.”

One Web site that rates whether universities are gay friendly, the LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index, has become more popular over the past year.

The Index looks at policies, programs and practices each institution provides to its gay community and grades the university.

Shane L. Windmeyer, co-founder of Campus Pride, the national nonprofit that runs Climate Index, said the number of people going to the site increased significantly.

Visits have almost doubled from 6,850 a month in 2007, when the Web site started, to 13,580 a month in 2010, Mr. Windmeyer said. The index now has 258 colleges on its list; universities are asked to answer 50-plus questions including how the campus accommodates sexually variant students to what policies they have to protect students against harassment based on sexual orientation.

Mr. Windmeyer said he believed the increase in the number of visits to the site is a direct result of the attention on bullied gay students who committed suicide last year.

In September, Tyler Clementi, 18, a freshman at Rutgers, jumped off the George Washington Bridge; his roommate and a classmate are accused of secretly monitoring him with a webcam.

Around the same time, Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old gay student at Jacobsen Middle School, hanged himself from a tree in his backyard in Tehachapi, Calif., after being bullied.

“There have been an increasing number of kids to the index as a result of the need for parents to feel that the college they are sending their students to is safe,” Mr. Windmeyer said. “I received more phone calls last September from parents and students asking for advice than ever before.”

The Princeton Review, a company that specializes in test preparation courses and admissions consulting, also ranks “gay friendly” universities. Students can go to the Review’s Web site or get a printed survey form, where one question asks whether they think students, faculty and administrators at their university treat people equally “regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.”

About 122,000 students from 373 colleges and universities have answered that question, providing the basis for the rankings. The Review’s Web site also provides guidelines for what students should look for to tell whether a campus is friendly to gay students. Among the suggestions are unofficially touring the campus, visiting the school’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender center and talking with gay faculty.

For high school students, the search for a friendly campus is often driven by harassment they’ve already experienced.

A 2009 survey of 7,261 middle and high school students conducted by the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network found that 9 of 10 students experienced harassment at school that year because of their sexual orientation.

GLSEN, an organization for students, parents and teachers seeking to end discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender students in K-12 schools, also found that 72.4 percent of those students surveyed heard homophobic remarks.

Fifteen-year-old Kayla Almeida, a freshman at Miami Beach Senior High School in Miami Beach, said she was a victim of a hate crime last year. Kayla, who publicly declared herself a bisexual in the fifth grade and now considers herself lesbian, said she and a friend were verbally assaulted by a group of six students during an English class because of their sexual orientation.

The incident, coupled with news reports about Mr. Clementi, terrified her mother, Kayla said.

“I can tell that she’s worried because it’s happened several times in so little time,” she said. “It could happen to anyone. It might be me next.”

Even though she still doesn’t know where she wants to go to college, Kayla said she planned to choose a school where she would feel safe.

“I would definitely look for a school with LGBT resources. I’m gay, and I would like to meet other people who are like me in college,” she said.

A Campus Pride LGBT report in September 2010 found that respondents were twice as likely to say that they were the target of derogatory remarks and were stared at by other people than their heterosexual counterparts.

The report documented the experiences of 5,000 students, faculty, staff and administrators who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer at colleges and universities across the United States.

“Students, faculty and staff still found a climate that was not welcoming, that often times they are leaving the campus,” said Susan R. Rankin, one of the main researchers for the report and an associate professor of education at Pennsylvania State University.

The report also found that respondents of color were more likely than their white counterparts to indicate race as the basis for harassment.

Mr. Louis agrees.

“It is easier if you are white and gay,” he said. “It’s very hard for the Hispanics or blacks because of the culture.”

Mr. Louis said he had used the LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index Web site to look for colleges before graduating from North Miami Beach Senior High School. He decided to stay in Miami and enrolled in New World School of the Arts, a magnet high school and college, where he will receive an associate in arts degree in the spring of 2012.

He said he wanted to attend Florida State University in Tallahassee in the fall of 2012 to complete his bachelor’s degree, a decision he made after comparing schools on his own. The university has a renowned theater program, a national fraternity for gay, bisexual and progressive men, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Student Union and a counseling center.

“New World only fits one of my priorities: it was like a huge LGBT club,” said Mr. Louis with a smile. “This university fits all my criteria.”

Do you have advice of your own you’d like to share? Please use the comment box below.

Want to read more? See Finding a Gay-Friendly Campus” by John Schwartz, in last April’s issue of The Times’s Education Life supplement.

5. The Harvard Crimson, January 21, 2011
14 Plympton St., Cambridge, MA, 02138
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/1/21/blood-fda-risk-msm/
A Stepping Stone to Equality
By Saieed Hasnoo

As we celebrate recent milestones in the fight for Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transsexual equality in the United States, discriminatory practices against the queer community remain insidiously ingrained in the fabric of our society. One of which, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban on blood donation by men who have had sexual contact with another male, perpetuates the perspective that the male homosexual population is inherently “at increased risk” for infected donations and should be disallowed from giving plasma.

The FDA rationalizes its position on men who have sex with men (“MSM”) through the claim that this group has the highest incidence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and is therefore excluded due to safety precautions. In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control found that 19 percent of the MSM population in 21 major U.S. cities was infected with HIV. Seemingly, this would provide a solid, impartial warrant for the FDA’s stance. However, if we contextualize the transmissibility and prevalence of various blood-borne illnesses, there is an unquestionable lopsidedness in the qualifications for blood donation. For example, in 2008, state prisoners in California filed a federal lawsuit, citing that as many as 40 percent of California prison inmates become infected with hepatitis C; however, the FDA has no restrictions on former inmates donating plasma. Further, if the FDA seeks to ban certain distinguishable groups in the interest of risk management, why is sexual orientation a target while race is not? Demonstrating this disparity, Hepatitis B, classified by the World Health Organization as 50-100 times more infectious than HIV, is carried by much as 20 percent of the population in East Asia. Should, then, the FDA prevent East Asian immigrants or descendants from donating blood due to the “increased risk” of hepatitis B infection? No—racial discrimination in the name of “risk management” would be unacceptable. Similarly, excluding the MSM population from donation due to a statistical likelihood that mechanically classifies an individual’s blood as empirically “riskier” is inadmissible.

In June 2010, a Health and Human Services Committee recommended that the FDA uphold the ban established in 1985. Ultimately, the panel concluded that allowing MSM to donate plasma still poses a risk to the safety of the blood supply. However, as the Red Cross reported in September that it could only cover 45 percent of its daily blood needs for medical procedures and emergency situations, equal opportunity must be given a fair chance. A report published by the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law estimated that an additional 219,000 pints of blood could be made annually available if the ban on MSM donations were lifted. Indeed, the dire shortage necessitates a reexamination of the antiquated perception that those who engage in gay sex are somehow tainted or substandard. The FDA must shed the 1980s pre-Lawrence v. Texas ideology that the homosexual lifestyle is one that inherently guarantees hazard and immorality.

At Harvard, we unknowingly come into contact with this mentality. As the 2011 Harvard-Yale Blood Drive begins on January 31st, institutions of higher education have once again graciously opened their arms to blood centers. Though these drives serve an important cause, this continual welcoming subverts the very principle that Harvard and its leaders have defended in the past—the belief that any organization that operates within the university must be inclusive and non-discriminatory. In that sense, the Harvard College Red Cross seems to institutionalize the same recently discarded notion of the ROTC.

The idea that a queer male should be restricted from participating in any campus activity, whether it be donating blood or enlisting with the ROTC, must always be challenged in order to uphold our university’s maxim of equality. However, a firm campus-wide ban on blood centers is neither a practical nor productive solution to this obstacle. Rather, the university must join in the fight against misinformation and inequity by employing its vast resources of intellect. Those who have the responsibility for knowledge and reason must disseminate both the statistical and moral truths. It is the duty of not only our science-based departments, but also our LGBT advocacy centers to speak out against the conception of homosexuality as a confinement.

A multitude of legal, religious, and organizational limitations have all synthesized to paint the image of the gay individual as intrinsically inferior. Each one of these restraints must be met with outrage. The queer community finally has attained the long overdue right to serve openly in the military, and we are actively engaged in the fight for universally recognized marital rights. However, we must not overlook the multiple dimensions that exist in the quest for equality.

Saieed Hasnoo ’12, The Crimson's associate business manager, is an Economics concentrator in Currier House.

6. The Washington Post, January 23, 2011
1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/23/AR2011012303191.html
Report details warning for fired Mich. asst. AG
The Associated Press

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A former assistant state attorney general who was fired after being accused of harassing the gay student assembly president at the University of Michigan was previously warned about using state resources for anti-gay attacks on politicians, according to details of a report published Sunday.

A report compiled by the attorney general's office said Andrew Shirvell was warned last February after sending an e-mail to a former state representative and others that included a gay slur, said AnnArbor.com, citing the report that it obtained.

The warning came two months before Shirvell started a blog that criticized student assembly president, Chris Armstrong, as a racist with a "radical homosexual agenda." The e-mail was listed among the eight reasons for Shirvell's firing.

A message seeking comment was left Sunday with Shirvell's attorney, who has said the actions were constitutionally protected as free speech. A spokesman for the attorney general's office said Sunday he didn't have a copy of the report with him, but one could be available as early as Monday.

National criticism erupted over the blog last fall. The attorney general's office drew more than 22,000 e-mails, 150 letters and 940 phone calls, most advocating for Shirvell to be fired, documents show. He was fired in November.

Then- Attorney General Mike Cox said at the time that the firing came after a state investigation revealed that Shirvell "repeatedly violated office policies, engaged in borderline stalking behavior and inappropriately used state resources."

Shirvell, a 2002 University of Michigan graduate and one of about 250 lawyers in the attorney general's office, handled cases in which convictions are appealed in federal court, writing defenses for the state. It was not a management or supervisory position.

After Shirvell was fired, Armstrong and his lawyer Deborah Gordon petitioned the state Attorney Grievance Commission to have Shirvell disbarred. That process is still ongoing. Gordon said Armstrong has not ruled out further legal action against Shirvell.

The investigation found that Shirvell harassed Armstrong's friends as they were socializing in Ann Arbor and made numerous calls to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office while Armstrong was working there as an intern.

The investigation revealed that while at work during normal business hours, Shirvell called Pelosi's office and posted attacks on Armstrong on the Internet.

7. Windy City Media Group, January 2011
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=30260
Stanford atudents fight ROTC's return based on trans bias
From a News Release

Palo Alto, CA. - Several student organizations have launched a new campaign against the return of ROTC to college campuses in light of the repeal of DADT due to their policy of discrimination towards transgender service members. The National Marriage Boycott, the largest national youth-led LGBT rights organization, has called for youth activists on college campuses that include gender identity in their non-discrimination clause to oppose the introduction or return of ROTC to their institutions. On the campus of Stanford University "Students for Queer Liberation", an LGBTQ rights group, is currently lobbying Stanford administration and organizing against the return of ROTC to campus.
"Now, more than ever, is the time for college students across the country to take a stand and organize against transgender discrimination, an issue that has been historically ignored by the mainstream gay rights agenda" said Alok Vaid-Menon, President of Stanford Students for Queer Liberation. "A re-introduction of ROTC on college campuses (including Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia) that include 'gender identity' in their non-discrimination clause is a fundamental violation of policy and an endorsement of discrimination."

The Military Leadership Diversity Commission issued the recommendation of a ban on transgender service member as part of a draft report on diversity in the services. The final report is due to lawmakers this spring and commission members are meeting this week in Virginia to debate final changes.

This treatment of transsexual service members was recently highlighted in the Washington Post article titled "Transgender Vets Want Military Access For Own" telling the story of First Class Autumn Sandeen and her trials as a trans-women veteran. http:// www.washingtonpost.com

The National Marriage Boycott is a youth-led grassroots movement determined to create a world where everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, can live with dignity and security. NMB mobilizes youth activists at college campuses across the country to become involved in the struggle for LGBTQ equality. You can learn more about NMB at www.nationalmarriageboycott.com or on Facebook at http:// www.facebook.com/NMB

_______________________________________________________________
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 regarding fair use of copyrighted work, this material is distributed without profit for information, research, and educational purposes. The Consortium has no affiliation whatsoever with the originators of these articles nor is the Consortium endorsed or sponsored by the originators.

QNOC Digest 2011.01.16

2011-01-27T14:07:00.001-05:00

Queer News On Campus [QNOC] Articles Digest
For the week ending 2011.01.16

Brought to you by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. http://www.lgbtcampus.org

Archives of the QNOC Digest can be found at http://queernewsoncampus.blogspot.com

Reminder: If you come across articles that should be included in the digest, please email a link to the article to articles@lgbtcampus.org

1. The New York Times - Yale Payroll Error Gives Gay Employees a New Year Surprise
2. The Michigan Messenger - Lansing Community College starts first LGBT scholarship
3. Twin Cities Pioneer Press - Ex-Gophers golf coach sues U for sex bias
4. Windy City Media Group - New director at UIC Gender and Sexuality Center
5. Pride Source - Celebrating 40 Years of Spectrum
6. Ohio University Compass - Ohio creates gender neutral housing option: Students can apply for the pilot program
7. Concordiensis (Union College) - New LGBTQ alliance group
8. Yale Daily News - Penn's LGBT community reaches out to prefrosh

1. The New York Times, January 11, 2011
620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/yale-payroll-error-costs-gay-employees-thousands/?src=busln
Yale Payroll Error Gives Gay Employees a New Year Surprise
By Tara Siegel Bernard

Imagine that your employer sent you a letter just before Christmas informing you that it failed to withhold the proper amount of income to cover your 2010 tax bill, and would begin deducting that extra amount from your paycheck right after New Year’s.

That’s what happened to 61 employees with same-sex partners at Yale University, in New Haven, Conn., which made an inadvertent payroll error that will mean thousands of dollars in extra taxes withdrawn from paychecks of many of these workers this year.

Many same-sex couples are all too familiar with the extra financial costs and complications that can arise because their marriages are not recognized by the federal government. Living in a state where these marriages are recognized, like Connecticut, doesn’t always make their financial lives any easier since couples are subject to two sets of tax rules: they’re considered “married” for tax purposes on their state income tax returns, but not on their federal returns.

This is the issue that tripped up the payroll system at Yale. A programming error failed to withhold income for taxes owed on the value of domestic partner health coverage. As we’ve reported, the value of those benefits are taxable (for nondependent partners) by the federal government. But in states like Connecticut, same-sex married couples are treated the same as opposite-sex married couples, and those benefits are not taxable on their state income tax returns.

“Unfortunately, the payroll system inadvertently treated those benefits as nontaxable for Connecticut and federal purposes for the entire calendar year of 2010,” said a letter, dated Dec. 22, from Yale’s payroll department to employees with same-sex partners who were affected by the error. To correct the error, the university went on to say, it would pay the tax and deduct the amount it paid from employees’ paychecks — in equal amounts over the first three months of 2011.

The university, which has extended health insurance to its same-sex employees’ domestic partners since 1994, typically withholds those taxes from employees’ paychecks over the course of the year. But due to the programming error, employees will be responsible for paying the taxes for both years in 2011.

Those costs can be significant. According to one employee who did not want to be publicly identified criticizing the university, paying the tax back over a three-month period would reduce take-home pay by 33 percent — and that doesn’t even include the taxes owed for this year.

If the employee paid the tax back over the course of the year, take-home pay would shrink by 8.3 percent (or double that, at nearly 17 percent, when factoring in this year’s taxes). The employee said some workers owed $2,000 a year in taxes (which means they would need to pay a total of $4,000 this year), while others owed close to $4,000 (translating into $8,000 total), though those numbers were likely to vary based on the value of the benefits and the tax bracket of the employee.

“They’re making it about balancing the books, when there are real consequences for the human beings who depend on the paychecks they earn,” the employee said. “Rather than apologize for the cruel timing of the letters, we got a long explanation about how this all came about and how grateful we should feel, because it could have been even worse.

The university also said in the letter that it would amend the employees’ 2010 taxable reportable earnings to reflect the additional taxable earnings and taxes.

“We understand that for some employees the 90-day time frame for repayment may cause financial hardship,” a Yale spokeswoman said. “For those employees, greater repayment flexibility will be provided on an individual basis.”

The spokeswoman said the university regretted the error, and “looks forward to a time when there is a federal recognition of same-sex marriage and civil union rights with respect to tax withholding rules.”

An increasing number of companies are beginning to reimburse employees for these taxes in an effort to put them on a level playing field with opposite-sex married employees, who are not subject to the extra costs. But for now, Yale employees are responsible for covering these additional taxes.

2. The Michigan Messenger, January 11, 2011
http://michiganmessenger.com/45494/lansing-community-college-starts-first-lgbt-scholarship
Lansing Community College starts first LGBT scholarship
By Todd A. Heywood

Lansing Community College, the state’s third largest community college, has announced it is offering a scholarship for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. While some four year institutions such as Michigan State University offer such scholarships, this is believed to be the first scholarship offered to the gay community at a community college in Michigan.

The scholarship is open to any member of the LGBT community who has a 2.2 or higher grade point average, is under the age of 25 and resides in the district. Applicants should also be involved in the LGBT community in some way.

The scholarship was named for Betsy Lou Robson, a member of the Lansing community. Her family determined that funding the scholarship was an excellent way to honor her. The funding is enough to last for three or four years, says Peggy Hellwig but the LCC Foundation is soliciting donations to keep the scholarship running for many years.

Leaders in the LGBT community were hailing the new scholarship, which has an application deadline of Jan. 28.

“It’s a wonderful thing to see young, out, and proud members of the LGBT communities being recognized and helped in their educational goals. We are particularly pleased to see this start to happen on the community college level, where so many people turn for vocational education or for a more inexpensive way to begin their college careers,” said Denise Brogan-Kator, interim executive director of Equality Michigan. Equality Michigan is a statewide education and advocacy organization for the LGBT community. “Thank you, Lansing Community College, for leading the way – we hope Michigan’s other community colleges will be able to join you soon in offering these crucially important scholarships to LGBT students.”

The Lansing Association for Human Rights, a Lansing area LGBT group, also praised the scholarship.

“We are delighted by this scholarship opportunity made available to our community. Ms. Robson’s generosity and thoughtfulness is much appreciated,” said Penny Gardner, president of LAHR. “We look forward to knowing who are the recipients for LAHR to honor them and the memory of Ms. Betsey Sue Robson at some future event.”

Gardner said having such a scholarship available for the LGBT community was important.

“Having this LCC Betsey Lou Robson scholarship available to the LGBT community means that we are recognized as integral to LCC and to Lansing. It means in yet another way, LGBT people will have another opportunity to advance and achieve their goals. LCC was chosen because Ms. Robson lived in Lansing,” said Gardner. “I wager she was familiar with the LGBT active presence in Lansing, was also familiar with those discriminating obstacles some of us are able to negotiate and is providing assistance to individuals to negotiate them a bit easier. Further, I imagine she might have foreseen the long term effects this support will provide to our city and to groups like LAHR over time.”

For more information on the scholarship — whether donating to it or applying for it — please visit the LCC Foundation website. The scholarship will fund up to four semesters for those who win the scholarship. Hellwig says the scholarship is currently funded for several years, but without funding support added to the current nest of cash will lead to an end of the program.

3. Twin Cities Pioneer Press, January 12, 2011
345 Cedar Street, St. Paul, MN 55101
http://www.twincities.com/ci_17077045?nclick_check=1
Ex-Gophers golf coach sues U for sex bias
By Brian Murphy

A former women's golf coach sued the University of Minnesota on Wednesday for sexual discrimination and harassment claiming she was prevented from instructing players or traveling with the team last fall because she is a lesbian.

Kathryn Brenny accuses golf director John Harris, a Champions Tour golfer and former Gopher player, of creating a hostile work environment after learning she was gay and forcing Brenny to resign in October from her "dream job" as an assistant coach only two months after she accepted it.

Accusations of discrimination and nepotism are at the center of a 14-page complaint Brenny filed in Hennepin County District Court. She seeks more than $200,000 in damages from Harris and the university.

"The University of Minnesota strongly contests both the factual foundation and legal basis of the claims asserted in this lawsuit," U general counsel Mark Rotenberg said in a statement.

"The university has made every reasonable effort to address Ms. Brenny's concerns. This institution has an unwavering commitment to civil and human rights and equal treatment for our students, faculty and staff, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. We intend to vigorously defend the university in this case."

Brenny, the 1998 Minnesota state high school champion from Little Falls, claims Harris circumvented university hiring practices by creating a position for his son-in-law, Ernie Rose, to perform her duties even though Rose did not have a degree, which is necessary to be a head coach.
The allegations surfaced in December as Brenny and her attorney tried to negotiate a settlement with the university. Those talks ended Dec. 21, said the attorney, Donald Mark Jr.

Brenny, 30, played at Wake Forest before winning the 2007 Minnesota State Amateur championship. She was an instructor in North Carolina when she applied for the associate head coach's job in Minnesota, assuming she would teach and mentor the team's entire 10-woman roster.

Instead, according to the complaint, Brenny was allowed to work only with the freshmen and was prohibited from talking about golf with upperclassmen. In addition, it says, she spent the majority of her time running early-morning conditioning drills and doing paperwork.

Brenny, a coaching novice who was hired at a salary of $44,000, did not accompany the team on its four outstate trips.

Rose, however, did travel with the team after being moved into the newly created position of director of instruction. Harris, whose contract allows him to compete on the Champions Tour, played three tournaments in the fall and did not travel with the teams.

In September, Brenny complained about her vague status in a letter to Associate Athletics Director Liz Eull. The letter led to meetings with Harris, Eull and Associate Athletics Director David Crum.

According to the complaint, the university redefined Brenny's job duties to keep her from directly instructing women's players or traveling with the team. In mid-October, Brenny twice met with Athletics Director Joel Maturi to complain she was not being allowed to coach and commenced grievance proceedings, the lawsuit states.

"Maturi told (Brenny) that her choices were either quit or comply with Harris' demands," the complaint said.

Within days, the university offered to reassign Brenny to a sales job at TCF Bank Stadium outside the golf program, which prompted her to quit.

"The atmosphere that was created became more and more hostile, to the point where it made it intolerable for me to even perform the limited administrative duties that had been reassigned to me," Brenny said in a statement.

"While I was never given an explanation for why I was treated this way, I later learned that I was discriminated against because of my gender and sexual preference."

Brenny's resignation and allegations have roiled the Gophers golf community, including alumni who criticized Harris' hiring from the start. Harris, 58, is under contract for $110,000 a year at Minnesota.

In August, Phil Ebner resigned as president of the Minnesota Golf Booster Club, frustrated that Maturi did not heed his pleas and those from several members of the 2002 NCAA championship men's team to hire longtime associate coach Andrew Tank, who left to become head coach at Iowa State.

During the search last summer to replace golf director Brad James, Ebner warned Maturi in e-mails that Harris, who has earned $3 million on the Champions Tour since 2002 and has no coaching or recruiting experience, had ulterior motives for returning to Minnesota, where he was a two-time All-America golfer from 1971-74 and played hockey under Herb Brooks.

Rose is earning $49,500 as an independent contractor not subjected to the university's hiring standards, said Ebner. An instructor at Winsong Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minn., Rose spent the 2009-10 season as an assistant coach on James' staff. He caddied for Harris on the Champions Tour after playing professionally on the PGA Tour of Australasia starting in 2001.

Ebner, a former Gophers assistant coach who captained the 1994 men's team, contends Maturi ignored boosters because he was star-crossed by Harris' cachet as a former Gopher, three-time Minnesota State Amateur champion and renowned professional who could be a boon for fundraising.

To be fair, the Gophers women's team under Harris' stewardship recorded four of the lowest 54-hole scores in the program's history in the fall while the squad finished no worse than eighth in every tournament.

Maturi hired Harris after learning the golfer planned to scale back his competition in the Champions Tour.

"John had expressed interest in the position and it became clear to us that it was a great match," Maturi said in a statement when Harris was hired. "John understands Minnesota and is committed to achieving success with both of our golf programs."

One of Harris' first tasks was hiring a replacement for associate women's coach Kristine Wessinger, who left to start the women's program at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

Brenny hired Mark, whose Eden Prairie firm in May won a $1 million judgment in Hennepin County for Jimmy Williams after a jury determined that Gophers basketball head coach Tubby Smith had misrepresented a job offer to the longtime assistant coach.

4. Windy City Media Group, January 12, 2011
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=30127
New director at UIC Gender and Sexuality Center
Unknown

Megan Carney will join the University of Illinois at Chicago as the new Director of the Gender and Sexuality Center on January 18, 2011.
Carney was Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Chicago's About Face Youth Theatre from 1998-2002, where she designed and implemented innovative theatre education and leadership development programs with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and ally youth, adults, and their allies. She then continued for three years as Associate Artistic Director. Most recently, she has been a program designer, educator, and writer, partnering with a variety of non-profit organizations such as the University of Michigan, The Goodman Theatre, About Face Theatre, and Carlow University. Carney uses multiple methods to approach issues of identity and inclusion, methods that increase educational dialogue through storytelling and interactive forums.

In recognition of the excellence of her work, Carney has been inducted into the City of Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame and she has received the GLSEN Pathfinder Award, Cook County's State's Attorney's Office Community Empowerment Award, the Arts of Citizenship Award, and an American Psychological Association Presidential Citation.

5. Pride Source, January 13, 2011
11920 Farmington Road, Livonia, MI 48150
http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=44988
Celebrating 40 Years of Spectrum
By Crystal A. Proxmire

In 1971, the University of Michigan became the first public university to recognize the gay community with an official office to deal with the issues of gays and lesbians on campus. Now, 40 years later, the Spectrum Center is celebrating how far the community has come.

"Spectrum has increased its ally involvement, gotten involved regionally and nationally in the work of LGBT issues on college campuses, and begun to engage its alum base with the office," said Jackie Simpson, the director of Spectrum since 2005. Spectrum has also expanded the scope of its work over the years to include sexual orientations and gender expressions of all kinds, looking at how those demographics co-exist with other labels such as race or religion. Now, Spectrum serves a whole "spectrum" of individuals.

"Students today are interested in learning about how all of their identities interact with each other. In essence, what does it mean to be gay and Christian, or to be a Latina lesbian? Single boxes and single labels are limiting to youth today. I believe this is why more and more youth identify as 'queer' than ever before ... It gives them more options," Simpson said.

Spectrum gives students resources for feeling safe to express themselves. It also works with faculty, staff, and other schools to share information and encourage more inclusive campuses. It has a Speakers' Bureau program and an Ally Training program. Plus, the center hosts many other educational and fun events. Spectrum's ruby anniversary year kicked off with a Doin' it for 40 Years bash on Jan. 10 at the U-M Museum of Art, which featured musicians, student artwork, catering and a birthday cake. The center will also host talks with people in the film industry this year, such as Rod Gailes, who directed and produced the movie "Camouflage."

From Feb. 22-24 U-M will host the Midwest Bisexual Gay Transgender Ally College Conference, which is the largest LGBT student-organized conference in the nation. The event attracts more than 1500 students. In March there will be a professional drag show, and in November a pink carpet event for the alumni.

It will be the kind of year that the founders of the office would have only dreamed about back in 1970 when they were denied meeting space to organize a gay conference on campus.

In March 1970 the Detroit Gay Liberation Movement inspired the gay community in Ann Arbor to start a Gay Liberation Front Chapter at U-M. According to Spectrum's website, the goals of the GLF were to "battle stereotypes of gay people, fighting homophobic prejudice, and invalidating the mental illness model of homosexuality." The GLF, along with a sister group called the Radical Lesbians, became officially recognized by the Student Government Council as legitimate student organizations.

The GLF was then denied space for a conference, and in the uproar that followed, school officials decided that a Human Sexuality Office needed to be established. It was the first of its kind in the nation.

Jim Toy of GLF and Cindy Gair of Radical Lesbians were hired at quarter-time pay to be the first employees of the office. Each was titled Human Sexuality Advocate.

One of Toy and Gair's first fights was to have "sexual orientation" included as a protected class in the University's bylaws, to protect gay individuals from discrimination in employment, educational programs and activities and admissions. Toy carried the torch of that campaign for 21 years, until finally in 1993 the Board of Regents voted 8-1 to amend the University bylaws to protect sexual orientation.

Other successes were easier to achieve. In 1973 Toy and Gair formed their first Speakers' Bureau. In the 1980s they were allowed to say "Gay" and "Lesbian" in their title, and thus became The U-M Lesbian Gay Male Programs Office, while also expanding their focus to include bisexuals and people of color. In 1994 they added "Bisexual" to their name. In 1995 they added "Transgender," and now the four offices fall into categories of the Spectrum Center - a place where everyone is welcome.

In a press release, Michigan Student Assembly President Chris Armstrong said he plans to take part in the Spectrum celebrations this year. "The Spectrum Center is truly a place where out LGBT leaders can grow and develop. It connects students to the many resources that are around them and shows them the larger Michigan community they are a part of. If I had not found Spectrum my first week on campus, I would not have succeeded on campus the way I did."

For more information about the Doin' it for 40 Years celebrations or other Spectrum Center services and events, visit http://www.spectrumcenter.umich.edu.

6. Ohio University Compass, January 13, 2011
Ohio University Communications and Marketing, Athens, OH 45701
http://www.ohio.edu/compass/stories/10-11/1/gender-neutral-housing.cfm
Ohio creates gender neutral housing option: Students can apply for the pilot program
By Colleen Kiphart

This fall, Ohio University will be one of at least 55 other universities in America to offer students the option of applying to live in gender neutral housing (GNH).

Residential Housing will begin assessing interest for the program as upperclass students complete their initial housing contract. Only those students who have applied for the pilot program have the potential to be placed in GNH. Specialized applications for the program will be handled similarly to those for other specialized living communities offered by Residential Housing.

According to an FAQ on the Residential Housing website about gender neutral housing, “Gender neutral housing (GNH) communities focus on creating an inclusive environment where students can live in the same room with any student - regardless of sex, gender, gender identity/expression or sexual orientation.”

Vice President for Student Affairs Kent Smith explained why OHIO is exploring this housing option.

“GNH is an emerging topic in higher education and one that Ohio University wanted to pursue in keeping with OHIO’s commitment to diversity and providing inclusive environments,” he said. “At the same time, Student Senate came forward with their own findings and support for the program based upon a survey which showed 87 percent student support for creating a GNH living community.”

Students will be informed of the program, its guidelines, and how to apply during the standard information sessions that Residential Housing facilitates for returning students. Additionally, those students who express interest in the program will receive instructions for completing the supplemental application materials from Residential Housing after completing their initial housing contract.

“We are capable of accommodating approximately 50 upperclass students in the pilot program,” said Executive Director of Residential Housing Christine Sheets. “There are no restrictions, but rather an application and selection process for interested students.”

According to Sheets, the GNH pilot program will serve as a learning experience for the students and the University.

“Primarily, we hope to discover the effectiveness of this community from both the student and staff perspectives,” she said.

The University has been interested in the topic of GNH for some time, Smith explained.

“Diversity has always been a central focus of Ohio University’s mission, and this initiative furthers our efforts in providing an inclusive community,” he said.

“Anyone with questions or comments should contact the Residential Housing Office at 740-593-4090 and our staff will be happy to answer questions or share information with them,” said Sheets. “They can also visit our website to view information about GNH, and all of Residential Housing’s other specialized living communities at www.ohio.edu/housing/halls/slc.cfm.”

7. Concordiensis (Union College), January 13, 2011
Box 2577, Union College, 807 Union Street, Schenectady, NY 12308
http://www.concordy.com/article/news/january-13-2011/new-lgbtq-alliance-group/
New LGBTQ alliance group
By Joshua Ostrer

An LGBT ally organization, which has yet to be named, is new on campus this year. The program is aimed at training student allies in assisting with the struggles of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community.

According to the program website’s mission statement, the group focuses on the identity development of allies and developing educational interventions.

Jessica Sarrantonio ’12, who first brought the organization to Union College, explained that the program is intended to be distinct from other LGBTQ programs on campus because it will cooperate and work alongside existing programs. Nonetheless, it is, however, intended to be separate from other campus groups.

The alliance program is also intended to help fill part of the void left by Spectrum, the gay-positive campus club which is currently inactive.

The new program emphasizes training LGBTQ supporters on how to effectively support the cause.

The National Consortium of Directors of LGBTQ Resources in Higher Education clearly focuses on the term “ally”, which can be defined as an individual who supports a subjugated group by acting as a proponent of the organization’s proposed goal.

Although Union’s program is not officially cataloged on the program’s national database, Sarrantonio explained that “it’s totally in the making—it’s not an official club, yet.”

The program is unique because there is no particular method to its implementation into society. Some schools, such as the University of Michigan and Texas A&M have produced guides to their own campus programs and have made this information readily available for other schools.

However, Union’s program will use a “train the trainer” program. On Jan. 16, Megan Bolger, a senior at Hamilton College, will be visiting Union to jump-start the “train the trainer” program here at Union.

The four-hour session, which over a dozen Union students are scheduled to attend, is to be the first step in the building process. The program will be the first time all the students involved will meet together.

This initial training is designed to be the first stepping-stone in making the organization active on campus and the goal of this process is hence to expand membership by training a larger group of students to make the program more effective.

Anyone interested in joining or learning more about the program can contact Sarrantonio at sarrantj@garnet.union.edu.

8. Yale Daily News, January 15, 2011
P. O. Box 209007, New Haven, CT 06520-9007
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/jan/15/penns-lgbt-community-reaches-out-prefrosh/
Penn's LGBT community reaches out to prefrosh
By Emily Wanger

The University of Pennsylvania is reaching out to potential members of its LGBT community before they even reach Philadelphia.

Penn started the program last spring, when members of Penn's LGBT community contacted accepted students who self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported. Last year, 60 regular decision applicants were contacted, but this year the program is expanding to include those who are accepted early.

Under the program, application readers "flag" applicants who identified themselves as LGBT, considered themselves a strong ally to the community or had LGBT parents. Then, once they are accepted, these students are assigned to members of Penn's LGBT umbrella organization, who send them a personal e-mail.

The purpose of the program is to let pre-freshmen know about "resources on campus and ways to connect with LGBT and ally communities," said Regional Director of Admissions and LGBT liason Jordan Pascucci in an e-mail to the Daily Pennsylvanian.

Not everyone is clear on the nature of the initiative, however. Some college counselors believe the program to give an advantage to the "flagged" students in the admissions process, when it is really part of an effort to encourage LGBT students to apply to the University.

Bob Schoenberg, director of Penn's LGBT Center, told the Daily Pennsylvanian that there has been a noticeable increase in LGBT applicants in the early decision round.

_______________________________________________________________
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 regarding fair use of copyrighted work, this material is distributed without profit for information, research, and educational purposes. The Consortium has no affiliation whatsoever with the originators of these articles nor is the Consortium endorsed or sponsored by the originators.

QNOC Digest 2011.01.09

2011-01-27T14:04:00.001-05:00

Queer News On Campus [QNOC] Articles Digest
For the week ending 2011.01.09

Brought to you by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. http://www.lgbtcampus.org

Archives of the QNOC Digest can be found at http://queernewsoncampus.blogspot.com

Reminder: If you come across articles that should be included in the digest, please email a link to the article to articles@lgbtcampus.org

1. North by Northwestern - University forms team to handle discrimination
2. The Florida Times-Union - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Days coming to UNF
3. Daily Record - Rutgers University hosting conference on gay youth suicide risks
4. The Daily of the University of Washington - Repealing the silence
5. The Providence Journal - URI hires first associate vice president to focus on diversity
6. The University of Michigan Spectrum Center - Doin it for 40 Years

1. North by Northwestern, January 2, 2011
PO Box 1597, Evanston, IL 60201
http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2011/01/99740/university-forms-team-to-handle-discrimination/
University forms team to handle discrimination
By Camille Beredjick

Derrick Clifton knows what it’s like to feel “different.”

He says he comes from a multicultural background “with regard to race, class, sexual orientation and religion.” A junior in the School of Communication, he’s committed to honoring his identity; he attends interfaith events on campus and works in the LGBT Resource Center.

Clifton, an African-American man, was working out with a friend at SPAC in November, when he noticed an older white male staring at him with contempt. The man approached him, spat at him, and walked away. Clifton missed dinner waiting for the police; he’s pressing charges for assault.

Faculty members are working together to create a resource to help students who have gone through similar experiences.

“Regardless of whether or not it was hate-related…whatever it is, that may happen to somebody else, or it may be a worse incident,” he says.

Doris Dirks, coordinator of the LGBT Resource Center, and other members of Northwestern’s faculty have been working for the past year to implement a bias incident reporting team (BIRT) on campus to make it easier for students to deal with bias-related incidents.

The goal, she says, is to create a more systematic way for students to report and follow through on bias incidents. The team would serve as a resource for students to find all the support needed to deal with a bias incident or hate crime.

“There should really just be a centralized place where, if you are a target of a bias incident or a hate crime, this is where you go,” Dirks says. “As a community, to have a bias incident response team sends a signal…that it’s a serious thing that the institution values.”

As the system stands now, students who have experienced bias incidents contact University Police and, if they so choose, an organization like the LGBT Resource Center, the Women’s Center or Multicultural Student Affairs, which may provide resources for the group they identify with.

Dirks says students can easily be overwhelmed by the number of decisions they have to make in a short amount of time — whom to contact, how to follow through, where to find support and acceptance. A bias incident response team would eliminate the confusion, incorporating links to University Police, representatives from various campus organizations and qualified individuals to assist with victim support and follow-up.

Ideally, she says, a victim could report a bias incident via a hotline or a web site. Within 24 hours, the team would contact the victim and discuss options. Tracking down the perpetrator, seeking legal justice or other follow-up procedures would be completely at the victim’s discretion, Dirks says, as everyone will want to deal with an incident differently.

“Having a clear procedure in place would speak to creating a campus climate where people feel valued and safe,” she says. “Then you know that something’s going to be responded to quickly, addressed quickly and resolved quickly.”

Dirks has researched reporting system mechanisms at other colleges, such as Indiana University, for general guidelines and ideas. Indiana launched its first team in 1988 in response to student protests after an African-American student was physically and verbally assaulted while jogging on campus. The school now has four separate teams – one each for incidents relating to gender, race, religion and sexual orientation.

Pamela Freeman served on a committee that founded Indiana’s first reporting team, known as the TRUST program. As the Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Office of Student Ethics and Anti-Harassment Programs, she still works closely with the TRUST program. She says she agrees that the victim should play an important role in working through a bias incident.

“We let the victim take the lead,” she says. “Especially if [the perpetrator is] in their peer group, they may not want a whole lot to be done.”

She says the TRUST program is careful not to appear too judicial or punitive. They try not to use the term “hate crime” when incidents clearly aren’t criminal, and when they are, the victim is still in charge of determining what steps should be taken.

“Most of the incidents we get involve something verbal,” she says. “They could easily be described as freedom of expression — it doesn’t quite rise to the level of a hate crime, but it’s still very disturbing.”

Campus Pride, a nonprofit organization working to make colleges safer for LGBT students, hosted a webinar on November 17 about the benefits and technicalities of creating a BIRT. About ten Northwestern students, faculty and administrators, mostly those who have already been working to create the BIRT, sat in to listen.

The webinar moderators, Greg Miraglia and Shane Windmeyer, spoke about the successes of reporting teams at other institutions. Both shared words of wisdom from their experiences working on projects related to campus diversity; Windmeyer is the founder and coordinator of CampusPride.net, and Miraglia is a dean at Napa Valley College with experience in law enforcement.

“A team sends a message against hate,” Windmeyer says. “Having a visible presence of a team on campus can go a long way in prevention itself.”

Dirks says she thinks representation at the webinar was good; it shows people from different circles of campus are interested in helping. Though the details aren’t entirely worked out, she’s hoping there’s enough momentum for the team to be up and running as early as this month.

The next step is working with administration, particularly the president and the dean of students, to launch the program. Much of the preliminary work is done, Dirks says. Though there are imperfections to iron out, the team is ready to move forward — with some help.

Freeman says administrative cooperation has been crucial in keeping the TRUST program going at Indiana, particularly because of the program’s limited power as a judicial force.

“We derive more power through influence because we’re free to recommend anything and we have established a sense of respect and trust on the part of the administration,” she says. “They often rely on us.”

As for Northwestern, Clifton says he thinks creating a BIRT should be a priority. At the very least, he says, students from all backgrounds need to feel safe on campus.

“It’s very important that students are aware that they have administrative support via policy and moral support,” he says. “[A BIRT would] help us create a culture where multiple identities and multiple cultures feel that they have a safe space everywhere on Northwestern’s campus, and not just in select circles.”

The precise shape and structure of Northwestern’s bias incident reporting team are still in the works, incorporating considerations for students’ privacy, security and general peace of mind. How it will affect campus culture is still up in the air.

2. The Florida Times-Union, January 3, 2011
P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231
http://jacksonville.com/community/mandarin/2011-01-03/story/lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-awareness-days-coming-unf
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Days coming to UNF
By Dan Scanlan

A series of workshops and events highlight Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Days, set for Monday, Jan. 24, through Thursday, Jan. 27, at the University of North Florida.

Hosted by the university's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center, the educational programs are designed to increase education regarding gender and sexuality as well as increase visibility of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and ally communities on campus.

Events include:

-"Fearless" at 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24, at the Student Union, Building 58W, Ballroom D - Photographer Jeff Sheng will discuss his photography exhibit of more than 100 high school and collegiate athletes who are self-identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The exhibit is on display from 7 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday; 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and 1 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Sunday, from Monday, Jan. 24, until Friday, Feb. 25, in the Carpenter Library, Building 12.
-"Gay? Fine by Me": 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25, in the Student Union Osprey Plaza - The "Gay? Fine by Me" T-shirt campaign brings visibility to allies of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
-"Bullied" documentary: 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 25, Robinson Theatre - A documentary that chronicles one student's ordeal at the hands of anti-gay bullies, followed by a question-and-answer segment.
-"Queers in the Spotlight": 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, Student Union, Building 58W, Room 3804 - A discussion series on healthy living for the LGBT and ally communities, discussing media portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.
-"Out in the Workplace": noon Thursday, Jan. 27, Student Union, Building 58W, North Star Board Room - A panel of LGBT professionals in Jacksonville will speak with students about career and professional concerns as well as personal experiences of being "out" in the workplace. This event is sponsored by UNF Career Services and the UNF LGBT Resource Center.

For more information about Awareness Days, log onto unf.edu/dept/lgbt.

3. Daily Record, January 6, 2011
6 Century Drive, Parsippany, NJ 07054
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20110106/UPDATES01/110106011/1013/SPORTS08/Rutgers+hosts+conference+on+gay+youth+suicide+risks+
Rutgers University hosting conference on gay youth suicide risks
The Associated Press

SOMERSET, N.J. (AP) — A conference focusing on suicide prevention among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people is being held Thursday in New Jersey, where the suicide of a Rutgers University freshman in September cast an international spotlight on the issue.

The conference theme was chosen before 18-year-old Tyler Clementi killed himself after his roommate had allegedly used a webcam to spy on him during a liaison with another man, organizers say.

The conference is focusing on the crucial role that families and other support systems can play in helping prevent suicide and other health problems among LGBT youth, according to organizers.

Keynote speaker Caitlin Ryan, the director of the Family Acceptance Project, has researched how a family's reaction to an adolescent coming out can affect a young person's physical and mental health.

"The strong message should be that sexual orientation is a part of human development, and we really need to have education across all systems about supporting gay people," Ryan said. "Because LGBT young people are coming out at younger ages, there's a general lack of information in the systems that work with them."

The conference agenda includes topics ranging from the difference that family acceptance can make in a young LGBT person's life, to the role of schools in preventing or intervening when harassment of LGBT youth occurs.

The conference is being organized by the Traumatic Loss Coalitions for Youth Program, based at New Jersey's University of Medicine & Dentistry, with support from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and the Multicultural Family Institute.

Donna Amundson, program manager of the Traumatic Loss Coalitions for Youth Program, said conference attendees include administrators from the legal and child welfare systems, schools, health care professionals, law enforcement and academics as well as those the conference is focusing on helping: families and young people.

"We know that one of the protective factors for suicide is family and peer connections," Amundson said. "The more that you can strengthen that, the better it's going to be; that's why we want to help these families help their kids embrace their identity and sexuality and help them to thrive."

4. The Daily of the University of Washington, January 6, 2011
http://dailyuw.com/2011/1/6/repealing-silence/
Repealing the silence
By Suzanna Parikh

Leaders from the University of Washington’s Army ROTC program, which has gained popularity in recent years, said they expect little change to their programs due to the implementation of the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) that passed last month.

“Nothing changes for us,” said Maj. Stephen Frank, associate professor of military science. “Army core values are fair and equal treatment for everyone. … It doesn’t affect how we do business.”

After much heated debate, Congress agreed to repeal the DADT policy in late December. President Barack Obama cemented the decision four days later, signing the bill into law on Dec. 22.

For Obama, who promised the repeal of DADT during the 2008 presidential election, this comes as a major political victory. Since the establishment of the policy in 1993, gay and lesbian soldiers have been unable to serve openly in the U.S. military, resulting in the overall discharge of about 13,000 people, according to The Washington Post.

Frank not only expects little to change, he also said that with the repeal of DADT, he hopes more people might see the program in a “better light.” Members of the gay and lesbian community at the UW too are optimistic about the change, such as Emily Juhre, a member of the campus GLBTC advocacy group, SOLE.

“I think it’s going to present more of an opportunity for people who would otherwise not have an interest in the military,” Juhre said of the repeal.

The UW’s Army ROTC won’t be alone: the UW’s Naval ROTC and Air Force ROTC, too, will have to comply with the former law’s repeal.

U.S. Army Maj. and associate professor of military science Brett Rubio said the UW’s Army ROTC program has done its best to foster a community of openness and diversity.

“We are all-inclusive; we want a variety of viewpoints in our classroom,” Rubio said. “We want people from all walks of life and foster a welcoming environment in our classes.”

The Army ROTC program, established at the UW in 1916, has gained popularity during recent years, with approximately 50 students currently in the program. Many students also take the ROTC introductory course, Military Science and Leadership Development, as an elective.

In autumn of 2005, 22 students were enrolled in the class. This past fall, 106 students were signed up for the class. Out of this number, approximately 13 students were actually contracted at the time, meaning that they are part of the ROTC program. Frank encourages interested students to give the ROTC a chance, and is always open to a dialogue with anyone interested to determine if the program would be a good fit.

The UW ROTC program is one of 489 programs in the nation. Although it is too soon to tell the full effects of this decision, many remain hopeful that it will encourage the expansion and reimplementation of ROTC programs at colleges around the nation.

ROTC programs on campus allow students to train for future careers with the U.S. military while completing their college educations. To encourage this, the organization Advocates for ROTC promotes the re-establishment of the military program at colleges that once had it.

DADT was one of the major factors that influenced schools, such as Harvard, Columbia and Yale, to remove ROTC programs from their campuses due to what they considered to be discriminatory practices.

There is still a long way to go before the repeal of the policy will take full effect, as the Obama administration wants to ensure that the new policy will not have a negative effect on the military, with the aid of a recent Pentagon study concerning gays in the military. In addition, the Pentagon has created an 87-page implementation plan for the repeal of DADT, which may take months to fully enact. The repeal will be officially implemented 60 days after the Obama administration decides that the military is prepared for the policy change.

Frank welcomes anyone who is interested in possibly pursuing a career in the army.

“We find out if [the ROTC] is a good fit,” he said, “and if it works out, we make them second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.”

Reach Co-Copy Chief Suzanna Parikh at news@dailyuw.com.

5. The Providence Journal, January 7, 2011
75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902
http://www.projo.com/education/content/URI_DIVERSITY_01-07-11_7KLR8DV_v10.b3048.html
URI hires first associate vice president to focus on diversity
By Gina Macris

SOUTH KINGSTOWN Kathryn A. Friedman, former executive director of diversity and equity at the University of Vermont, began work Tuesday at the University of Rhode Island in the new position of associate vice president for community, equity, and diversity.

URI President David M. Dooley announced Thursday that she will report directly to him and supervise the Women’s Center; Multicultural Center; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Center; the Bias Incident Response Team; and the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity.

“This position is critical to achieving our goals,” Dooley said in a statement.

He said he envisions URI as an “exemplary community built on a foundation of diversity and equity,” which “must become ingrained in the full array of work of the entire university.”

The appointment fulfills one of several promises made by URI last year to end a two-week, round-the-clock sit-in of the library’s 24-hour room by about a dozen GLBT students trying to call attention to anti-gay bias on campus.

6. The University of Michigan Spectrum Center
3200 Michigan Union, 530 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
http://spectrumcenter.umich.edu/40years
Unknown

(Ann Arbor, MI) - The Spectrum Center, The University of Michigan’s office focusing on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, will kick off Doin it for 40 Years, a year-long celebration of forty years of LGBT activism, with a Birthday Party hosted at the University Of Michigan Museum Of Art on January 10, 2011. Doors will open at 6pm and the program will begin at 7pm, followed by live music, student created art work, catering by University Catering, and birthday cake. Join us to receive Spectrum Center 40th Anniversary gift giveaways and to hear about the many events to come over the next year.

Throughout the Doin it for 40 Years celebration the Spectrum Center is collaborating with Schools and Colleges across the University and many units within the Division of Student Affairs to put on a multidimensional program that has something for everyone. Highlights include a monthly film series with featured directors, musical performances, a health panel series, youth dialogues, and keynote speakers and entertainers.

In conjunction with Doin it for 40 Years, the University of Michigan has also been chosen as the 2011 host of the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference (MBLGTACC). This is the largest student-led LGBT conference in the nation and will be taking place on campus from Friday, February 25 through Sunday, February 27. Featured speakers and entertainers include Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality; Mandy Carter, founder of the National Black Justice Coalition; and P.J. Serrano, President of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s. For more information on MBLGTACC please visit http://www.mblgtacc2011.org/.

When the office opened its doors in 1971, then known as the Human Sexuality Office, it was the first office in the nation to service LGBT college students. Throughout the year we will take the opportunity to celebrate the experiences current students and alumni have had with the Spectrum Center. Michigan Student Assembly President, Chris Armstrong describes why he will take time to celebrate the Spectrum Center’s 40th Anniversary, “The Spectrum Center is truly a place where out LGBT leaders can grow and develop. It connects students to the many resources that are around them and shows them the larger Michigan community they are a part of. If I had not found Spectrum my first week on campus, I would not have succeeded on campus the way I did.” This year of events not only celebrates this event on our campus, but celebrates student services focused on gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation throughout the nation. For more information on Spectrum Center programs and the Doin it for 40 Years program of events visit us at www.spectrumcenter.umich.edu , email us at spectrumcenter@umich.edu, or call us at 734-763-4186.

_______________________________________________________________
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 regarding fair use of copyrighted work, this material is distributed without profit for information, research, and educational purposes. The Consortium has no affiliation whatsoever with the originators of these articles nor is the Consortium endorsed or sponsored by the originators.

QNOC Digest 2011.01.02

2011-01-27T13:58:00.002-05:00

Queer News On Campus [QNOC] Articles Digest
For the week ending 2011.01.02

Brought to you by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. http://www.lgbtcampus.org

Archives of the QNOC Digest can be found at http://queernewsoncampus.blogspot.com

Reminder: If you come across articles that should be included in the digest, please email a link to the article to articles@lgbtcampus.org

1. The Tennessean - Belmont flap over gay coach puts professor/councilwoman in middle
2. The Bryan-College Station Eagle - Discharged Aggie tells his story
3. AnnArbor.com - University of Michigan students push for gender-neutral housing
4. The Queens Courier - Hate crime rocks Queens College club
5. The Washington Post - 'Don't ask, don't tell' has been repealed. ROTC still shouldn't be on campus.
6. Bangor Daily News - Former ROTC cadet: Repeal ends the lies

1. The Tennessean, December 25, 2010
1100 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101225/NEWS01/12250323/Belmont-flap-over-gay-coach-puts-professor/councilwoman-in-middle
Belmont flap over gay coach puts professor/councilwoman in middle
By Nate Rau

The controversial departure of Belmont University's women's soccer coach has prompted Metro government officials to consider an array of new policies that would extend the city's nondiscrimination policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

None of the proposals, however, have come from Metro Councilwoman Kristine LaLonde, who is a professor at the university and whose district encompasses the school near Hillsboro Village.

Potential conflicts of interest were a concern for some residents of District 18 when LaLonde ran for office nearly two years ago. LaLonde replaced Keith Durbin, who became the first openly gay elected official in the history of Tennessee.

Since the highly publicized exit of openly gay Belmont soccer coach Lisa Howe, LaLonde said she has concentrated on working in her role as a Belmont faculty member to amend the school's nondiscrimination policy. Some of LaLonde's colleagues say she has played an important role in that process. But some constituents question whether working for the university has created an impossible conflict of interest.

Howe departed from the university earlier this month and according to some of her players, she was fired because of her sexual orientation. Howe's partner is pregnant with the couple's first child. Neither the university nor Howe have said publicly what led to her departure.

The incident has brought a wave of local and national media coverage. Some city officials have responded by proposing to extend Metro's policy that prevents discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Mayor Karl Dean requested that Metro agencies that act autonomously from the city, such as the Airport Authority and the Metro Development and Housing Agency, adopt the policy.

Metro Councilmen Jamie Hollin and Mike Jameson have gone one step further. They're preparing a proposal that would require private contractors to adopt the nondiscrimination policy as well. The councilmen also have proposed rescinding the city's contract with Belmont allowing the school to use E.S. Rose Park for some of its athletics events.

Instead of pursing new policies such as these, LaLonde said she worked with Belmont's faculty senate, which announced earlier this month it supported forming a new written policy protecting gay students, faculty and staff members.

"If I were an outsider to Belmont and only had one way to influence what they do, then I would look for that one way," said LaLonde, who revealed she was going through the tenure application process with the university when the controversy unfolded. "But I'm not an outsider to Belmont."

'Conflict Of Interest'

But some politically active constituents of LaLonde's affluent district say she should have been leading on the issue.

John Green chairs the Belmont Neighborhood Advisory Group, a panel of residents that meet to discuss planning issues between the university and its surrounding community.

Green said he supported LaLonde when she ran in 2009, but now he wonders if a conflict of interest exists that makes her job as a district council member too difficult. Green pointed to the university's proposed changes to 15th Avenue South to accommodate a new law school. Some neighbors fear the proposal could take away too much parking and lead to traffic problems in the future.

"A concern I have is I think she has an awkward situation wearing two hats," Green said. "I think it creates a real question, and I'm not sure she's been able to figure it out in her own mind, too."

LaLonde Has Support

But one of LaLonde's colleagues said she handled the situation correctly by working internally to call for changes to Belmont's own policies.

"I would say that leaping forward is not always the best course of action, especially when you understand the intricacies of the way institutions work," said Belmont associate professor of English Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, who also lives in the district. "I think her choices exhibit mature, smart leadership."

She Favors Metro Idea

LaLonde, who has not announced whether she's running for re-election next year, said she supports the proposal to require city contractors to adopt Metro's nondiscrimination policy. Admitting the past few weeks have been challenging,
LaLonde said the ultimate goal is to prevent future discrimination.

LaLonde said it would be difficult to continue working at Belmont if the school's policies didn't protect gay students, faculty and staff.

"If the goal is we want everyone to be welcome and treated equally at Belmont, what is the best way for me to help Belmont get there?" LaLonde said.

"I absolutely felt like the best way for me to do this is to work as a faculty member, to hopefully set a path that we'll quickly get there."

Nate Rau can be reached at 615-259-8094 or nrau@tennessean.com.

2. The Bryan-College Station Eagle, December 26, 2010
1729 Briarcrest Drive, P.O. Box 3000, Bryan, TX 77802
http://www.theeagle.com/local/Discharged-Aggie-tells-his-story
Discharged Aggie tells his story
By Vimal Patel

Three little words threw Aggie Danny Hernandez's life into a whirl: Are you gay?

In fall 2009, as Hernandez served as a reservist in the Marine Corps while finishing his last semester at Texas A&M, the startling inquiry came from his first sergeant in Waco when the superior got word Hernandez had told others about his sexuality.

He felt all he had worked toward slipping away. He considered lying but saw a stack of papers on the sergeant's desk, the top two appearing to be handwritten witness statements.

Hernandez answered truthfully.

Raised in Paradise, Texas, Hernandez wanted to be a Marine since he was age 14. So he enrolled at one of the nation's most military friendly schools, Texas A&M, because of its Corps of Cadets.

There, he dove into Aggiedom, serving as a Fish Camp counselor and in the Corps of Cadets. He also was in the famous Aggie Band and elite Ross Volunteer Company, the Texas governor's honor guard.

While a student, the communications and sociology double major worked in the marketing and communications department and was even an Aggieland Visitor Center tour guide, walking would-be Aggies across campus and scooting VIPs in a golf cart.

"I fell in love with the school," he said.

'I was scared'

He confided in cadets at Texas A&M that he was gay, and in all his time in the Corps, an issue never arose. During his junior year, he enlisted as a reservist in the Marines.

In fall 2009, he confided in two men in his reserve unit that he was gay. One told another, Hernandez said, and word spread and reached the first sergeant, and eventually commanding officer.

"I was scared," Hernandez said. "I didn't know how to answer, and I said 'yes.' He told me he knew what I had told those two other Marines, and that he had asked them to write statements on everything I had talked to them about, and they complied. They used that as credible evidence that I had in fact told somebody."

His commanding officer, Hernandez said, informed him that he would be discharged from the military.

Weeks away from graduation, he thought his career in the military was set, so he hadn't been applying for any jobs, and now, he had nowhere to go after A&M. Also, he said, his contract had stated that the Marines would pick up his student loans, so he didn't bother applying for scholarships, but now was stuck with some $15,000 in loans.

"Everything I was planning was basically crumbling during this short period of time," Hernandez said.

And he felt alone. Though he had confided in close friends that he was gay, he was far from open. He was raised a devout Catholic and was worried family members wouldn't take it well, so he didn't tell them.

After graduation, he headed to Washington, landing work at a non-profit and eventually joining the staff of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a non-profit founded to advocate for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He's working there now as a development assistant.

'...be faithful to me'

On April 28, nine weeks after he was discharged, Hernandez wrote a letter -- reluctantly -- that was posted on the SLDN website to President Barack Obama, who had promised as a candidate to end the policy.

He wrote of his willingness to still die for the country that wouldn't allow him to serve, of his shattered dream of being an officer, of the Marine Corps motto Semper fidelis, meaning always faithful.

"I have remained faithful to my country," he concluded. "Please be faithful to me."

He was scared again after the posting.

He still hadn't told his family, but the defense network website had 150,000 hits that day, and the letter -- part of a project titled "Stories From The Front Lines: Letters to President Barack Obama" -- was carried by several media outlets.

He called home that night. His family -- he was raised by his aunt and uncle -- took the news exceptionally well and have been supportive since, he said.

"My family's biggest disappointment they voiced was they wished I was upfront with them so they could have at least been there with me as I was going through it," Hernandez said.

This month, he was in the Senate gallery as the Senate voted 65 to 31 to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, clearing the last hurdle to repeal the policy born 17 years ago when newly-elected President Bill Clinton was caught between a campaign promise to allow gays to serve in the military and an unexpected level of opposition to the idea.

"I was sitting with SLDN board members and veterans affected by the policy. I've been involved with this movement for a few months. A lot of the people I was with were involved for 17 years," Hernandez said. "It was incredibly momentous and just very emotional."

Last week, he met Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, an advocate of repeal (the last year connected him with another powerful woman, pop star Lady Gaga, who he met in D.C. and allowed him to speak before her at a September repeal rally in Maine).

"I feel like I've grown up more this past year than I have throughout the rest of my life, and I think that's all positive," Hernandez said. "But at the same time, it is an injustice. Something that I was struggling with, something that was such a small part of my life at that point, was the reason that I lost so much of what I had worked for."

He's at a crossroads, now. Plan A is to go back into the service once a pending legal matter related to his discharge is resolved, and the policy -- which remains in effect -- ends. And Plan B is law school. He took the LSAT last month and doesn't know yet how he did.

The 23-year-old's journey is one of some 14,000 stories of discharges under the policy, according to SLDN.

"People think gay, and they think effiminate, or they think not manly, or they think crazy, radical, liberal activist, and I wouldn't really consider myself any of those things," Hernandez said. "I'm a Texan, and I'm an Aggie, and I'm just like everyone else, aside from that one aspect of my life -- that I'm gay."

3. AnnArbor.com, December 28, 2010
301 E. Liberty St., Suite 700, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-students-push-for-gender-neutral-housing/
University of Michigan students push for gender-neutral housing
By David Jesse

A proposal to allow gender-neutral housing in the University of Michigan’s residence halls is now awaiting review and action by U-M’s housing department.
A group of students formed the Open Housing Initiative and drafted a proposal, which was recently submitted to the university’s housing administrators.
Their goal is to give students — especially those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities — more choices when they pick where they want to live and with whom while going to school.
Currently, students are assigned roommates of the same gender, although the university has exceptions for transgender students.
“University Housing received the Open Housing proposal, and we appreciate the considerable effort and thought the students have put into the proposal,” housing spokesman Peter Logan said in an e-mail. “Their recommendations are being reviewed and discussed among representatives of the student group, Housing and Student Affairs, and we expect that process to continue for awhile. At this point, I am not aware of any timetable.”
The students have been working for several years on the plan and have made revisions to it over time.
The current plan offers a couple of options, said Rebecca Egler, a student working on the initiative.
The first, and preferred option, would be to allow students of different genders to room together. In that case, the students would have to cross-match, or ask to room with a specific person.
The philosophy behind that is that students themselves are best equipped to make decisions about whom they should live with, Egler said.
Making students ask for a specific person of a different gender, rather than just a generic person of a different gender, should help alleviate safety concerns, the students believe.
The other option would be to make a floor of a dorm gender-neutral. But that’s not ideal, Egler said, because students would feel like they were being set apart and not included in the overall community.
The university has some female-only housing options, but the majority of its housing options are co-ed.
The university already has a policy on gender-neutral living.
It says, “University Housing works to provide a safe, comfortable and supportive living experience for all students living in Michigan’s residential facilities. We offer gender-neutral housing that is supportive of transgender individuals.
“If you are interested in a gender-neutral room or apartment space, we ask that you contact the Housing Information Office as soon as possible. We can provide you with a personal and confidential assessment of the available options."
Egler said most students are supportive of the move.
However, it has sparked controversy before, including from alumnus Andrew Shirvell, who criticized current student body President Chris Armstrong for his support and advocacy for the change.
David Jesse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.

4. The Queens Courier, December 29, 2010
Schneps Publications, Inc., 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361
http://queenscourier.com/articles/2010/12/29/news/top_stories/doc4d10fa3b5622a772485591.txt
Hate crime rocks Queens College club
By Jano Tantongco

When Deborah Lolai first saw the messages of hate, she started bawling.

On Tuesday, December 7, homophobic messages defaced student artwork in a club for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) youth in the Student Union building at Queens College.

Lolai, president of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Alliance (GLASA), saw the words “fag,” “dyke” and others unfit for print written in her place of solace. For many LGBT students at the college, GLASA is the safe haven where they can be themselves.

“I just fell on the floor and started bawling,” said Lolai, 23. “I have never felt that sort of hatred at Queens College towards us before.”

After involving campus police, the city police were called, and the 109th Precinct’s Hate Crimes Unit responded.

Behind one of the larger paintings, the word “dyke” was fashioned with the club’s purple duct tape. Under another painting, the word “dike” was punched in with a pin, one hole at a time. Lolai speculated that the people who did this took their time to write the slurs in several media. The different spellings of the word “dyke” suggest that there were multiple individuals involved, Lolai said.

“The way whoever did this . . . makes it a lot more terrifying,” said Lolai. “Thinking about someone sitting there and poking the wall is really creepy and really scary.”

James Robinson, communication director for GLASA, initially found the words “No fags” written behind a poster that listed the club’s rules.

Trent Carroll, 18, felt physically ill at the discovery.

Carroll and Jenn Polish, another GLASA member, searched the room for more slurs.

Lolai would not have been as disturbed if the words were out in the open. Instead, they were carefully crafted, hidden behind deeply personal pieces of art. On Lolai’s oil painting depicting strength through unity, “dike” was written on the reverse side of the canvas. The painting also represented the struggle that LGBT people face, Lolai said. In dealing with her identity, she said she was hospitalized for a year in high school, suffering from anorexia and bulimia.

“Those are the words – ‘fag,’ ‘dyke’ and ‘tranny’ – they’re the last words that people hear when they’re beaten to death,” said Lolai.

City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, himself an openly gay man, condemned the vandalism.

“Sadly, tragically, there are still ignorant people in the world,” said Van Bramer.

Calling GLASA a “very strong, visible LGBT student group,” Van Bramer asked QC students to stand against the hate.

President of QC James L. Muyskens stated that the college does not tolerate homophobia or any kind of harassment.

“I assure you that anyone found to have committed such acts on our campus will be held accountable. The tragic rash of suicides nationwide by gay youth who have been bullied is a call to action to all of us to make sure that this kind of conduct ends,” Muyskens wrote.

Lolai said that there is usually someone in the office. Most of the club members left the space to host the AIDS quilt that came to the college on Wednesday, December 1, which was also World AIDS Day. She believes the perpetrators would have had an opening at that time.

There are several security cameras in the basement of the building, where the clubs are situated. However, there are none in the area where GLASA’s space was located. Since the incident, GLASA has moved to a new room.

5. The Washington Post, December 30, 2010
1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/29/AR2010122903033.html
'Don't ask, don't tell' has been repealed. ROTC still shouldn't be on campus.
By Colman McCarthy

Now that asking and telling has ceased to be problematic in military circles, ROTC has resurfaced as a national issue: Will universities such as Harvard, Yale and other Ivy League schools be opened to Reserve Officers' Training Corps since colleges can no longer can argue that the military is biased against gays and therefore not welcome?

The debate reminds me of an interview I conducted over parents' weekend at the University of Notre Dame in 1989. I sat down with Theodore Hesburgh, the priest who had retired two years earlier after serving 35 years as the university's president. Graciously, he invited me to lunch at the campus inn. During our discussion, he took modest pride at having raised more than a billion dollars for Notre Dame, and expressed similar feelings about the university's ROTC program. More than 700 student-cadets were in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Few universities, public or private, had a larger percentage of students in uniform then. The school could have been renamed Fort Hesburgh.

When I suggested that Notre Dame's hosting of ROTC was a large negative among the school's many positives, Hesburgh disagreed. Notre Dame was a model of patriotism, he said, by training future officers who were churchgoers, who had taken courses in ethics, and who loved God and country. Notre Dame's ROTC program was a way to "Christianize the military," he stated firmly.

I asked if he actually believed there could be a Christian method of slaughtering people in combat, or a Christian way of firebombing cities, or a way to kill civilians in the name of Jesus. Did he think that if enough Notre Dame graduates became soldiers that the military would eventually embrace Christ's teaching of loving one's enemies?

The interview quickly slid downhill.

These days, the academic senates of the Ivies and other schools are no doubt pondering the return of military recruiters to their campuses. Meanwhile, the Pentagon, which oversees ROTC programs on more than 300 campuses, has to be asking if it wants to expand to the elite campuses, where old antipathies are remembered on both sides.

It should not be forgotten that schools have legitimate and moral reasons for keeping the military at bay, regardless of the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." They can stand with those who for reasons of conscience reject military solutions to conflicts.

They can stand with Martin Luther King Jr. and his view of America's penchant for war-making: "This madness must cease," he said from a pulpit in April 1967. Even well short of the pacifist positions, they can argue the impracticality of maintaining a military that has helped drive this country into record depths of debt. The defense budget has more than doubled since 2000, to over $700 billion. They can align themselves with colleges such as Hobart, Earlham, Goshen, Guilford, Hampshire, George Fox and a long list of others that teach alternatives to violence. Serve your country after college, these schools say, but consider the Peace Corps as well as the Marine Corps.

Will the Ivies have the courage for such stands? I'm doubtful. Only one of the eight Ivy League schools - Cornell - offers a degree in peace studies. Their pride in running programs in women's studies, black studies, and gay and lesbian studies is well-founded, but schools have small claims to greatness so long as the study of peace is not equal to the other departments when it comes to size and funding.

At Notre Dame, on that 1989 visit and several following, I learned that the ROTC academics were laughably weak. They were softie courses. The many students I interviewed were candid about their reasons for signing up: free tuition and monthly stipends, plus the guarantee of a job in the military after college. With some exceptions, they were mainly from families that couldn't afford ever-rising college tabs.

To oppose ROTC, as I have since my college days in the 1960s, when my school enticed too many of my classmates into joining, is not to be anti-soldier. I admire those who join armies, whether America's or the Taliban's: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies and to their principles, for their sacrifices to be away from home. In recent years, I've had several Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in my college classes. If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring.

ROTC and its warrior ethic taint the intellectual purity of a school, if by purity we mean trying to rise above the foul idea that nations can kill and destroy their way to peace. If a school such as Harvard does sell out to the military, let it at least be honest and add a sign at its Cambridge front portal: Harvard, a Pentagon Annex.

Colman McCarthy, a former Post columnist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington and teaches courses on nonviolence at four area universities and two high schools.

6. Bangor Daily News, December 30, 2010
P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402-1329
http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Statewide/Former-ROTC-cadet-Repeal-ends-the-lies,162755?ref=mostReadBox
Former ROTC cadet: Repeal ends the lies
By Matt Wickenheiser

For Neal Snow, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy was a step forward.
President Bill Clinton initiated the policy in 1993, allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military, as long as they remained “in the closet.” While don’t ask, don’t tell, or DADT, tacitly OK’d gays in the military, that was not the case before 1993.

Before that, military applicants had to sign forms acknowledging that they were not homosexual.

It was that form that changed Snow’s life.

In 1992, as an Air Force ROTC cadet at the University of Maine, Snow told his commanding officer he was gay, and was subsequently dismissed from the program — technically for lying on the form about his sexual orientation.

Snow publicly came out of the closet with a press conference on the steps of the university’s Memorial Union, where he talked about his dismissal from ROTC. His story made regional and national news.

“Do I wish things had been different? Absolutely. I do dream about being in the military a lot. When something is taken away from you, you do miss it. It was my peak; I was having a great time, I was doing really well,” Snow said. “Unfortunately, at the time I was coming to terms with my sexuality, and that was at odds with the policy.”

In a recent interview with the Bangor Daily News, Snow said that, at the time, he was struggling internally, while trying to show a brave face publicly and share with the public how this policy was discriminatory. “I could have easily not made it public — I could have been discharged and quietly slipped away,” said Snow, now 39. “I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to try to make a difference.”

Looking back, Snow doubts he had any real effect on the national debate over gays in the military. But, he said, it’s possible a few people heard his story and “maybe opened their eyes a little bit.”

Snow, who grew up in Sebago, joined ROTC in the second semester of his freshman year at the suggestion of a friend. He took to the military system, enjoying the efficiency of the Air Force organization and the way everyone worked as a team in a structured environment. Then, as a senior, he was in training to work on a student crisis help line. One of the presenters talked about the challenges of being a gay student, and his friends taking the training with him kept talking about how they didn’t know anyone who was gay.

Snow told them he was gay. Within a week, he came out to his commanding officer.

“It’s all about being able to live with yourself,” Snow said. “I couldn’t live with myself being quiet and hiding.”

When Clinton started DADT the following year, Snow was heartened. It meant gays could serve, and “you didn’t have to sign the form, you weren’t a liar.” Further, the policy was meant to be a transition to full and open acceptance of gays in the military. Clinton, at the time, talked about making that transition in a year.

Snow didn’t think he could reapply to the military because the core reason for his dismissal was that he lied on a form. But he knew the situation would improve for gays in the military.

“I knew it would get better later,” Snow said. “I didn’t know it would take 20 years.”

So what happened?

“We had Republicans in office, that’s what happened,” said Snow, who said he used to be registered in that party, but quit over what he saw as anti-gay stances taken in George W. Bush’s presidential bids.

First, Clinton had to contend with a Republican Congress. Then the White House was Republican for two terms. Then President Barack Obama took office, pledging to end DADT. An effort led by Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman made that a reality earlier this month.

“It’s shocking. I still don’t understand it completely,” said Snow. “’I understand that it’s the right thing — it’s just surprising it happened.” Collins and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, were two of eight Republican senators who joined with Democrats to repeal DADT.

Snow said he never met with any of his elected officials when he was a UMaine student. Snowe was a sitting congresswoman, and was elected to the Senate in 1994. Collins was first elected in 1996.

In a statement, Collins pointed out that more than 14,000 people were discharged from the military under DADT. She called the loss of those service members “especially disturbing” at a time when the military is stretched thin.

Collins said she decided to fight for the repeal based on testimony from some of those service members, as well as on conversations she had with Chick Rauch, a retired Navy rear admiral from Glenburn, and Dugan Shipway, a retired rear admiral and former president of Bath Iron Works, “who gave me compelling first-hand knowledge that dismissing brave, dedicated, and skilled service men and women because they are gay is wrong.

“The bottom line is we should welcome the service of any qualified individual who is willing and capable of serving our country,” Collins said.

According to Collins’ office, once the president, secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that the military can function with the DADT’s repeal, former members of the military who were dismissed under the policy are eligible to re-enlist.

Snow today has been legally married to Dean Haspela for six years in Massachusetts, where he works as a professional in the retail field in Boston. He thinks the average gay person in the military just wants the change to happen quietly, without chaos.

He sees this change in the military as leading the way in society. When the military integrated blacks and whites, he said, it became a model for implementation in real society. The same thing will happen with gays serving openly, he said.

“I just want people to absorb this change, let it happen, see that the world doesn’t end,” Snow said.

_______________________________________________________________
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 regarding fair use of copyrighted work, this material is distributed without profit for information, research, and educational purposes. The Consortium has no affiliation whatsoever with the originators of these articles nor is the Consortium endorsed or sponsored by the originators.

QNOC Digest 2010.12.26

2011-01-27T13:55:00.002-05:00

Queer News On Campus [QNOC] Articles Digest
For the week ending 2010.12.26

Brought to you by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. http://www.lgbtcampus.org

Archives of the QNOC Digest can be found at http://queernewsoncampus.blogspot.com

Reminder: If you come across articles that should be included in the digest, please email a link to the article to articles@lgbtcampus.org

1. ESPN - Belmont players discuss gay coach's departure
2. Inside Higher Ed - Goodbye DADT, Hello ROTC
3. Daily Camera - CU-Boulder grad discharged over 'don't ask, don't tell' wants to re-enlist
4. Austin-American Statesman - Gay ACC student pleased by repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
5. The Herald-Journal - USU official lauds gay ban repeal
6. Inside Higher Ed - Quick Takes: Tyler Clementi's Parents May Sue Rutgers
7. UPI - Rutgers: No fault in gay student's suicide
8. Global Times - Gay students find acceptance
9. The University of Arizona - Pride Alliance's Queer Film Series questions social norms

1. ESPN, December 19, 2010
545 Middle Street, Bristol, CT 06010
http://espn.go.com/espnw/blog/_/post/5936795/belmont-players-discuss-gay-coach-departure
Belmont players discuss gay coach's departure
By T.J. Quinn

Click link for video.

Late last month, Belmont University women's soccer coach Lisa Howe told her team she was a lesbian, in a committed relationship and that her partner was pregnant. When the players returned to the Nashville campus of the private Christian school after Thanksgiving break, they soon learned Howe was no longer their coach. T.J. Quinn dives deeper into this story for ESPN's "Outside the Lines."

2. Inside Higher Ed, December 21, 2010
1320 18th Street NW, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/12/21/end_of_don_t_ask_don_t_tell_to_mean_rebirth_of_rotc
Goodbye DADT, Hello ROTC
By Dan Berrett

Presidents of some of the nation's highest profile colleges and universities, where the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program has been barred for decades, said that the U.S. Senate's vote Saturday to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" will usher the return of the program to their campuses -- though the exact procedure remained unclear.

"This is an historic development for a nation dedicated to fulfilling its core principle of equal rights," Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, said in a statement following the vote this weekend to end the 17-year-old policy forcing gay and lesbian members of the military to hide their sexual orientation in order to continue serving. It is likely to be signed into law by President Obama on Wednesday.

"It also effectively ends what has been a vexing problem for higher education, including at Columbia -- given our desire to be open to our military, but not wanting to violate our own core principle against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," continued Bollinger. "We now have the opportunity for a new era in the relationship between universities and our military services."

Though college bans on the ROTC date back to the unrest that roiled campuses (including, notably, Columbia) during the Vietnam War, the military's discrimination against gay people emerged as a key sticking point that blocked the program's return in the years since that war ended. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- the compromise measure put in place in 1993 that allowed gays and lesbians to serve in the military as long as they hid their sexual orientation -- carried particular symbolic weight. The resurgence of ROTC on campuses has been championed by figures from across the political spectrum, with supporters saying it will benefit the military, colleges and students. Advocates have included Defense Secretary Robert Gates and, as a senator and presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

Drew Faust, president of Harvard University, issued a statement casting the Senate's vote over the weekend in historic terms. "It affirms American ideals of equal opportunity and underscores the importance of the right to military service as a fundamental dimension of citizenship," said Faust, an historian of the Civil War and the American South, who said previously that the end of the policy would clear the way for ROTC's return to Harvard. "It was no accident that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation not only guaranteed freedom to Black Americans but at the same time opened the Union Army to their participation. Because of today's action by the Senate, gay and lesbian Americans will now also have the right to pursue this honorable calling, and we as a nation will have the benefit of their service."

For all the rhetorical celebration, it remains unclear in many cases precisely how ROTC will return to the nation's campuses. Faust said in her statement that she was pleased that "more students will now have the opportunity to serve their country" while being somewhat vague about the way forward. "I look forward to pursuing discussions with military officials and others to achieve Harvard's full and formal recognition of ROTC," she said.

Bollinger said during an April visit to his campus from Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was a "crucial divide" keeping ROTC from returning. Before the program does return, it must be approved by the university senate, he said, adding, "There has to be faculty and student debate about this." Five years ago, the university's senate overwhelmingly rejected an effort to bring it back, with many faculty members citing anti-gay bias in the military as a reason to maintain the ban. Still, Bollinger predicted that the campus in general would prove to be a much more hospitable place to the military than it was more than four decades ago.

Columbia's Senate on Monday announced the creation of a "task force on military engagement" in light of the end of the military's policies barring openly gay people from serving. The committee plans to hold hearings and conduct a student survey on a possible return of ROTC.

Mullen, during the same visit to Columbia, also cautioned against expecting too much too soon in hoping for ROTC's return, and suggested that not every campus that wants a program will necessarily get one. “There are limits to how many we can actually create," he said. "We are a much smaller force than we were way back when. We can’t just snap our fingers and make it happen.”

Yale University, however, mapped a very clear path forward. President Richard C. Levin said his administration will be discussing the matter with faculty during the spring semester. He added that he had asked General Counsel Dorothy Robinson, Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer and Yale College Dean Mary Miller to consult with officials in Washington early in the new year to determine the military’s interest in establishing an ROTC unit at Yale. "We are very hopeful that these discussions will enable us to begin a new chapter in the long history of Yale’s support of the U.S. Armed Services," Levin said in a statement.

Such a clear map is not yet possible at Stanford University, where the decision rests with the faculty. In March, the faculty senate anticipated changes coming from Washington, and established a committee to look at the issue. Among its first contributors were Stanford professors David Kennedy, the historian, and William Perry, secretary of defense under President Clinton. The faculty will make the decision because it must evaluate the rigor of the military science curriculum that accompanies ROTC, said Lisa Lapin, a spokeswoman for Stanford. "'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' was a hurdle, so this will probably be helpful," she said. "(But) it’s not the only consideration."

Officials at Brown University did not go as far as others in predicting a return of ROTC. Marisa Quinn, vice president of public affairs at Brown University, said via e-mail: "The repeal of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell will likely stimulate additional conversation about ROTC on the Brown campus, a conversation that has occurred from time to time among the university's alumni, students, faculty and administrators. The university welcomes conversation on this and other important social and political questions." She added, however, that "the university's decision to phase out Air Force ROTC (1971) and Naval ROTC (1972) centered on academic issues, including whether ROTC units should have departmental status and whether courses offered by those units should carry academic credit. Those issues are matters for faculty discussion. Any academic issues raised by a potential return of ROTC instruction at Brown would require a vote of the faculty."

It is also worth noting that the ban of ROTC from campuses has not barred students from joining the program -- though it does make the prospect more difficult. Students can -- and do -- participate in ROTC through nearby host campuses, though the numbers are often small. Four Yale students participate in ROTC through the University of Connecticut. At Harvard, there are 19 such students, who do so through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, other elite institutions, such as Duke, Cornell and Princeton universities, have kept ROTC on campus without incident.

It will also be some time until the policy is formally eliminated, in practice, from the military. The Pentagon must certify that the groundwork has been laid for troops to be trained and taught to adapt to the change in policy. Obama, Gates and Mullen must write to Congress to assure its members that the new policy will not compromise troop readiness, cohesion, or recruitment and retention. A 60-day review will follow.

3. Daily Camera, December 21, 2010
PO Box 591, Boulder, CO 80306
http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_16915474
CU-Boulder grad discharged over 'don't ask, don't tell' wants to re-enlist
By Whitney Bryen

With President Barack Obama set to sign legislation repealing "don't ask, don't tell" today, University of Colorado graduate Mara Boyd -- twice arrested this year for protesting the Clinton-era policy -- is ready to re-enlist in the military, seven years after being discharged from the Air Force for being gay.

"I have every intention of going back," Boyd said. "I would love to be able to serve openly. I would love to help facilitate the transition, to be part of the change. I want to finish something I started."

Boyd was discharged in 2003 after telling her commander that she was gay. Since then, she has been advocating for the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," and was arrested during protests outside the White House in April and November.

With the Senate having voted Saturday to repeal the policy -- which allowed gays to serve in military, as long as nobody knew they were gay -- Boyd, 29, said she now plans to re-enlist, if she can "negotiate some hurdles," such as getting an age waiver to rejoin the Air Force, which cuts off enlistment at age 28.

While Boyd said she will be working hard to re-enlist after the policy is repealed, military veteran Michael Holiday said he doesn't expect to see a significant increase in overall enlistment once "don't ask, don't tell" is history.

"If you want to go in, you're going to go in," Holiday said. "I don't think the repeal is going to cause any repercussions for recruitment."

Holiday, who was in the Army for 22 years before working with veterans services, said gays and lesbians who truly wanted to serve did so under the constraints of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. He said he does not expect the number of gay military members to drastically increase.

And while it is unknown how the repeal will affect military recruitment, some believe there will be significant impacts for young members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Anne Guilfoile, chairwoman for the Boulder Valley School District's Safe Schools Coalition, said the repeal provides an opportunity for students to join Reserve Officers' Training Corps -- or ROTC programs -- without being forced to hide or lie about who they are.

"Lack of inclusion is a form of discrimination, which can cause gay, lesbian or transgender people to feel like they don't fit into society," Guilfoile said. "I think an important consequence of the repeal is that it says, 'Yes, the world does include me' to those students."

During a time when a young GLBT community is struggling with increased bullying and suicides, Guilfoile said there is no better time to pass a repeal and give hope to students who may have little left.

CU senior Kyle Inselman, a member of the GLBT campus community, said the repeal is a big step in the right direction.

"I know quite a few people who had to give up their dreams of being in the military because of the stress of lying to their fellow cadets or service members," Inselman said. "So for people to have the freedom to follow the path that they wish, this is great."

But Inselman said the repeal is not a victory for the transgender community, since "don't ask, don't tell" is only one of the reasons keeping them out of the military.

Being transgender is often considered a medical concern or a mental health condition in the military, according to the Service Members Legal Defense Network website.

"I think that to frame this as a victory for the GLBT community is wrong, because transgender people still cannot serve in the military," Inselman said. "We need to not forget about fighting for (transgender) inclusion in our military as well as gay, lesbian and bisexual people."

4. Austin-American Statesman, December 22, 2010
P.O. Box 670, Austin, TX 78767
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/highereducation/entries/2010/12/22/gay_acc_student_pleased_by_rep.html
Gay ACC student pleased by repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz

A gay student at Austin Community College is gratified that “don’t ask, don’t tell” has been repealed but remains in limbo regarding his own future.
President Barack Obama today signed the repeal of the ban on openly gay service members.
Omar Lopez, 30, said today that he “most likely” will re-enlist in the Navy, which discharged him in 2006 after he disclosed during a medical examination that he was gay.
Lopez tried without success in October to re-enlist during a court challenge to “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“It’s very exciting,” he said today of the repeal, adding that he plans to look into whether he could sign on as an officer. He had been a culinary specialist second class, cooking and supervising the galley about a frigate.

5. The Herald-Journal, December 23, 2010
75 West 300 North, Logan, UT 84321
http://news.hjnews.com/news/article_057abc1a-0e32-11e0-8db1-001cc4c002e0.html
USU official lauds gay ban repeal
By Kevin Opsahl

Any student, regardless of sexual orientation, will soon be able to sign up for the military through Utah State University's ROTC program and not have to hold back the words, "I am gay."
Although those students aren't on campus to celebrate their victory, those who supported repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" are celebrating. The bill, which creates a path for service members of all sexual orientations to serve openly in the military, was signed into law by President Barack Obama on Wednesday.
That's no exception for Maure Smith-Benanti, who is the program coordinator of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, and Allied. The LGBTQA programs within the Access & Diversity Center to provide outreach to those faculty, staff and students.
The 17-year-old "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy meant that if service members revealed they were gay, they could risk expulsion.
"We've all been very excited today that this passed," Smith-Benanti said. "Anytime there is an advance that is positive towards LGBTQA ... we feel respected and energized."
Obama echoed those same praises at the signing ceremony on Wednesday.
The big vote that was seen as a watershed moment for gay rights was passed during a rare Saturday session of Congress. It was just one of several agenda items the Senate wants to take up before power is handed over to the Republicans on Jan. 3.
Over the years, more than 13,500 people were discharged under the policy.
"The old law gave a little bit of wiggle room for LGBTQA military service personnel to continue to service without have to worry about losing their job," Smith-Benanti said. "But now I believe we were basically asking our servicemen and women to lie about who they love, who they are. I think when we ask people to stand for our country and put on the nation's uniform, we should let them be who they are."
LGBTQA members, she said, thought it was a long shot when Obama came up with the idea to repeal the law. Now that the law is passed, it "really is a surprise to allot of people," she said.
But Smith-Benanti said she's been hearing some "concern and trepidation" about how the new policy is implemented.
Before the policy actually goes into effect, Pentagon officials must first complete implementation plans before lifting the old policy. Moreover, the president, defense secretary and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff must certify to lawmakers that it won't damage combat readiness, as critics charge.
"It seems like this would take forever, although President Obama has indicated he would not like that," Smith-Benanti said. "Hopefully those rollouts ... will be the best for our service members and won't cause any problems."
Tony Flores, USU Veteran Affairs program coordinator, believes that if the implementation is done right "(the policy) will work."
"I don't think the controversy will be widespread like some say it will be," Flores said. "I think it really is a matter of ... looking at timelines, not going in an changing it overnight, saying ‘we're going to implement this slowly over a period of time.'"
Flores also said he believes that combat troops may "have some reluctance" adjusting to the new policy because of the "macho kind of mindframe it entails."
USU has had an ROTC program for many years, but it has been suggested by political pundits and government officials that this law could very well open up the possibility for colleges and universities that don't have an ROTC program to look into having one.

E-mail: kopsahl@hjnews.com
Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.

6. Inside Higher Ed, December 23, 2010
1320 18th Street NW, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/12/23/qt#246680
Quick Takes: Tyler Clementi's Parents May Sue Rutgers
Unknown

The parents of Tyler Clementi -- the Rutgers University student who killed himself shortly after he was filmed with another man in his dormitory room -- have filed a notice of intent to sue the university, the Associated Press reported. The notice says that "it appears Rutgers University failed to act, failed to put in place and/or failed to implement, and enforce policies and practices that would have prevented or deterred such acts, and that Rutgers failed to act timely and appropriately." A Rutgers spokesman issued the following statement: "We at the university share the family's sense of loss of their son, who was a member of our community. We also recognize that a grieving family may question whether someone or some institution could somehow have responsibility for their son's death.... While the university understands this reaction, the university is not responsible for Tyler Clementi's suicide."

7. UPI, December 23, 2010
1133 19th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20036
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/12/23/Rutgers-No-fault-in-gay-students-suicide/UPI-90561293144329/
Rutgers: No fault in gay student's suicide
United Press International

PISCATAWAY, N.J., Dec. 23 (UPI) -- New Jersey's Rutgers University denied responsibility for the suicide of an 18-year-old freshman secretly taped kissing another man in his dorm room.

It made the denial after being notified by the parents of freshmen Tyler Clementi they may seek damages from the university for their son's suicide, The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger reported.

"We at the university share the family's sense of loss of their son, who was a member of our community," the university said in a statement.

"We also recognize that a grieving family may question whether someone or some institution could somehow have responsibility for their son's death," the statement continued. "While the university understands this reaction, (Rutgers) is not responsible for Tyler Clementi's suicide."

The claim notice, sent to the university Friday and first reported by The Star-Ledger, preserves the family's right to sue Rutgers for failing to act against two students who allegedly used a Web cam to secretly view Clementi kissing the man.

Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and Rutgers student Molly Wei allegedly spied on Clementi with a Web cam Sept. 19, and Ravi then sent a message on the Twitter microblogging service that he had seen Clementi "making out with a dude."

Clementi later jumped off the George Washington Bridge spanning the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York City.

Ravi and Wei, both 18, were charged with invasion of privacy. They later left the university.

"Subject to further investigation, it appears that Rutgers University failed to act, failed to put in place, and/or failed to implement, and enforce policies and practices that would have prevented or deterred such acts, and that Rutgers University failed to act timely and appropriately," the claim notice said.

No lawsuit has been filed and "a decision as to whether to file suit against Rutgers University in the future has not been made," Clementi family lawyer Paul Mainardi said in a statement.

By law, the family has six months after filing the tort notice to decide whether to file lawsuit, the Rutgers statement acknowledging receipt of the notice said.

8. Global Times, December 24, 2010
Add. 4/F Topnew Tower, 15 Guanghua Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China, PC. 100026
http://life.globaltimes.cn/life/2010-12/603979.html
Gay students find acceptance
By Wen Ya

Last week was a bittersweet memory to Hu Jun, a 21-year-old junior at Sichuan University in Chengdu, Sichuan Province (SUC). As one of the three heads of Homoscu, a homosexual student association, Hu helped celebrate the association's seventh anniversary.

But despite its seven years and about 300 members, Homoscu is not been formally registered by the university. Thus Homoscu can't publicly recruit members and receive SUC financial assistance like other student associations, Hu said.

"Though there's no precedent for a homosexual organization to be registered in our university, it is tolerant to us and allows us to exist," Hu told the Global Times.

Homoscu's mission is to help gays and lesbians to make friends, HIV-AIDS education and prevention, help them feel safe and release pressure and to reduce discrimination, according to him.

"We are not different from others expect for our sexual orientation. Sex is a normal personal choice," he said.

Among the association's 300 members, about 80 percent are gays and the rest are lesbians and heterosexuals. Usually, they communicate with each other through seven QQ online chat tools.

Their offline activities include singing, watching films, all kinds of sports and engaging in HIV-AIDs prevention and education through peer education. Their funding comes mainly from donations from members and some NGOs, according to Hu.

Coming out

"It's difficult for our association to get recognition from others outside campus. Before joining Homoscu, some members didn't dare to accept their sex orientation, " Hu said.

Another SUC student surnamed Wang, outed himself during a public activity after joining Homoscu.

"After my public announcement, most classmates and teachers support me. I'm not as depressed as before," he told the Global Times. "Homoscu is really like my home."

However, not all the homosexual members are willing to come out of the closet. Few members told their families and most haven't made it public, according to Hu who has done so.

Among them, lesbians usually keep a lower profile. None of them are willing to accept an interview with the Global Times.

"We don't encourage or discourage them to come out because it's a personal choice. But that choice is closely related to the society's attitude to homosexuals," he said.

No longer a 'disorder'

Homosexuality was defined as a "mental disorder" until April 2001, when it was deleted from the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders.

Chen Zhouchao, a 20-year-old computer sophomore at SUC, is straight and working for Homoscu.

"Homoscu is significant to me. Most of the members are very capable and their personalities are good," he told the Global Times.

But some of his close friends criticize him for being so close to gays but he dismisses it.

"After all, my sexual orientation won't be influenced by others," he said.

Gay-friendly Chengdu

Homoscu is not the only homosexual society among Chengdu college students. There are three other similar organizations: Chengdu Gay College Student Alliance, Sunny Sky Group and Longquan Sunny Group.

The existence of the organizations owes to the city's tolerance towards gays and lesbians. Chengdu is even nicknamed "a city of gays" by some.

There are about 40,000 homosexuals in Chengdu and 40 percent of them are college students, according to Zheng Que, 23, a member of the Chengdu Gay Care Organization, which works frequently with the college gay groups.

Liao Wancheng, 20, a broadcasting and hosting arts sophomore from Chengdu University of Technology, is a gay and one of the heads of the Chengdu Gay College Students' Alliance.

Self-acceptance needed

As closeted individuals, some homosexuals are afraid of discrimination and some even look down upon themselves, Liao said.

"Many homosexuals live in a closed space. If they join homosexual associations, they will easily find friends and happiness," he told the Global Times. "What we need is not others' help, but others' understanding. I hope they accept us as common people. "

Though social organizations provide support for college homosexual students, universities should do more for them, sex sociologists said.

"Almost all Western universities have their own public and legal students' homosexual associations. China universities should do the same," said Li Yinhe, a socialist at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

At individual basis, homosexual students should be more tolerant of themselves and accept themselves for who they are, she added.

9. The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
http://www.arizona.edu/features/pride-alliances-queer-film-series-questions-social-norms
Pride Alliance's Queer Film Series questions social norms
Unknown

Blockbusters? Yes! Sneak previews? Of course! The Union’s Gallagher Theater has these in abundance, as any good Wildcat knows. But many Wildcats may not know that Gallagher also showcases films and presentations that raise awareness about a number of issues for campus organizations.

A perfect example is right around the corner: from January 26-March 30, the Pride Alliance is sponsoring a Queer Film Series. Mark your calendars for these films, which may just challenge you to think some different thoughts. Do we do provocative? Yes, we do – it’s a college campus. You’re supposed to think.

Outrage
January 26, 7pm
A documentary about the closeted lives of secretly gay politicians who vote against pro-gay legislation, told through the eyes of Michael Rogers, a gay rights activist. “Outrage” exposes the secrets and hypocrisy of “individuals who are working against the community that they then expect to protect them.”

Pageant
February 16, 7pm
The topic is Miss Gay America in this documentary that highlights the similarities and differences between the pageantry that mainstream America knows, and the Drag culture that Miss Gay America glorifies.

Training Rules
February 23, 7pm
The training policies of Penn State University’s women’s basketball coach, Rene Portland, are examined here. Portland is famous for three rules- no drinking, no drugs, and no lesbians. Basketball player Jen Harris experienced the discrimination imposed on lesbian athletes at Penn State and ultimately decided to take action with the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
March 30, 7pm
This film is a close examination of the LGBTQ community’s various triumphs: experimental films, indie films, sex scenes, the transition to mainstream Hollywood drama, and more.

The film series is done in partnership with LGTBQ Affairs, ASUA, the Women’s Resource Center, and the Dean of Students Office.

For more information on this or any cultural events around campus, always keep an eye on the Student Union Calendar!

_______________________________________________________________
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 regarding fair use of copyrighted work, this material is distributed without profit for information, research, and educational purposes. The Consortium has no affiliation whatsoever with the originators of these articles nor is the Consortium endorsed or sponsored by the originators.

QNOC Digest 2010.12.19

2011-01-27T13:52:00.002-05:00

Queer News On Campus [QNOC] Articles Digest
For the week ending 2010.12.19

Brought to you by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. http://www.lgbtcampus.org

Archives of the QNOC Digest can be found at http://queernewsoncampus.blogspot.com

Reminder: If you come across articles that should be included in the digest, please email a link to the article to articles@lgbtcampus.org

1. The Harvard Crimson - LGBT Books Vandalized With Urine in Lamont Library
2. The Harvard Crimson - Damaged LGBT Books in Lamont Not Result of Hate Crime, Dean Says
3. Inside Higher Ed - Calling Gay Leaders
4. The Daily Illini - Gay community, allies had busy year of activism in C-U
5. University of Wyoming News - University of Wyoming Rainbow Resource Center Receives Donation
6. The Salt Lake Tribune - MBA students at U. launch gay club
7. Inside Higher Ed - NCAA Considers Transgender Policy
8. The Harvard Crimson - Harvard LGBT Community Upset By Lamont Incident
9. The New York Times - Lesbian Coach’s Exit From Belmont U. Has Nashville Talking
10. The Chronicle of Higher Education - Gay and Lesbian College Presidents Go Public With Web Video
11. The Tennessean - Belmont faculty wants sexual orientation added to nondiscrimination policy

1. The Harvard Crimson, December 12, 2010
14 Plympton Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/12/12/books-library-incident-community/
LGBT Books Vandalized With Urine in Lamont Library
By Sirui Li

Approximately 40 books dealing with LGBT issues were vandalized with what appeared to be urine in Lamont Library on November 24, according to a report filed Friday by the library security staff to the Harvard University Police Department.

HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano wrote in an e-mail that the vandalized books' subject matters included lesbian and gay issues and same-sex marriage. Due to the nature of books, HUPD is currently investigating the incident as a bias crime.

"The HUPD has zero tolerance for any bias-related incidents or crimes," Catalano said.

"Harvard College will not tolerate acts of vandalism, especially those that appear to be motivated by hate or bias," Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds wrote in an e-mail to The Crimson. "[As] a community, we will continue to affirm our shared values of dignity and respect for everyone in our community."

The library staff members found an empty bottle next to the vandalized books that may have contained the urine, according to Harvard College Library spokeswoman Beth S. Brainard. The staff initially responded to the incident as a health hazard, quickly removing the bottle and relocating the damaged books to the Collections Conservation Lab on Level D of Widener Library.

Brainard said that the library staff assessed the value of the vandalized books before reporting the incident, accounting for the space of two weeks between the incident and the report to HUPD. The books—which Brainard estimated to be worth a few thousand dollars—will be discarded due to the severity of the damage.

"Once the urine is poured, they can’t really fix [the books]," she said.

It remains unclear whether Lamont will replace the books, since Widener usually has copies of the books in Lamont, according to Brainard.

Marco Chan '11, co-chair of the Harvard College Queer Students and Allies, called the incident "extremely frustrating" and "disconcerting," and said that it represents a concern not only for the LGBT community, but for the Harvard community at large.

"I am very outraged. It is hard to conceive this as a coincidence when there are 40 books on the same subject," Chan said. "The message that this incident sent to me is that we need more resources not only for the LGBT community but also targeted towards other people."

Chan suggested workshops on homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual issues—similar to the mandatory freshman orientation event Sex Signals—as one possible way to respond to the bias evidenced by the incident.

"Everyone in our community should know that they play an important role in adjusting homophobia," Chan said.

Books about LGBT issues are located on Level B of Lamont Library.

Staff Writer Sirui Li can be reached at sli@college.harvard.edu.

2. The Harvard Crimson, December 13, 2010
14 Plympton Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/12/13/lamont-hammonds-LGBT-harvard/
Damaged LGBT Books in Lamont Not Result of Hate Crime, Dean Says
By Alice E.M. Underwood

UPDATED 9:51 p.m.

After conducting an investigation in response to a recent police report that 36 books treating LGBT topics had been damaged with what appeared to be urine in Lamont Library last month, the University determined Monday morning that the incident was an accident and will no longer be treated as a hate crime, according to a statement sent from College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds to the Harvard community on Monday.

On November 24, library staff at Lamont discovered the damaged books—on subjects including lesbian and gay issues and same-sex marriage—along with a bottle assumed to have contained what investigators believed to be urine. This past Friday, library personnel reported the incident to the College and Harvard University Police Department as vandalism, and the affair was subsequently investigated as a hate crime for the "focused nature and related topics" of the affected books, according to Hammonds.

But upon an investigation by HUPD, it was revealed Monday morning that "our own library personnel" had accidentally spilled a bottle, containing what was reported to be urine, that had been found on the shelf, according to Hammonds. Harvard College Library plans to replace all 36 damaged books as soon as possible, she added.

"I believe this is an important new fact in the investigation and warrants my sharing it with you immediately. While we should not minimize the seriousness of this incident, HUPD is no longer classifying this incident as a hate crime," Hammonds wrote in her statement. "This nuance in the facts in the case also explains why library personnel did not immediately report the incident and treated it instead as a prank."

Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesman Jeff Neal wrote in an e-mail that it remains unclear why a bottle of urine was stowed in the library, adding that the spill was reported by the library employee—the same person who caused the spill, according to his understanding—and cleaned up the same day that it occurred.

In response to the initial appearance of the incident as an act of homophobia, Neal reiterated the significance of an inclusive and diverse community as highlighted in Hammonds’ statement.

“Dean Hammonds has repeatedly emphasized the importance of creating a welcoming environment for all students and all affiliates of all backgrounds throughout the Harvard community,” Neal wrote, adding that sexual orientation and gender identity are included in Harvard’s non-discrimination statement.

Harvard College Library spokeswoman Beth S. Brainard declined to comment, referring all questions regarding the incident to Neal.

Though Harvard College Queer Students and Allies Co-Chair Marco Chan '11 expressed relief that the damage was the result of an accident and not a targeted act of homophobia, he said that he remained concerned by facts of the incident that remain unexplained.

"On the one hand, I feel relieved by the news—but on the other hand, I’m still holding breath on questions that are still unresolved," Chan said. "Why was there a bottle of urine on the shelf? Why did it take two weeks for library or HUPD to figure out that this was just an accident? Did someone suddenly come forward?"

QSA Co-Chair Emma Q. Wang ’12 said she was disappointed that Hammonds is only now speaking out about LGBT issues, and that her statement does not address problems faced by the community beyond the incident at Lamont. Wang described Hammonds' e-mail regarding the books as "poor timing," considering the series of LGBT suicides across the nation and the two hate crimes—one an assault on an undergraduate by people shouting homophobic slurs, and the other anti-gay graffiti in a graduate dorm—that occurred at Harvard earlier this semester.

"I don’t think this issue was handled with the degree of sensitivity and care it could have been," Wang said, noting that while the incident is no longer being characterized as a hate crime, it still had an impact on the LGBT community. "It is the College’s responsibility to treat everyone in the community as an equal and to shoulder equal responsibility for incidents that affect that community."

While Hammonds did not release a statement in response to the incidents affecting the LGBT community earlier in the semester, today’s statement does stress ongoing attempts to foster inclusion and diversity on campus. She wrote that these attempts reflect the College’s desire "to uphold important community values of civil engagement on moral and ethical questions in a diverse world," naming both the ongoing BGLTQ Working Group and the Sustained Dialogue Program as striving to fulfill these missions.

Hammonds convened the BGLTQ Working Group in October with the purpose of evaluating the needs and resources of LGBT students and allies. She wrote in the statement that she has asked the Working Group to consider the Lamont incident in formulating their recommendations to the Dean, to be delivered in March, regarding LGBT needs at Harvard. The Sustained Dialogue Program is part of a nationwide network with the aim of creating venues for discussions on issues of diversity and was also adopted at Harvard at the start of the fall semester.

With this emphasis on encouraging conversations within the campus community, Hammonds concluded her statement on a positive note: "In the end, I am heartened by the chorus of support that this incident has elicited for all students, faculty, and staff within the Harvard College community, and value the important conversations it has prompted."

In the e-mail containing the link to Hammonds’ official statement, the Dean addressed students at the College with the hope that the incident would reaffirm the integrity of the College’s diverse community.

“This is an important moment to reiterate our shared values and to note that Harvard College mandates that everyone show respect to all members of our community," Hammonds wrote. "I hope you will join me in espousing and practicing these shared principles."

Staff writer Alice E.M. Underwood can be reached at aeunderw@fas.harvard.edu.

3. Inside Higher Ed, December 13, 2010
1320 18th Street NW, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036
http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2010/12/13/roggow
Calling Gay Leaders
By Michael Roggow

Competition among colleges has forced boards to beat the bushes in search of the best leaders. Fewer provosts are drawn to the presidency. More talent is needed, and the performance bar continues to be raised. Who has emerged in this competition? The answer: many, and many more than in the past who are openly gay.

Historically, the gay college president is not so rare. Yet who could name one from previous generations who was open about his or her orientation? I cannot recall one, and for good reason: the out college president or presidential candidate probably would have paid a heavy price. However, times are changing. There now are at least 25 openly gay presidents, and they are nothing short of pioneers. Their stories forever grab my attention. So two years ago, I set out to interview them for a long-term research project. To date, I’ve met 13, but hope to meet more.

All are remarkable, but there are a few who made a lasting impression: among them, Charles Middleton, from Roosevelt University; Theodora Kalikow, from the University of Maine at Farmington; and David Wain Coon, from Evergreen Valley College in California. They spoke about many topics, and they offered up plenty of career advice for other gay people who hope to become presidents. As gays often make good managers, they say, search committees and boards of trustees would be wise to recognize their promise in advancing institutions. And as a gay man who continues to reach for leadership positions, I got my share of good advice, too. I’m most likely not bound for a presidency, but their words still hold great value for me. Here, I will share what I heard, with hope that others will also learn, regardless of where they happen to be in their careers at the moment.

You may be surprised to learn that most of these presidents waffled about coming out to search consultants, committees and boards. Yet without gay presidential mentors, they were left to their own devices. They found ways to be out and land presidencies, though it was hardly smooth. What I’ve learned from them is that we can be out. But that’s secondary. The first priority is performance, as an administrator or professor, and leading with integrity.

Authenticity: the Cornerstone for Gay Leaders in Academe

Honesty and openness will never fail us. Being out is being authentic.

Hire a gay president and you often get someone who is thoroughly committed to diversity, says Charles Middleton. A gay candidate knows what it means to struggle. You will also certainly get a role model for members of the community, both LGBT and others. This authenticity encourages other people to relax, feel safe and be more open.

Faculty and students will benefit. Presidents who offer the role model of authenticity send a message that others are free to be themselves. It is symbolic and powerful. The president is a public figure and it’s as important for him to be out as it is for a public official like a state senator or governor.

Yet, might authenticity get in the way of fund-raising? Also, how have alumni reacted? "The alumni don’t care if the president is gay," says Theodora Kalikow. "They care that you’re a good president. They care about how you ask them for money. They care about how you follow through after they donate. They don’t care that you’re gay. If they do, you don’t want their money."

Another who oversees a selective liberal arts college agreed: "If the alumni had problems with the fact that there’s a gay president, then they probably wouldn’t return for alumni events. What’s important is bringing energy to campus and running it well."

Advice for Gays Who Seek a Presidency

"Presidential searches work best when the common focus becomes mission-driven, and race, gender, sexual orientation and other factors go by the wayside," says Nancy Martin, an executive search consultant.

To be successful, your search and selection process must be open. If we are at ease with who we are, boards will be as well. Angela Provart, a consultant who helps identify candidates for senior positions at community colleges, said that more and more candidates are out, and they often want assistance with finding a comfortable place to work. In fact, many search consultants agree that it is now more common to meet candidates who are openly gay. Some consultants work comfortably with them. Still, others do not. Some well-meaning but homophobic professionals suggest not coming out at all. Others don’t respond to gay candidates, period.

But it is important to let the search committee know you’re gay. Don’t surprise them, most presidents and consultants warn. A search and selection process must be open. Unless you want to live and work in the closet, everyone involved should be aware of your orientation, and a job offer should be made only with this knowledge.

When you are ready to work with a search firm, express that you are gay or lesbian early on. The consultant can then be prepared to find the most effective ways of including this information in a conversation with the chair of the search committee (without necessarily identifying you). They can often judge whether it is likely to be an issue in the search process.

Determine as accurately as possible whether you will be a match with a particular institution. Get as much information as you can. As David Wain Coon advises, be sure it’s a safe place to be out. "Don’t put yourself at personal or professional risk," he says. "It’s about reading your environment. If I feel a bad vibe after an interview, I won’t work there."

For Search Committees and Boards of Trustees

Board membership carries with it a moral and fiduciary responsibility. Boards must seek out excellence, and voices for the future. Leaders in education must come from the broadest spectrum of our treasure chest of possibilities. If they limit the possible candidates, our nation is diminished and board members will not have fulfilled their trust to their institutions, says consultant Nancy Martin.

Middleton adds that if boards are to attract more talent, they are going to have to focus on accomplishments more than personal characteristics. When they advertise presidential positions, they should state that LGBT candidates are encouraged to apply. They need to make it very clear as early as possible in the search process that sexual orientation per se is not an issue to the board, and they should say that explicitly by including sexual orientation in a list of qualities under which the institution does not discriminate.

When it comes time to invite candidates to campus, the domestic partner should be invited, as well, several presidents agree. "The board should put them through the same process as a heterosexual candidate," Middleton says. "If an institution doesn’t do this, then fine. But the institution should then make it clear that it doesn’t do it for anyone. The more explicit the institution is, the better."

To Gay Leaders Who Want to Advance

"It is important to prove yourself — as a scholar, in administrative roles, as department chair and as a committee chair," says Kalikow. “People need to see how you perform in these positions."

She adds, “It’s also important to have good friends. You need a network of supportive professional persons at your institution. You develop friends in the wider communities that you work in. As a scholar and administrator, those friendship networks are important."

Middleton adds that we need to be very effective and professional in our jobs, and especially reliable. Opportunity is enhanced if we do all these things — and while nothing is guaranteed, our careers are more likely to prosper by making these a priority.

Finally, David Coon reminds us never to hide. “If you hide, people may wonder what else you’re hiding,” he says. “By being out, you’re saying: This is who I am. I’m comfortable and I’m humble.” People may find you more approachable and more trustworthy.

Tips for Gay Presidential Candidates

-Focus on your accomplishments. Your sexuality is important, but it's not the most important feature you bring to the table.
-Make certain the values of an institution are consistent with your own. Take the institution's tolerance temperature.
-Be upfront with the search consultant and with the board. Your search must be open. Candidates who are gay should say so, when the time is right.
-Those campuses that welcome gay leaders are not always obviously welcoming. Some rural or suburban colleges may be more welcoming to gays than colleges located in urban centers with large gay populations.
-If you are comfortable with yourself, the board will be as well.

How Search Committees and Boards of Trustees Can Signal That They Welcome Gay Candidates

-When advertising presidential positions, state that LGBT candidates are encouraged to apply.
-Make it clear as early as possible in the search process that your institution welcomes diversity with regard to sexual orientation.
-When inviting candidates to campus, invite the candidate’s partner as well.
-If your institution provides benefits to same-sex partners, advertise it on your institution’s human resources web page.
-Communicate your institution's values when you advertise professional positions. If you value social justice and challenging the status quo, say so.

Michael Roggow has conducted interviews with many gay college presidents over the last two years. He works for the Office for Academic Affairs and is an adjunct assistant professor of psychology at City University of New York’s Bronx Community College. He can be reached at mjroggow@aol.com.

4. The Daily Illini, December 13, 2010
12 E. Green St., Champaign, IL 61820
http://www.dailyillini.com/news/campus/2010/12/13/gay-community-allies-had-busy-year-of-activism-in-c-u
Gay community, allies had busy year of activism in C-U
By Joseph Ward

Whether it was to get out the vote locally or honor victims of a sad, national trend, members of the University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community and its allies had a busy year.

Editors note: This article is part of The Daily Illini's semester in review edition. These articles are meant to round-up the most important news of the Fall 2010 semester.

Kicking off their season of political and social activism, the LGBT community celebrated National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11. Support groups such as PRIDE, BI-PRIDE and the Women’s Resource Center helped the LGBT Resource Center have a continual presence on the Quad that Monday in order to campaign for equal rights and acceptance of gay students.

The annual event had significant added weight this year according to event organizers, because of the highly publicized string of gay suicides on college and high school campuses across the country this fall.

To remember those who had taken their lives, LGBT members and their allies held a candlelight vigil by the Alma Mater on Oct. 20.

“There’s a lot of bullying going on, and some people think it’s harmless. Words are powerful and they can hurt. They can attack,” said Leslie Morrow, director of the LGBT Resource Center.

Students at the event said they hoped their actions, along with similar vigils nationwide, would help usher in a new found acceptance of young gay individuals.

“Hopefully it promotes a call to action,” said Kevin Ng, sophomore in AHS. “I had to honor those who committed suicide.”

And while the gay community sought social change, they also made efforts to influence local, state and national politics and policies. On Oct. 26, the LGBT community and its supporters staged a rally to encourage political activism at the Canopy Club.

“I think there is some resentment within the LGBT community towards the government,” said Nathan Fredrickson, graduate student. “I realize there may be more important things to deal with, like the economy and wars, but it’s frustrating when we get all stirred up with hope when nothing really happens, like with the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal being overturned. But I believe we should still keep working even though things are disappointing.”

LGBT issues were of great political concern, particularly in the race for Illinois Governor. Whereas Republican candidate Bill Brady supported constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, Gov. Pat Quinn — the eventual winner — supported, and eventually signed into law, a bill legalizing civil unions.

5. University of Wyoming News, December 13, 2010
http://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2010/12/university-of-wyoming-rainbow-resource-center-receives-donation.html
University of Wyoming Rainbow Resource Center Receives Donation
Unknown

The University of Wyoming's Rainbow Resource Center (RRC) is expanding its library.

During its recent ASPIRE (Association of Special Programs in Region Eight) conference, TRiO, an educational assistance program at UW, designated the RRC to receive funding through its Bring-A Book Community Service Project.

The library offers materials on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer identity, health, politics, spirituality and history, as well as fiction, poetry and memoirs. The library is used extensively for research purposes.

The RRC serves more than 3,000 UW students, faculty, staff and community members.

"It provides a safe and supportive environment for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer individuals, their families and other allies," says Sandy Straley, UW Student Support Services project coordinator and Wyoming ASPIRE president. "We are thrilled to support this important and unique collection of LGBTQ literature."

More than 240 TRiO professionals and other educational opportunity personnel attended the recent conference. These professionals represent TRiO programs that provide services to increase access to higher education for low-income, first-generation (neither parent holds a college degree), minority students and students with disabilities.

For more information about the RRC, call Dolores Cardona at (307) 766-6228 or Emily Hart at (307) 766-3478.

6. The Salt Lake Tribune, December 14, 2010
90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50873312-76/students-business-gay-glbt.html.csp
MBA students at U. launch gay club
By Rosemary Winters

Student clubs for gay and transgender students have become commonplace at Utah’s colleges and universities. But the University of Utah is believed to be the first in the state to have such a club specifically for business students.

Marc Stillman and J.J. Oliver, two gay students working on their MBAs at the U.’s David Eccles School of Business, have founded the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Students and Allies in Business, also known as GLBT Alliance. Such clubs already exist at business schools at Stanford, Columbia and elsewhere.

"We hope to be a catalyst to help businesses in the state to create vibrant work environments that will be magnets for diversity," Oliver said in a statement. Many job candidates now look to the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies on their treatment of GLBT employees, to judge an employer’s workplace climate, Oliver noted.

The new club, which has about a dozen members, including many straight students, hopes to boost awareness of academic and professional issues faced by GLBT students and professionals. Some employers offer health insurance benefits to employees’ same-sex partners and some don’t. Nine Utah cities and counties, including Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, have adopted ordinances that make it illegal to fire someone for being gay or transgender, but those protections are not offered statewide.

"We know that fair treatment for gay and transgender employees is key to overall respect for diversity in the workplace," Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah, said in an interview. "For the school of business to endorse inclusion of all employees makes sense."

The GLBT Alliance wants to host networking events to connect undergraduate and graduate students with Utah employers. In October, members of the group attended the 2010 Reaching Out MBA Conference in Los Angeles. This month, the alliance held a forum on the experiences of GLBT employees and managers in a variety of workplace situations.

"We want to be known as a place that can be an excellent educational home for people from all backgrounds," said Scott Schaefer, associate dean of the David Eccles business school. "We want people to know that if you’re GLBT, we’d love to have you at our school. If you’re LDS, we’d love to have you at our school."

rwinters@sltrib.com

7. Inside Higher Ed, December 15, 2010
1320 18th Street NW, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/12/15/transgender_ncaa
NCAA Considers Transgender Policy
By David Moltz

A working group of the National Collegiate Athletic Association has proposed an interpretation of existing policies to create paths for transgender athletes to compete on teams. This is the first time that the NCAA, in any capacity, has offered advice on this issue.

The interpretation endorsed by the NCAA’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports is nearly identical to a set of recommendations issued in a report earlier this year by the National Center on Lesbian Rights and the Women’s Sports Foundation. The NCAA’s national office staff are “reviewing the interpretation to determine if it sufficiently addresses the issue or if there is a need for further legislation.” If any legislation is needed, then it would be considered by the NCAA’s membership during its upcoming 2011-12 legislative cycle.

Under the proposed interpretation, a male athlete transitioning to female would be permitted to play on a women’s team if "that athlete has undergone testosterone suppression treatment for at least one year.” The member institution would have to provide the NCAA with “written documentation of testosterone suppression for the year of treatment” and “documentation of ongoing monitoring” to be eligible to play on a women’s team.

In the instance of a female athlete transitioning to male, the athlete would be permitted to play on a men’s team at any time. If the athlete wants hormone treatment, however, then the athlete “must get a medical exception for the use of testosterone before being eligible to participate in intercollegiate athletics” because the substance is on the NCAA’s banned drug list.

Athletes who transition socially, but do not seek hormone treatment, also have the option to compete for their “birth-gender team.”

NCAA officials did not return requests for comment about the proposed interpretation. The announcement was posted on the NCAA's website Tuesday, but was removed, and an NCAA official said it had been placed there before it was scheduled to be released. The article said that the association “acknowledged the need to clarify existing guidance, which recommends a student-athlete compete in the gender recognized on his or her state documentation, such as a driver’s license.”

Last month, Kye Allums, a George Washington University junior and player on its women’s basketball team, publicly came out as a transgender man. Allums is believed by many to be the first openly transgender person to play Division I college basketball, though not the first to play on an intercollegiate team.

Transgender advocates believe Allums’s coming out spurred the need for a formal clarification from the NCAA as to how these athletes should be treated. Some experts, however, have been urging action on the issue for years.

“Kye put a face on this,” said Helen J. Carroll, director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ sports project. “It’s not just another issue now.

“I’m very encouraged that the NCAA is moving forward in a positive way including transgendered student-athletes in a way that’s practical and works. It’s a very exciting time for the entire transgendered community.”

Carroll added that this move by the NCAA may make it easier for transgender athletes to publicly come out about their status now that they know how they can maintain their eligibility to play sports.

Nancy Hogshead-Makar, senior director of advocacy for the Women’s Sports Foundation and professor at Florida Coastal School of Law, echoed Carroll’s praise. Given the NCAA’s work with her organization, she noted that she was not surprised by the association’s move.

“This is very consistent with all of the other things that they’ve done recently,” Hogshead-Makar said. “This is not inconsistent with work the NCAA has done on drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, pregnant athletes, etc. This is consistent with making sure that the most number of people can share in the educational experience called sports. It’s about breaking down barriers.”

8. The Harvard Crimson, December 15, 2010
14 Plympton Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/12/15/incident-lgbt-community-hate/
Harvard LGBT Community Upset By Lamont Incident
By Alice E.M. Underwood

Though the damage of 36 LGBT-related books in Lamont Library is no longer being characterized as a hate crime, the incident has brought to light the issue of homophobia on campus and left the LGBT community at Harvard feeling confused and frustrated.

The University’s response to the Lamont incident initially disappointed many members of the Harvard College Queer Students and Allies because of the lack of information, seemingly contradictory facts, and failure to explicitly address the problem of homophobia on campus, according to Co-Chair Emma Q. Wang ’12.

“We first felt on the alert because it was reported as a hate crime, and the LGBTQ community remains sensitive, as issues of homophobia must be comprehensively reported and commented on, especially by those in positions with the most information and influence,” said Wang, who participates in the BGLTQ Working Group that currently explores LGBT life and needs at Harvard.

Upon an investigation in response to a police report that 36 books treating LGBT topics had been damaged with what appeared to be urine in Lamont last month, the University determined Monday morning that the incident was an accident. A library staffer had spilled a bottle of what was reported to be urine on the shelf, according to a statement made by College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds.

Wang, who received several e-mails from strangers expressing their support for the LGBT community in light of the recent incident, said that the College must be forthcoming with clear information to prevent future incidents of this nature, as consistent information is crucial in dealing with sensitive issues. Wang added that the administration is taking steps to further address the lingering concerns of the LGBT community, but she was unable to provide details.

History and Literature Lecturer Timothy P. McCarthy ’93 expressed concern about the handling of the Lamont affair and its effects on the LGBT community.

“At this point, this peculiar incident has produced many more questions than answers, especially in the LGBT community. Until that changes, I think it’s premature to downgrade this from a ‘hate crime’ to an ‘accident,’” McCarthy wrote in an e-mail. “I’m no expert on bodily fluids, but it takes an awful lot of urine to destroy 36 books. Are the bathrooms not working in Lamont?”

QSA Political Co-Chair Sam J. Bakkila ’11-’12 echoed the frustration with the hazy explanation of the incident. He said that the accidental urine spill may be plausible, but wondered why it took over two weeks for the issue to be brought to public attention, why the story changed, and why the initial police report interpreted the issue as vandalism. As a member of the Harvard LGBT community, he said he felt put off to have found out about the issue from the press and not the administration.

“It’s quite unfortunate that so much attention has been given to this incident that was likely an accident, when there were two confirmed anti-LGBT hate crimes on campus earlier this semester,” he said. “Even if this incident was an accident, the fact is that homophobia is an issue that many LGBT students struggle with, even here at Harvard.”

Though pleased with the dedicated LGBT-friendly administrators on campus, Bakkila said that the Lamont occurrence, whether a hate crime or an accident, reflects the rift in communication between the College administration and the queer community and highlights the need for an LGBT center or office with professional support—resources enjoyed by other Ivy League schools.

Some of the media coverage of the story—though highlighting the issues faced by the LGBT community—has “gotten out of hand” since several news sources have expressed skepticism about the accidental nature of the urine spill in Lamont instead of accepting Hammonds’ explanation of the incident.

“Dean Hammonds has been a strong advocate for the LGBTQ community, particularly this year with the BGLTQ working group, and I fully trust her analysis of the incident,” he said.

Though most of the suspicions of a hate crime have been dispelled, the incident has shed light on the ongoing concerns facing the LGBT community, according to QSA Co-Chair Marco Chan ’11, who participates in the BGLTQ Working Group.

“At the end of the day, the incident does bring to mind that we too can be vulnerable to homophobia,” he said. “Going beyond relationships between LGBT students and the rest of the community, I believe that in thinking about inclusion and support, we need to think about how we’re actively supporting each other.”

On Nov. 24, library staff at Lamont discovered a group of damaged books that covered subjects including lesbian and gay issues and same-sex marriage, along with a bottle assumed to have contained urine. On Friday, library personnel reported the incident to the College and Harvard University Police Department as vandalism, and the affair was subsequently investigated as a hate crime due to the subject matter of the affected books.

Hammonds revealed on Monday morning that given the accidental nature of the incident, it will no longer be treated as a hate crime. She added that Harvard College Library plans to replace all 36 damaged books as soon as possible.

“I believe this is an important new fact in the investigation and warrants my sharing it with you immediately. While we should not minimize the seriousness of this incident, HUPD is no longer classifying this incident as a hate crime,” Hammonds wrote in her statement.

In a written statement to The Crimson, Hammonds elaborated saying that the library personnel only reported the incident to the police for insurance purposes.

“As a result, the filing did not need to be immediate,” Hammonds wrote on the two-week delay.

Staff writer Alice E.M. Underwood can be reached at aeunderw@fas.harvard.edu.

9. The New York Times, December 17, 2010
620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/education/18belmont.html?_r=1&src=twrhp
Lesbian Coach’s Exit From Belmont U. Has Nashville Talking
By Campbell Robertson

NASHVILLE - The day before Thanksgiving break, the members of the Belmont University women’s soccer team gathered in the locker room after a strength training session. Their coach, Lisa Howe, had something to say.

She told them that she was a lesbian, and that she and her partner of eight years, the team’s former assistant coach, had decided to have a baby.

“She said she wanted to talk about her personal life one time only and there would never be a discussion again,” recalled Erica Carter, a senior on the team.

But the topic was far from finished. It continued the next week when the players learned that their coach was leaving her job. And it has swelled into a full-blown existential debate at this fast-growing private university.

Belmont, once a small Baptist university whose students were mostly commuters, has had a remarkable decade. Student enrollment has roughly doubled since 2000, and 10 new buildings have gone up. A college of entertainment and music business, the university’s showpiece, was established in 2003, and next year Belmont will open a law school. The university has rapidly risen in national rankings, and scored a high profile coup in 2008 as host of one of the presidential debates.

But the growth has not come without growing pains.

Three years ago, the university severed its 56-year-old ties with the state Baptist convention after a debate about whether the board could include non-Baptist trustees. But the university promised to remain Christian, if nondenominational.

Still, some see a continuing identity crisis — on the one hand, the university has a long reputation as conservative and Christian, a reputation safeguarded by the board of trustees, which includes several Baptist ministers; on the other hand, Belmont has aggressively earned a reputation as a progressive, artsy place to study the music business.

“What are we trying to do?” asked Cassidy Hodges, a senior. “It’s kind of back and forth, push and pull, between what we want at the university.”

That identity crisis is now in full public view.

The university will not comment on the circumstances of Ms. Howe’s departure, nor will Ms. Howe, citing contractual reasons. They refer to her departure as a “mutual agreement.”

Ms. Howe did say in an interview that her decision to become a mother is what prompted her to talk to the players, many of whom knew she was a lesbian anyway. Ms. Howe’s partner, Wendy Holleman, left Belmont in 2008 to coach at a private high school; she is due with the couple’s first child in May.

“By continuing to hide, I felt like that was the wrong message to send,” said Ms. Howe, 41, who describes herself as a churchgoing Christian. “I thought maybe they assumed I was ashamed or that I was doing something wrong because it wasn’t coming straight from me.”

Ms. Carter said most of the players were excited about the baby. But the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Ms. Howe called Ms. Carter and told her that the father of one player had complained over the weekend. Ms. Howe also said that she had been told by the athletic director that morning that if she did not resign, she would be fired, Ms. Carter said.

Ms. Howe had led the team to two conference championships, but the 2010 season was a disappointment, and on Dec. 1, Sari Lin, the team captain, asked the athletic director, Mike Strickland, if that was the cause for Ms. Howe’s departure.

Mr. Strickland told her that team performance was not the issue, Ms. Lin said, but that the baby “was going to be a problem” and would conflict with the university’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach.

The story has dominated headlines in Nashville, though the facts remain unclear. Students staged protests on campus. Members of the faculty passed a resolution of support for gay faculty members and students. Nashville metro council members introduced a bill to rescind an agreement that allowed Belmont to use a city park for a soccer field. The state Baptist convention commended Belmont officials for appearing to take a stand that “respected their Christian mission as well as their heritage.”

Nothing resonated quite like the surprise statement by Mike Curb, a trustee emeritus of the university and the deep-pocketed donor for whom the college of music business is named.

“It’s time for Belmont to change,” Mr. Curb, a prominent record executive and successful Nascar owner and sponsor, told The Tennessean newspaper. “Belmont has to decide whether they want to be a national, recognized university, particularly with their school of music business, or they want to be a church.”

A day later, Robert Fisher, the university’s president, made his first public comments, declaring that sexual orientation was not a consideration in hiring, promotion, salary or dismissal decisions at Belmont.

While many welcomed this statement, others said that the issue seemed to be whether gay faculty members could openly be in relationships and start families.

“We’ve always had gay faculty as long as I’ve been here,” said Michael Awalt, a professor of philosophy who has been at Belmont since 1970. But, he said, “it’s been a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ kind of mentality.”

In 2001, after a business instructor named Michael Burcham was outed by a student, he was told he would need to defend himself in front of the board. Mr. Burcham, who now teaches at Vanderbilt University, said that he did not feel that the faculty, students or even the administration had a problem with his sexual orientation, but that he sensed the board would not approve. He resigned.

In a joint interview, Dr. Fisher, who has been the engine behind the university’s decade of rapid growth, and Marty Dickens, the chairman of the board, said the Belmont community needed to have a serious discussion before making any official changes or clarifications of its policy.

Dr. Fisher has met with some of the faculty and with a gay Christian student group whose requests for recognition have been denied.

He said he welcomed the discussion. But, he added: “I would have envisioned this kind of discussion being a lot more measured and taking a lot longer and probably producing a lot less heat in a typical, structured university approach. But we’ve got what we’ve got.”

Asked if having openly gay faculty and staff members could create a conflict with the university’s Christian character, Mr. Dickens said, “there could be.”

“But everything needs to be taken in a proper context, and we are continuing as a university to dialogue on all of these issues,” he said.

Mr. Dickens also said that this controversy had little to do with the university’s recent growth.

But others said that a debate like this was bound to arrive at some point.

“We feel at Belmont that we’ve moved academically to a very different place,” Mr. Awalt said. “I’m not sure a lot of other things at the university have fully caught up.”

10. The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 17, 2010
1255 Twenty-Third St, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037
http://chronicle.com/article/GayLesbian-College/125741/
Gay and Lesbian College Presidents Go Public With Web Video
By Paul Fain

Click link for video.

A small but growing group of openly gay and lesbian college presidents will make its official debut at a March meeting of the American Council on Education. But the group publicly introduced itself on Friday with a Web video, which features several of its members and their partners.

"I'm black, and I'm a woman. But what you don't see is that I am a very proud lesbian president of a university," says Charlita L. Shelton, president of the University of the Rockies. "And my coming-out process could not have been better because I had someone who supported me, who's sitting right next to me."

Lynne Schumal, Ms. Shelton's partner, then says: "And most importantly, we're an out and proud lesbian couple."

The group, LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education, was created at an August meeting in Chicago, and now includes about 25 member presidents. Its founders say they hope to provide professional support for members, as well as a possible platform for future advocacy. Leadership is needed on rights, scholarship, and advocacy, according to the group.

During the four-minute video, which was filmed during a second meeting of the group, held in November in Los Angeles, members give advice to other gay and lesbian leaders in higher education.

"Get and keep a sense of humor - it will serve you well," says Charles R. Middleton, president of Roosevelt University and a founder. "I did, and I became an out, bearded, bald, gay president. Who knew?"

While there are many openly gay and lesbian administrators at the vice-president and dean levels, progress has been slow at the top. The group hopes to change that.

"We're making this video for you, so that you know who we are, what we're doing, and as we proudly assume our rightful leadership role in United States higher education," says Neal King, president of Antioch University-Los Angeles. "We're here to stay. We want to get to know you. Join us."

11. The Tennessean, December 18, 2010
1100 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101218/NEWS04/12180318/Belmont-faculty-wants-sexual-orientation-added-to-nondiscrimination-policy
Belmont faculty wants sexual orientation added to nondiscrimination policy
By Jennifer Brooks

Belmont University faculty members are calling on the school to adopt an official policy that would protect gay students, teachers and staff from discrimination.

In a closed-door session Friday, the faculty Senate passed two resolutions, one calling for sexual orientation to be added to the campus's nondiscrimination policy; another calling for the faculty, student and staff handbooks to include language that prohibits harassment.

The vote comes after soccer coach Lisa Howe left the university shortly after telling her players that she and her partner, former assistant Belmont soccer coach Wendy Holleman, are expecting a baby in May.

The faculty Senate unanimously approved a resolution in support of gay members of their community. A copy of the resolution language won't be made available until Jan. 10, when the Senate returns to approve the minutes of Friday's meeting. Howe's departure sparked campus protests, national headlines and a pledge from Belmont President Bob Fisher that the university does not base hiring and firing decisions on sexual orientation.

_______________________________________________________________
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 regarding fair use of copyrighted work, this material is distributed without profit for information, research, and educational purposes. The Consortium has no affiliation whatsoever with the originators of these articles nor is the Consortium endorsed or sponsored by the originators.

QNOC Digest 2010.12.13

2011-01-27T13:45:00.002-05:00

Queer News On Campus [QNOC] Articles Digest
For the week ending 2010.12.13

Brought to you by the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals. http://www.lgbtcampus.org

Archives of the QNOC Digest can be found at http://queernewsoncampus.blogspot.com

Reminder: If you come across articles that should be included in the digest, please email a link to the article to articles@lgbtcampus.org

1. The Tennessean - Belmont policy that led to gay coach's ouster is not unique: Christian universities often oust gay faculty
2. The Providence Journal - For gay and lesbian students, bullying knows no bounds
3. The Michigan Daily - The next chapter: MSA president Chris Armstrong works to re-define his presidency after Andrew Shirvell
4. The Washington Post - Belmont under scrutiny for firing gay soccer coach
5. The Campus Chronicle (Des Moines Area Community College, Ankeny IA) - Open minds, open hearts, open doors at DMACC
6. NBC 2 News Online - Donor wants Tenn. university to rehire gay coach
7. Inside Higher Ed - Defending a Lesbian Coach
8. Omaha.com/World-Herald Bureau - Gay marriage backed at UNL
9. The Towerlight (Towson University) - Response on transgender rights
10. The Chronicle of Higher Education - Life’s Queer Unfairness
11. The Badger Herald (University of Wisconsin-Madison) - ASM endorses LGBT anti-bullying program
12. TwinCities.com/Pioneer Press - AD Joel Maturi's Gophers golf program accused of discrimination, nepotism

1. The Tennessean, December 5, 2010
1100 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101205/NEWS01/12050355/Belmont-policy-that-led-to-gay-coach-s-ouster-is-not-unique
Belmont policy that led to gay coach's ouster is not unique: Christian universities often oust gay faculty
By Bob Smietana

Belmont University may not be Baptist-affiliated anymore, but it's still Christian.

So faculty and staff must do what the Good Book tells them to do. And at Belmont, it's telling them no sex outside of marriage.

"We do adhere to our values as Christ-centered, and we don't want to make apologies for that," said Marty Dickens, chairman of Belmont's board of trustees.

That stance became clear last week, when the university parted ways with a women's soccer coach who outed herself as gay, several team members said, because she and her partner are expecting a baby. The school initially said she resigned but reversed itself Friday, saying the school and coach Lisa Howe reached a "mutual agreement" for her to leave.

That's not an unusual move for Christian universities, and not the first time it happened at Belmont, but it left gay students concerned about their status at Belmont.

Dorian McQuaid, a Belmont sophomore, said the school has insisted in the past that gay students are welcome.

"As a queer student, I am afraid to be at Belmont right now," McQuaid said.

Erica Carter, one of Howe's former players, said she was hurt and confused by the decision.

"This changes my perception of Belmont as a Christian university that could accept everyone," Carter said.

The school severed financial and other ties to the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 2007 and sought to redefine itself as a diverse Christian community. It retained a written policy for students, faculty and staff that forbids any sexual relations outside of marriage.

Dickens said the expectations for faculty are clear.

Belmont won't apologize for its Christian values, he said.

"We expect people to commit themselves to high moral and ethical standards within a Christian context," he said. "That includes members of the board, faculty and administration."

Christian schools often require faculty and staff to refrain from sex outside of marriage, said Karin Maag, professor of history and vice president of the faculty senate at Calvin College, a Christian school in Grand Rapids, Mich. Gay relationships are often specifically banned.

Calvin faculty and the board of trustees clashed last year over a trustee-imposed ban on speaking in favor of gay marriage.

Maag said that Christian professors are expected to be good teachers and good examples of the faith. "We are supposed to be modeling virtues as well," she said.

Faculty members at Union University, a Tennessee Baptist school in Jackson, Tenn., are banned from drinking alcohol, having homosexual relations or any sex outside of marriage.

"All Union University faculty are expected to live an exemplary Christian life both on and off campus," reads a standards of conduct statement on Union's employment application.

A former Belmont professor said he understands why schools set those boundaries. Mike Burcham, a clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Vanderbilt University and president of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, taught at Belmont from 1997 to 2001. He left voluntarily after a student outed him.

Burcham said that it is no surprise that Belmont as a Christian school has a Christian culture. "You are either part of that or you are not," The former Belmont professor said he has no ill will against the school and believes it is moving toward being more accepting of gays. That may take years, he said, something that is hard for Belmont students to understand.

Schools Challenged

Others call Belmont's actions un-Christian. The Rev. Cindi Love, executive director of Soulforce, holds so-called Equality Rides to Christian schools, asking them to change how they treat gays. They've identified about 200 schools nationwide that specifically ban gay faculty, staff and students, but it was unclear late Friday whether Belmont was on the list.

Love said many Christian schools have a don't ask, don't tell approach to homosexuality. Having a baby with a gay partner would cross a line, she said, making someone's sexuality public.

"That pushes the envelope for a lot of people," Love said.

For staff members such as Howe, the end typically comes when someone off campus — such as a parent or donor — finds out about them. "It rarely comes from inside the academic community," she said.

Metro Nashville Councilwoman Megan Barry, who sponsored a nondiscrimination bill for Metro employees approved last year, said gay employees deserve protection. While she wouldn't comment on the Belmont case specifically, she reiterated the stance she took on her Metro bill.

"I believe that any discrimination in the workplace, including discrimination based on one's sexual orientation, is wrong, regardless of whether it occurs in the public or private sector," she said.

McQuaid and a group of about 20 other Belmont students are part of Bridge Builders, which is trying to build ties between gay and straight students. They've been trying to become an official student organization but have been turned down by the school. Organizers say they have collected 1,000 signatures in support of the group.

"We are not asking Belmont to hang up a sign saying gay sex and gay people are awesome," she said. "We are asking to form a student group where we can gather on campus. I don't understand why that is so difficult."

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this article should have made more clear statements attributed to Marty Dickens, chairman of the board of trustees for Belmont University. Dickens has defended the school's right to expect board, faculty and administration to adhere to high moral and ethical standards within a Christian context. He has not commented on why soccer coach Lisa Howe left the school or whether her departure was related to any of those standards. The Tennessean regrets any misunderstanding.

2. The Providence Journal, December 6, 2010
75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902
http://www.projo.com/news/content/LGBT_BULLYING_12-06-10_4NL8U73_v36.3272aba.html
For gay and lesbian students, bullying knows no bounds
By Gina Macris

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - The setting: the bucolic campus of the University of Rhode Island in the summer of 2010.

The action: Kevin Cruz and Justin Willner walk along holding hands. One of them also joins hands with a young woman, Riley Davis. Brian Stack, the president of URI’s undergraduate Gay-Straight Alliance, walks along with the other three.

A car drives by with the occupants shouting, “Faggots!”

Lesbian or gay students at URI do not take their physical safety for granted.

Of the summertime incident, Andrew Winters, point man on gender issues for the URI administration, says, “These kinds of thing happen all the time.”

The drive-by slurs prompted URI President David Dooley to hold a meeting to address anti-gay bias even before the fall semester began.

A 2009 survey of public high school students by the Rhode Island Departments of Health and Elementary and Secondary Education indicated that about 9 percent, or nearly 1 in 10, identified themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning.

Almost 8 out of 10 in those categories had been bullied, according to a separate Education Department survey during the 2009-2010 academic year.

Those types of figures say “to me that we’ve got a giant problem,” says Winters, whose official title is assistant to the vice president for Student Affairs, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Programs and Services.

The death of Tyler Clementi of Rutgers University this fall has intensified concerns on college campuses and in elementary and secondary schools about bullying students who have identified themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning.

At URI, the anti-gay climate — including the shouting of epithets in close quarters and the appearance of swastikas in the university’s Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Center — is not a new problem.

In the late fall of 2009, URI invited a conciliation specialist from the U.S. Department of Justice to campus to try help defuse the situation.

Last spring, two female students reported that used condoms and a pile of garbage had been left outside the door of their dorm room.

More recently, President Dooley said students have helped the university “sharpen our vision of what we need to do” to create an environment in which diversity “is a quality of excellence in education.”

Gay students — led by Brian Stack, Kevin Cruz, Justin Willner, Riley Davis and others — say the day-to-day climate has not changed. Stack said Friday the university has taken some positive organizational steps.

About a dozen others occupied the 24-hour room of the university library for eight straight days in September to raise awareness of safety and other issues, including the lack of an appropriate space for the GLBT Center.

Willner said, “It was over in a week, but it was not an easy thing to do.”

Cruz said the sit-in brought out numerous unexpected expressions of support, including pizzas sent over by the URI Multicultural Center and other food delivered by university dining services. All of those who sent “care packages” got thank-you notes, Cruz said.

There also were some tense moments during the protest. Someone left a greeting card under a door at the LGBTQ Center. The message inside was, “Shut Up, Faggots. We know where you live.”

After Stack was taunted in front of witnesses, the URI police provided escorts to students going to and from the library.

The students ended the protest when the university agreed to six demands, including the renovation of Ruggles House for a new center and the hiring of a high-level administrator to oversee diversity initiatives. Bullying-prevention training for resident assistants in dormitories and the first round of diversity training for faculty and staff is scheduled for January.

Dooley on Thursday promised to add a graduate student to the GLBT Centers, but Stack says the operation needs a full-time professional to assist Winters.

While Stack and other students on the receiving end of anti-gay slurs and threats may take little comfort from statistics, James Robinson, executive director of Youth Pride, said research shows that schools with gay-straight alliances are generally safer places for everyone.

There are about 40 gay-straight alliances in high schools and colleges throughout Rhode Island, said Robinson, whose organization provides services for young people grappling with issues of sexuality.

Brown University has a Safe Zone Program organized by its LGBTQ Resource Center. Members of the Brown community can wear ribbons or buttons to identify themselves as allies of those outside the heterosexual mainstream, and use stickers to signal their spaces on campus as havens for anyone in need of a secure place.

Meanwhile, young people are coming out at earlier ages, says Michelle Duso, a former Youth Pride director and Rhode Island-based consultant with InFOCUS who helps schools establish inclusive and protective climates.

Philip Rutter, a psychologist at Widener University outside Philadelphia, said the average age for coming out has dropped from 17 to 14 for men, and from 19 to 16 for women in the last several years.

But this can also mean that they encounter homophobia at an earlier age, he said.

At the same time, their teachers are often ill-prepared to talk to children and adolescents about gender in appropriate ways, says Duso.

“It’s not about having conversation about sex, but conversation about families and relationships,” Duso said.

In West Warwick, a third grader named Joseph once came to the principal, Donna Peluso of the Horgan Elementary School, and asked her to call him “Kim.”

Peluso responded by talking to the boy about relationships in and out of school.

“I would be honored to call you Kim. I think Kim is a beautiful name,” she said. “Outside of school, or with your parents, I’d be happy to call you Kim.

“But Joseph is your legal name. Is it OK if in school I call you by your legal name?”

“That’s OK,” he said.

About a third of Rhode Island communities provide counselors who are specifically assigned to shepherd the social and emotional well-being of elementary school children.

At the Gordon School, a private elementary and middle school in East Providence, third-grade students have put a poster in the hall outside their room, inviting adults and children to write personal comments to help define who they are. One side was for girls and women and the other side was for men and boys. The poster was entitled: “Gender Bender”.

A man wrote: “I teach preschool, and most people think only girls teach kids that young.”

A woman wrote: “At home, I am the person who mows the lawn and does house repairs and painting, outside on the extension ladder. Fun!”

One boy wrote that he loved the color pink.

A girl said she loved playing baseball.

The books for the youngest children at Gordon include a story about two male penguins who want to adopt a baby, as well as depictions of families that include a mom of one color and a dad of another color.

Teachers have been trained in ways to handle little children’s questions about the two moms or two dads who drop off their child at school in the morning.

Gordon is not utopia, says Ralph Wales, the head of school, but the kinds of cruelty that children can bring to the classroom or recess should not be ignored.

Educators who say their only purview is the academic realm are not doing their job, particularly in middle school, he said.

“An excellent middle school education saves children,” he said.

Resources:
Youth Pride Inc.
171 Chestnut St., Providence, R.I. 02903
(401) 421-5626
info@youthprideri.org

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
South Central Rhode Island
Ed and Ann Bonetti,
(401)499-3278
info@pflagscri.org

gmacris@projo.com

3. The Michigan Daily, December 6, 2010
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
http://www.michigandaily.com/content/chris-armstrong-profile?page=0,0
The next chapter: MSA president Chris Armstrong works to re-define his presidency after Andrew Shirvell
By Emily Orley

When Michigan Student Assembly President Chris Armstrong first applied to college, he had visions of becoming a video game engineer. His college essay was about the artistic merits of his favorite video game, and he only applied to colleges with excellent video game design programs.

But when this self-proclaimed nerd eventually came to the University of Michigan, he decided to take a different path. Armstrong immediately joined the University’s LGBT commission when he arrived on campus. He later became chair of the commission, and then ran for MSA president last spring.

Armstrong’s term as MSA president is halfway over, but his presidency has already received more publicity than most who serve in college student governments. Last fall, Armstrong gained national attention for the attacks he received from now former Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell. The incident has been front and center in Armstrong’s presidency, but he hopes to change that in the four months he has left.

Armstrong joined MSA as a freshman and quickly rose through the assembly ranks as a representative on the assembly’s LGBT Commission.

“I immediately wanted to get involved with LGBT groups on campus because I wanted to meet other gay people,” Armstrong said last week in the offices of The Michigan Daily.

Armstrong made a lot of progress on the commission. He helped plan a launch event for National Coming Out Week in fall 2009 and was integral in helping the University become the host of the 2011 Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Ally College Conference.

“I started getting involved and it just sort of spiraled and spiraled,” he said.

That same year, Armstrong met Jason Raymond, a fellow MSA representative, and the two became good friends. Two-and-a-half years later, the pair decided to run for office together.

Both were interested in the top position, but it was ultimately decided that Armstrong would run for the presidential spot. Raymond explained that putting Armstrong in that position was viewed as an excellent opportunity to represent his issues and break down a lot of barriers within MSA, since Armstrong would be the first openly gay MSA president at the University.

“We’re very much a team and we didn’t really care about the titles,” Raymond said, “but we decided it would be a great victory for Chris’s community for him to be MSA president.”

Freshman year, Armstrong and Raymond also met Alex Serwer, who helped build their campaign when they decided to run. Once elected, Armstrong appointed Serwer his chief of staff. Like Raymond, Serwer said putting Armstrong in such a distinguished position sent a powerful message.

“It’s a big moment for LGBT individuals.” Serwer said. “Seeing another (LGBT) student in such a prominent position is a really big deal for that incoming freshman that doesn’t really know what the LGBT community is like on campus,” he said.

Armstrong and Raymond ran with the organization MForward — a party that stands on the platform of representing a diverse group of students on the assembly, which they founded.

MForward viewed Armstrong’s future legacy as the first openly gay MSA president as an important milestone, and the party’s platform focused on LGBT issues. However, the party didn’t try to use Armstrong’s personal story to their advantage, and the issue of his sexuality wasn’t brought up by either party during the election.

“We always had the same issues that we wanted to work on, and that was never something that we had to make special arrangements for or consider in a different light,” Raymond said.

Serwer emphasized that the platform of the campaign was built around issues, and not Chris’s personal decisions.

“We made sure that whatever we were preaching to the students as they were voting was what we stood for, rather than Chris’s sexual orientation,” Serwer said.

Armstrong grew up in a small town in Connecticut with a population of about 25,000. While he came out to his parents when he was 15 years old, he had only told a couple of close friends in his hometown, and was not openly gay until he came to the University. Armstrong said hiding that secret in high school made him want to do things differently when he went to college.

“My goal when I came to the University of Michigan was to live openly, to be out and to really see how my life could be being myself,” Armstrong said.

While he was not ashamed of his sexuality, he said he always knew running as an openly gay man would create obstacles. He explained that a lot of insecurities about how he was dressing and acting surfaced when he assumed the presidency.

“To a certain extent, I’ve had to try to project more of a sense of authority just because there’s always that sense people won’t take you seriously,” Armstrong said. “I think those insecurities are universal, but when it comes from a minority or a minority group sometimes it’s more augmented.”

The obstacles Armstrong predicted were particularly challenging to overcome last April, when Shirvell, a University alum, began harassing Armstrong and his friends and family. Shirvell launched Chris Armstrong Watch — a blog Shirvell ran in order to monitor Armstrong and to accuse him of promoting a “radical homosexual agenda” on campus.

Shirvell posted pictures of Armstrong on the blog and drew offensive symbols over his face, like a swastika on top of a gay pride flag. On another picture, he wrote “racist, elitist liar” across Armstrong’s face.

Shirvell first approached Armstrong at a counter rally to a protest hosted by the West Borough Baptist church over a production of “The Laramie Project” in May 2010. Armstrong was speaking at the event in defense of the production, and said he had never once spoken to Shirvell prior to the rally.

As news of Shirvell’s blog began spreading across campus and the nation, Armstrong tried to abstain from reading it and to remain unaffected by it. But he “wasn’t surprised” when he found out about it.

“When I was running for president, knowing the background I had and knowing I wasn’t going to be closeted — I was going to be out with who I was — I wasn’t surprised because I was waiting for it,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong said the accusations didn’t concern him until Shirvell began attacking his friends and family.

“It was certainly upsetting the things he was saying, but it hurt more when he would say things about the people around me because to a certain extent I signed up for this. I signed up to be criticized,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong remained publicly silent through most of the Shirvell incident, refusing to dignify the attacks with a response. And even when Armstrong did finally speak out, it was not a direct result of Shirvell’s actions.

Armstrong spoke out on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” — the first national media outlet to report the incident — after multiple gay adolescents committed suicide across the nation as a result of bullying.

“The only reason he went on Anderson Cooper was purely because during the week the Andrew Shirvell incident blew up in the media there had been a number of suicides across the nation with teens that were criticized by their classmates because they were gay or had been outed,” Raymond said.

Raymond said that no matter how hard Shirvell pushed him, Armstrong maintained a grounded perspective of the incident and refused to allow the blogger to prevent him from doing his job on the assembly.

“He could have engaged in a fight with this guy,” Raymond said. “He had many opportunities to do so over national media outlets. But instead Chris wanted to focus on the issues. He wanted to focus on his work on the assembly.”

Armstrong tried to serve as best he could during the controversy, using the position he had earned to push the improvements to campus he thought most necessary. But the episode did distract him from focusing entirely on MSA issues, which he says was the most upsetting aspect of the incident.

“I felt to a certain extent I was letting things get to me and had trouble refocusing,” Armstrong said.

Serwer also commented on the effects of the distraction, noting that many members of the assembly turned their attention away from the MSA issues they had wanted to focus on in order to deal with Shirvell’s attacks. But he said the distraction didn’t detract from the assembly’s overall goals.

“There were times when we were more focused on the incident at hand than we were with the latest MSA project and making sure whatever it was got done in the absolute strictest timeline,” Serwer said. “But it didn’t detract from our goals to any insurmountable point.”

In fact, many of the people that surround Armstrong on the assembly found the incident did the exact opposite. Raymond said Shirvell’s unjustified comments made the assembly want to pass more legislation dealing with LGBT issues.

“If anything, (the incident) gave us a little more fire when it comes to issues like open housing - issues that Andrew Shirvell targeted as a part of Chris’s ‘gay militant homosexual agenda,’ ” Raymond said. “I think it really empowered a lot of people on the assembly and really made us want to work harder.”

In recent months, MSA has been focusing their efforts on the issue of Open Housing which would allow students to choose to room in the dorms with students of the opposite sex.

Vice President for Student Affairs E. Royster Harper, who consults with Armstrong about student issues on a weekly basis, said she was impressed by his level of commitment to the assembly in the height of Shirvell’s attacks.

“Most of the time when I would meet with Chris during that period he would say, ‘I want to focus on what we need to get done on MSA,’ ” Harper said. “He would be the one that would make it clear that we needed to have a conversation related to MSA. And really, I’m not sure many people could have done that.”

But the rest of the student body wasn’t able to overlook the situation as easily. Students created a Facebook group in support of Armstrong and there were many pleas to the attorney general’s office to fire Shirvell for his actions. As of 8 p.m. on December 7, 19,469 people “like” the group on Facebook and have posted messages of encouragement and support of Armstrong.

Despite Shirvell’s bullying, Armstrong said that, in certain ways, the student body’s response to the situation made it worth enduring.

“It was really difficult to deal with all that, but I think at the end of it there have been so many reaffirmations about what this campus is, how we feel when someone outside our campus attacks someone inside our campus and that sense that we will respect each other no matter what,” Armstrong said.

As Armstrong tried to remain unaffected by the attacks, he said he was humbled by the student body’s outrage. Many students and organizations on campus took it upon themselves to rally for Armstrong and cry out against Shirvell.

“Seeing campus rally around bullying and LGBT issues the way that they did in reaction to the situation really showed how strong this campus is and showed how strong our values are,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong acknowledges that he was simply the focal point of a much larger issue.

He says he found the campus’s attitude regarding bullying toward the LGBT community a testament to the University’s commitment to diversity and acceptance.

“In a lot of ways, despite some of the issues that became national, I think for this campus, the pros have outweighed the cons,” Armstrong said.

While the Shirvell incident raised awareness for LGBT issues on campus, Armstrong said he doesn’t want that to be the only aspects of campus his administration improves.

“I wouldn’t say promoting LGBT issues is my main goal. That’s my background,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong said that his favorite part of the job is not furthering his own issues, but rather being able to help all types of groups on campus further their own goals.

“This University is so much bigger than you and the community you associate with. There’s a Michigan nation and there are so many different sects and parts of that,” Armstrong said. “Really the big challenge I’ve faced, and really enjoyed, is being able to be that face for as many of those issues as possible.”

Harper said Armstrong has intentions of making sure his sexual orientation doesn’t define himself, his agenda or his leadership.

“He could lead in such a way that one would think the only thing that matters are those things related to LGBT students but that has not been his leadership at all,” Harper said.

In fact, Armstrong said he hopes he is not just remembered for his work on LGBT issues. Armstrong laughed as he said the most impressive accomplishment that came to mind was the progress his administration made with the MSA website. Last March, MSA was heavily criticized for spending more than $9,000 on a website that didn’t function properly.

“The fact that we were able to revise the website after the whole debacle was such a motivating experience,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong has implemented a lot of changes during his 3-and-a-half years on campus — many of which have been overshadowed by the Shirvell incident.

In January 2009, Armstrong was integral in creating a task force that oversees organizations on campus and offers recommendations on how they can improve.

In February 2010, Armstrong was also the driving force on the assembly behind getting the University an offer to host the 2011 Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender and Ally College Conference, that it had been denied the previous year.

In October 2009, Armstrong helped plan a large event on the Diag to kick off National Coming Out Week. The event had a makeshift closet on the steps of Hatcher Graduate Library and people that attended the event were able to come out of the closet — literally and figuratively — and speak about their personal experiences.

This past March, Armstrong helped push through a resolution supporting Saturday night dinner in the dining halls on campus. He also helped to plan a trial run in three dining halls to demonstrate its effectiveness and spread awareness about the proposal.

But Armstrong and his staff’s biggest project to date has been working to get University Housing to adopt a gender-neutral housing option for students. The proposal, which was re-named the Open Housing Initiative, has made progress in recent months. The resolution was passed by MSA in December 2009. The Residence Hall Association passed a resolution in support of the option in April 2010.

“I’d say we’re right on our timeline. We set up goals that we would complete the proposal by a certain deadline and we met that deadline and now it’s being considered by administrators,” Serwer said.

Last week, the Open Housing Initiative submitted a proposal to several relevant administrators to be reviewed. According to Serwer’s understanding, there are many administrators, in addition to housing officials, who have jurisdiction on the issue.

The Open Housing Initiative won’t know any more details until they sit down with these representatives next week.

“The Open Housing Initiative and administrators have told us that students have done everything that possibly could have been done to show that there’s support behind this issue and logically argue for the implementation of open housing,” Serwer said. “The responsibility fully lies within the administration to implement this policy.”

So while it remains unclear if the option will be ready to implement this coming fall, Armstrong is working diligently to ensure it is put into effect as soon as possible.

“I have been devoting a lot of my time to open housing and it’s certainly been a struggle. And I want people to recognize that that issue made a lot of strides this year and emerged from some small conversations with housing to a large campus debate,” Armstrong said.

And Armstrong is working hard to ensure that these debates are not overshadowed by the Shirvell incident. Armstrong said that he hopes to take what he has learned from the incident and apply it to his life and the assembly.

“It’s certainly unfortunate that (the Shirvell incident) is the only thing that will be highlighted in some people’s eyes,” Armstrong said. “But I also think even though it was an unfortunate situation, I don’t think the outcomes were unfortunate.”

4. The Washington Post, December 8, 2010
1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/08/AR2010120805829.html
Belmont under scrutiny for firing gay soccer coach
By Teresa M. Walker

Students at Belmont University protested the departure of the women's soccer coach again on Wednesday, calling on the school to make amends after her players say she was let go for telling them she is expecting a child with her same-sex partner.

A crowd that included some of Lisa Howe's former players held a three-hour protest Wednesday afternoon pushing for a change allowing for freedom of sexual orientation. Mike Curb, a music industry executive and major donor to the private Christian school, wants Belmont to rehire Howe and "act like Christians."

In a statement from her attorney, Howe told The Associated Press she misses her team and thanks Curb for his "powerful statement." She had not talked with Belmont officials directly and said her head is spinning.

"Coaching is my passion and my life's work," Howe said. "I do know that policies and attitudes would have to change for me to come back to Belmont and feel safe and welcome and for me to feel like my family would be safe and welcome."

Neither Howe nor Belmont have said why the coach left Dec. 2. Belmont issued a statement Friday calling her departure a "mutual decision." Asked Wednesday if she was pushed out for telling her players about her personal life, Howe declined comment through her attorney.

That hasn't stopped Howe's players from talking, or gay and lesbian students from objecting to her departure. About 50 students protested the decision on Sunday, a sit-in was held Monday outside the office of the university president and Curb made his statement Tuesday. Curb is a major donor whose name is on several buildings, including Belmont's basketball arena.

Sophomore Brandi Phillips said what happened to Howe is "really heartbreaking."

Her teammate, Laura Harris, also a sophomore, said the controversy has brought the soccer team closer together.

"There's nothing more we can do. We've got it all out there. All we can do now is hope for change," Harris said.

Belmont is seen as a progressive university that had been affiliated with Southern Baptists until it broke away in 2007, wanting to bring greater Christian diversity to its board of trustees. The university has thrived on its connections with Nashville's music industry and even hosted one of the 2008 presidential debates.

Curb made what students called a "game-changer" of a statement Tuesday.

"Belmont has to decide whether they want to be a national recognized university - particularly with their school of music business - or they want to be a church," Curb said.

A trustee emeritus, Curb issued a new statement Wednesday saying he spoke out because another board member spoke out on Belmont's behalf and that he had heard nothing from university officials for six days.

"President (Bob) Fisher has asked me as a member of the Board, now that I've made my statement completely, to hold off making any further statements to give him an opportunity to resolve these issues so that this type of injustice can never happen again," Curb said in his statement. "I promise you if the matter is not resolved, I will continue speaking out about this the rest of my life."

Fisher held a short news conference late Wednesday where he took no questions and said gay and lesbian students and faculty are welcome. He also said Belmont does not consider sexual orientation in its hiring or dismissals.

Howe had been coaching at Belmont the past six seasons, going 52-48-16 and winning the Atlantic Sun Conference regular-season title last year. Her players want her judged on her record and performance with her program.

Senior Erica Carter, days from graduation, wants state laws to provide protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation. She said coaches should be judged on their success and Howe's resume - which includes two championship rings in three years and an NCAA tournament bid - speaks for itself.

"Do they treat their players well?" Carter said of coaches. "Do they demand the best from them? Are they excellent at their jobs should be the only thing they're judged on."

Even though Howe hadn't shared details of her private life with her team before, players said they knew because it's impossible for details not to slip out. They said they never felt uncomfortable around Howe.

"She was, throughout her years, very professional," Harris said. "Completely kept her personal life to herself. Never showed anything to us."

Carter has taken the lead, along with her teammates, in sharing the news of what happened to their coach. More than 130 people took part in Wednesday's protest where students walked across campus before stopping at the main street in front of Belmont. Protesters came and went with passing cars honking in support.

One of the many signs read, "Is this what you wanted?"

5. The Campus Chronicle (Des Moines Area Community College, Ankeny IA), December 8, 2010
Building 3W, Room 2, 2006 S. Ankeny Blvd., Ankeny , IA 50021
http://media.www.campuschronicle.net/media/storage/paper1001/news/2010/12/08/Opinion/Open-Minds.Open.Hearts.Open.Doors.At.Dmacc-3965991.shtml
Open minds, open hearts, open doors at DMACC
By Allison Buckalew

Taylor Williams is now completely comfortable in her own skin. She is not afraid to be who she really is anymore.

Williams, a DMACC student studying science in the Liberal Arts program, finds the Ankeny campus to be much more accepting to LGBT students than high school was. LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. "It's like a fresh start. And now I am really comfortable with being open in all of my classes."

Things have gotten a lot better in college, Williams said. In high school, everyone knows everything about you. In college, no one really knows you until you start getting to know them in return, she said.

Williams said that she is one of the lucky ones. "Anyone that I've told here basically reacts like, OK, no big deal, or it's cool with people."

So far, DMACC does not have any support group or club that would help students who are afraid to come out, or those who have come out and need that extra support from people going through the same situations and feelings.

As far as recognition goes, Williams said she feels that DMACC is not very good at recognizing LGBT students, she said. However, she feels as though DMACC has been pretty open and accepting of her so far.

Williams had someone ask her in one of her science classes here at DMACC why she thought she was the way she was. "I don't believe being gay is a choice, especially when it's sometimes apparent from a young age. I also don't like when people call it a 'lifestyle.' Why would someone choose to live a life with adversity?" Williams asked.

So far, Williams has only had one serious relationship during college since being out. However, the girl she was dating wasn't comfortable with acting like a couple in public. "I kind of feel cheated out of the dating experience so far because we had to hide who we are. I really just want the kind of relationship my parents have."

When she needs support, Williams goes to her friends first. She knows she can talk to her mom because she says she is a great listener and supports her, but it isn't something her mom can really identify with.

"It's very liberating to be out," Williams said, "but it also takes a lot of courage to come out, especially to your parents and family." Williams urges other students to establish a good support system beforehand. "It makes all the difference in the world."

Jonathan Krueger, another gay student on the DMACC campus, recalled what it was like for him before he came out in high school. He knew as early as seventh grade that he was gay, but wasn't comfortable with it until about junior year. "I was bullied some. When people are staring or snickering, you know you are being talked about," Krueger said.

One day, in the middle of one of Krueger's classes, another guy stood up and in front of everyone asked him if he was dating a boy. Krueger felt bad because a few of his friends were in that same class and he hadn't told them yet. "I felt outted before I was ready."

Coming out to his parents was hard. Krueger remembered being scared to tell his mom, but afterwards, felt relief. When his dad first found out, his first words were, "How do you think Jeff (Krueger's brother) is going to be treated at school now?" The words stung, but after the initial shock wore off, Krueger's dad became supportive and is now very protective of him, Krueger said.

Krueger said that, if possible, it is better to talk with someone when you know. The stress of holding in that big of a secret definitely took its toll. "I developed anger issues, anxiety and problems with depression. It's just better to tell someone. It helps your relationships with other people and yourself," Krueger said.

Krueger has definitely seen improvement in college, though. He's been pleasantly surprised at how open people are. People are much more accepting. "DMACC has been amazing," Krueger said.

"Most university campuses around the country have developed support groups for LGBT studentsâ€¦where is ours?" asked Julie Simanski, a speech teacher on the Ankeny DMACC campus.

Simanski has been an advocate for gay rights for years now, especially because she has a personal connection to someone who is gay, her brother. "We came from a very small community and so he couldn't really identify with anyone else. It wasn't until he was a sophomore in college that he finally came out, even though he probably knew long before that, that he was gay," Simanski said.

In 2004, Simanski used a DMACC grant to hold a pride week for all of the DMACC campuses combined. She was able to get a portion of the AIDS quilt on campus, which is an enormousÂ quilt made as a memorial to, and celebration of, the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes.

Simanski was also able to contact Matthew Shepard's mother, who did a reading and a question and answer session with the community. Matthew Shepard was a University of Wyoming student who was tortured and murdered because he was homosexual. Ever since then, his mother Judy has been an advocate for LGBT youth and helps run the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which supports diversity and tolerance in youth organizations.

In addition, during pride week, tables were set up by different organizations that support LGBT students, such as Wells Fargo and Principal, which handed out information to students interested in learning more about tolerance.

Simanski described the whole event as successful for LGBT students and allies alike. The reception for Shepard's mother and her Q&A were very well received, Simanski said. Judy Shepard wasn't the type of person to push her opinions on you, Simanski said, she just felt strongly about equality and treating everyone with respect.

Simanski says that having a personal connection to someone that is gay, or knowing someone who is, helps to defy stereotypes. "When teaching, I try to be inclusive with relationship definitions." Recently, faculty has had some LGBT support training, but Simanski thinks there is much more that can be done. "There needs to be a group, or a place for resources dealing with bullying, or brochures or any kind of literature, really," she said.

Other LGBT students on the Ankeny DMACC campus may not be quite as well received as Taylor Williams and Jonathan Krueger, and feel like they are alone in their struggles. According to the PFLAG organization, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,"nearly a fifth of students are physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression."

Laurie Wolf, the executive dean of Student Services, explained that it would be beneficial if students would want to create a club or support group for LGBT students. If so, they should go to faculty and find an advisor to help run it. "Most student-run organizations that are active are such because they have worked hard to be recognized." Wolf has found that students are less responsive to faculty organized groups than to ones they have created themselves. "We would be more than accepting if the idea of a club or support group would be brought to us," she said, adding that she is surprised that it hasn't happened on this campus yet.

According to Wolf, DMACC has a strong anti-discrimination policy that they adhere to no matter what kind of discrimination it involves. "We take any kind of discrimination very seriously, and we have absolutely no tolerance for it," Wolf said. She said she would hope that if any incidents were to occur, students would feel comfortable enough to come to her or any faculty members so they could put a stop to it immediately.

Faculty members have all had to take equal rights, discrimination and safety program training sessions, which includes anti-bullying. "I hope that we are an open enough community that we won't have to deal with any incidents like that," Wolf said.

For LGBT students dealing with a harsh environment on campus, a good place to start is with a counselor. Also, several instructors now have a pink triangle on their door, symbolizing they are a safe person to come to with any troubles or concerns. Simanski hopes that we can do more for this campus in particular. "Let's make this a place that's comfortable for everyone."

anyone else. It wasn't until he was a sophomore in college that he finally came out, even though he probably knew long before that, that he was gay," Simanski said.

In 2004, Simanski used a DMACC grant to hold a pride week for all of the DMACC campuses combined. She was able to get a portion of the AIDS quilt on campus, which is an enormousÂ quilt made as a memorial to, and celebration of, the lives of people who have died ofÂ AIDS-related causes.

Simanski was also able to contact Matthew Shepard's mother, who did a reading and a question and answer session with the community. Matthew Shepard was a University of Wyoming student who was tortured and murdered because he was homosexual. Ever since then, his mother Judy has been an advocate for LGBT youth and helps run the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which supports diversity and tolerance in youth organizations.

In addition, during pride week, tables were set up by different organizations that support LGBT students, such as Wells Fargo and Principal, which handed out information to students interested in learning more about tolerance.

Simanski described the whole event as successful for LGBT students and allies alike. The reception for Shepard's mother and her Q&A were very well received, Simanski said. Judy Shepard wasn't the type of person to push her opinions on you, Simanski said, she just felt strongly about equality and treating everyone with respect.

Simanski says that having a personal connection to someone that is gay, or knowing someone who is, helps to defy stereotypes. "When teaching, I try to be inclusive with relationship definitions." Recently, faculty has had some LGBT support training, but Simanski thinks there is much more that can be done. "There needs to be a group, or a place for resources dealing with bullying, or brochures or any kind of literature, really," she said.

Other LGBT students on the Ankeny DMACC campus may not be quite as well received as Taylor Williams and Jonathan Krueger, and feel like they are alone in their struggles. According to the PFLAG organization, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,"nearly a fifth of students are physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression."

Laurie Wolf, the executive dean of Student Services, explained that it would be beneficial if students would want to create a club or support group for LGBT students. If so, they should go to faculty and find an advisor to help run it. "Most student-run organizations that are active are such because they have worked hard to be recognized." Wolf has found that students are less responsive to faculty organized groups than to ones they have created themselves. "We would be more than accepting if the idea of a club or support group would be brought to us," she said, adding that she is surprised that it hasn't happened on this campus yet.

According to Wolf, DMACC has a strong anti-discrimination policy that they adhere to no matter what kind of discrimination it involves. "We take any kind of discrimination very seriously, and we have absolutely no tolerance for it," Wolf said. She said she would hope that if any incidents were to occur, students would feel comfortable enough to come to her or any faculty members so they could put a stop to it immediately.

Faculty members have all had to take equal rights, discrimination and safety program training sessions, which includes anti-bullying. "I hope that we are an open enough community that we won't have to deal with any incidents like that," Wolf said.

For LGBT students dealing with a harsh environment on campus, a good place to start is with a counselor. Also, several instructors now have a pink triangle on their door, symbolizing they are a safe person to come to with any troubles or concerns. Simanski hopes that we can do more for this campus in particular. "Let's make this a place that's comfortable for everyone."

6. NBC 2 News Online, December 8, 2010
WBBH-TV, 3719 Central Avenue, Fort Myers, FL 33901
http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=13639027
Donor wants Tenn. university to rehire gay coach
Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A major donor to Belmont University in Nashville wants the Baptist-affiliated school to rehire a coach who resigned shortly after revealing she is gay.

Mike Curb is a prominent Nashville music executive and former Belmont trustee who gave the university $10 million for an event center bearing his name.

Belmont officials deny that former women's soccer coach Lisa Howe was forced to resign, but several team members and Curb said she was.

Curb told The Tennessean newspaper that "Belmont has to decide whether they want to be a national recognized university - particularly with their school of music business - or they want to be a church."

Howe didn't say in a statement if she felt forced out, but she hopes gay issues at the school will now be openly discussed.

7. Inside Higher Ed, December 9, 2010
1320 18th Street NW, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/12/09/belmont
Defending a Lesbian Coach
By Allie Grasgreen and Scott Jaschik

The departure of Belmont University women’s soccer coach Lisa Howe — who was reportedly pushed out after revealing that she is a lesbian and her partner is having a baby — has been anything but quiet, even though Howe has not been speaking out.

In a single week, on a campus not known for its protests, students have organized multiple rallies, the Faculty Senate has passed a resolution supporting gay university employees, and a major donor has condemned the way Howe was treated. Many critics charge that Belmont, a Christian institution, has acted in ways that have left gay students and employees fearful for their ability to remain at the university.

Responding to the growing criticism, Robert Fisher, the president, called a press briefing late Wednesday in which he said that the university has "done a poor job of communicating" in recent days, and that he was sorry for "the pain, the hurt and the fear this has created among some of our students and the rest of our community."

Fisher cited standard practice of not discussing personnel matters in noting that he would not say anything about Howe (a point he reinforced by not even naming her). He said that Belmont is "a safe and welcoming place for all," and that there are "many gay and lesbian students" enrolled as well as gay faculty and staff members. In 10 years as president, he said, repeating himself for emphasis, sexual orientation has never been considered with regard to hiring, promotion, salary or dismissal decisions involving employees or "in any manner" with regard to students. Fisher did not take any questions at the event — and Belmont declined a series of requests Wednesday to make an official available for an interview about the disputes there.

The statement that Belmont does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation appears to contradict a statement made several days ago by Marty Dickens, chair of the board of the university, who told The Tennessean that Howe had to leave because she violated clearly stated expectations requiring conduct consistent with the university's values. "We expect people to commit themselves to high moral and ethical standards within a Christian context," he told the newspaper. "We do adhere to our values as Christ-centered, and we don't want to make apologies for that."

Belmont's code of conduct for everyone on the campus states that persons who commit sexual misconduct are subject to disciplinary proceedings — and the code's first example of sexual misconduct is "sexual behavior outside of marriage." (Tennessee law does not allow same-sex marriage.) Belmont's anti-discrimination policy bars bias based on race, color, gender, national origin, age or disability but does not mention sexual orientation.

Accusations of hypocrisy were rampant on the campus this week — with many arguing that their view of Christianity is offended by Howe's ouster, not her presence. One sign at a protest Wednesday said: "Jesus Had Two Dads And He Turned Out OK.”

For Belmont, Howe's departure was the second incident this fall forcing discussion of how gay people there should be treated. Last month, the university defended a decision not to recognize a group of gay students and allies (and to instead sponsor discussions on the topic of sexuality). At that time, the university again stated that it does not discriminate, issuing a statement that said: "Mistreatment or harassment of anyone because of a personal characteristic or belief is contrary to the mission and values of the university and will not be tolerated.”

Members of the group Bridge Builders were angry at being rejected for recognition — and the treatment of Howe now has many more people questioning Belmont's policies.

“No matter what your beliefs are, no matter what your beliefs aren’t, people should be treated fairly and justly, and in this situation that wasn’t demonstrated,” Belmont senior Erica Carter said in an interview. A four-year veteran of the women’s soccer team, Carter worked closely with Howe and said she is an ideal coach for Belmont because of her caring nature and emphasis on academic performance. “[Administrators] are not acting the way that Christ says that we should act…. All Christians should try to treat each other with respect and decency because that’s what the Bible teaches us.”

Bridge Builders organized some of the campus protests this week, which have thus far included a sit-in at the Belmont president’s office and two outdoor protests – the second of which drew more than double the previous crowd, with 100 people marching across campus Wednesday. Some of those students have Facebook profile pictures declaring their support for Bridge Builders; others have pictures with “Christians don’t discriminate” stamped over the Belmont Bruins logo.

Max Ellis, a Belmont freshman and social chair of Bridge Builders, said Wednesday that the group is protesting the administration, not the university. "I'm convinced that this is no more than a few powerful people with this ideal in their head of what Belmont is and they're trying to force that sort of morality on us. They're trying to tell us what our morals are and what our ethics should be," he said. "The administration is making decisions that are not representative of the student population. And it's not representative of the vast majority of what we believe to be Christian morals. We're protesting against them on the basis of Christian morality."

In 2007, Belmont had a tense separation from the Tennessee Baptist Convention to gain more autonomy — and its students clearly take seriously the idea that it remains a Christian university.

“Prior to this I thought that all Christianity was one and the same, and it’s not really seeming like that right now,” Carter said. “It has made me just question what type of Christianity Belmont practices.”

At a Monday meeting, the Faculty Senate unanimously approved a resolution recommending that “the sexual identity of individuals should not impact that person’s standing on campus,” and urging the university to lead an open dialogue around Belmont and homosexuality. The resolution also noted the necessity for Belmont to act “in a moral and legal manner.” (Tennessee has no state law barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.)

The senate also tabled a second resolution asking the university to define its policy on gay employees.

Nathan Griffith, associate professor of political science at Belmont, voted on the first resolution and sponsored the second one. He said the Senate ultimately decided — "rightly so" — to postpone calling for policy change in order to allow time for a more thoughtful discussion with administrators. He also said the meeting drew a larger crowd than usual, with more non-Senate faculty attending.

Interim Provost Pat Raines issued a subsequent statement on Tuesday that essentially acknowledged the Faculty Senate’s right to make such recommendations. “As an ecumenical Christian university, we value and affirm the worth of every member of our community,” the statement said. “Members of the Belmont community — our students, employees, administration and board — represent a wide array of diverse perspectives on this issue, and we welcome hearing their voices in this ongoing dialogue.”

Mike Curb, a Belmont trustee who donated $10 million for the university to help build the Curb Event Center, sent a congratulatory letter to the Faculty Senate president after the resolution passed. In it, he said he hopes Belmont will offer to re-hire Lisa Howe. “Even though it’s been reported that the board has backed this, I can tell you that no one from Belmont or the board has contacted me regarding this issue,” he wrote. “I will do everything I can to try to get the Board of Trustees to reconsider their position based on the fact that this is a basic civil rights issue.”

The board backing Curb refers to alludes to the controversial comments of Dickens, the board chair.

Howe’s only public statement was in response to Dickens; she said, “This is an educational experience for all of us — including Belmont University. I respectfully ask members of the media to turn their attention away from me and toward the broader issues at stake that affect so many people in the Belmont community — such as what it means to be a diverse Christian community and how we can support and respect each other despite our differences.”

8. Omaha.com/World-Herald Bureau, December 9, 2010
604 Fort Crook Rd N, Bellevue, NE 68005
http://www.omaha.com/article/20101209/NEWS01/712099844
Gay marriage backed at UNL
By Robynn Tysver

LINCOLN - Parents and many others in Nebraska might oppose gay marriage, but their college-age children appear to embrace the idea.
Students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln also overwhelmingly support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, according to a political survey by UNL students.
About 58 percent of the 2,500 students who responded to the e-mail survey said they supported gay marriage. By comparison, about 48 percent of likely voters nationwide said they supported same-sex marriage in an October Pew Research Center poll.
Even more UNL students — 73 percent — said they supported the idea of giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. By comparison, 63 percent of likely voters in a national Pew poll in April said they supported providing illegal immigrants with a way to earn citizenship.
The student survey was conducted in early November by a second-year elections class taught by professor Michael Wagner. It was the first survey of its kind undertaken at UNL by a political science class, he said.
The students surveyed were not randomly selected, which is the procedure used in professional political polls to ensure a representative sample. Instead, students chose whether to respond to a campus-wide e-mail survey request.
The idea was to learn more about students’ political opinions and their attitudes toward issues facing the nation and the state, Wagner said.
About 10 percent of the student body — graduate and undergraduate students — responded to the survey.
Sophomore Riley Johnson, 20, of Ellsworth, Wis., helped conduct the survey. He said he found the results on gay marriage and immigration “surprising.” He also said he thinks many students are attuned to both issues based on news coverage.
In Nebraska, Republicans and others have campaigned against policies that they say would grant amnesty to illegal immigrants. In addition, Fremont, Neb., voters have passed an ordinance — which is on hold — prohibiting property owners from renting to illegal immigrants.
The students’ opinions on immigration stand in sharp contrast to what others in Nebraska might be expected to think, Johnson said. “We’re in Nebraska, and immigration is obviously an issue that’s kind of hot right now.”
Not surprising in a GOP-leaning state, a majority of students identified themselves as Republicans — 37 percent.
Thirty-two percent identified themselves as Democrats, and 25 percent said they were independents. About 6 percent listed their affiliation as “other.”
Other findings in the survey:
>>About 58 percent of the students said they believed that the government was run by a few big interests. Seventeen percent said it was run to benefit all people.
>>Students identified health care, the economy, immigration, taxes and gay marriage as the top five issues facing the United States.
>>Students appeared to be divided on legalizing marijuana: 43 percent opposed it, 41 percent were in favor, and 15 percent were neutral.
>>A majority of students — 51 percent — opposed lowering the drinking age. Thirty-two percent favored the idea.
>>Christians, CNN newsman Anderson Cooper and President Barack Obama scored the highest in favorability ratings among the students surveyed. The lowest? TV and radio commentator Glenn Beck, GOP superstar Sarah Palin and reality television star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1309, robynn.tysver@owh.com

9. The Towerlight (Towson University), December 9, 2010
8000 York Road, University Union, Room 309, Towson, MD 21252-0001
http://www.thetowerlight.com/2010/12/response-on-transgender-rights/
Response on transgender rights
By Art King and Debbie Seeberger

In response to the letter to the editor dated Nov. 29, 2010, entitled “Calling out administration for transgender student rights,” please note that Towson University is committed to providing a supportive campus environment that fosters the successful development of all of our students.

To this end, the university has established the diversity coordinating council, led by Provost and vice president of academic affairs, Marcia Welsh; with membership that includes Deb Moriarty, vice president of student affairs; Jim Sheehan, vice president of administration and finance; Art King, assistant vice president of student affairs for diversity; and Debbie Seeberger, special assistant to the president for diversity.

This body of representatives is responsible for establishing and maintaining an inclusive campus environment.

Additionally, the diversity action committee and its six work groups, with membership that spans a cross- section of the campus community (including three student representatives), is responsible for promoting awareness and acceptance of diversity and making recommendations for the success of institution-wide initiatives to the diversity coordinating council.

Members of the diversity coordinating council and the diversity action committee, including its six work groups, remain steadfast to the goal of identifying and implementing initiatives to ensure the successful completion of their respective charges.

In 2007, Towson University secured resources and hired the university’s first director of LGBT student development. TU’s Center for Student Diversity is one of only two such centers in Maryland with a full-time LGBT professional. Under the leadership of the director of LGBT student development, TU has heightened awareness levels and improved support and protection for members of the university’s LGBT community.

Thus, the university remains committed to the continuous identification and implementation of measures that will foster the enhancement of its campus climate.

To that end and in support of this goal, the university is revisiting the possibility of including gender identity and expression as protected categories in its non-discrimination policy.

In conclusion, we want to thank you for expressing your concern regarding this issue. Please note that the institution is making every effort to address your concern in an expedient manner.

10. The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 9, 2010
1255 Twenty-Third St, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037
http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/lifes-not-fair/29648
Life’s Queer Unfairness
By Laurie Essig

Life’s not fair.

Isn’t that the ugliest lesson we have to teach our children? It’s one thing when it’s about the size of their ice cream cone; it’s quite another when it’s about how institutions will reward or punish them. And yet this lesson is one I find myself explaining again and again to the odd gang of queer-identified teenagers who tend to congregate at my house.

“But we’re not treated fairly at school,” they point out. They’re probably right. Like all non-heterosexual youth in the U.S., the queer teens in my life are probably unfairly targeted by their high school and other institutions of social control. Like Black and Latino men, nonheterosexual youth are 40 percent more likely to be punished by schools and courts than their straight peers. And queer girls are even more likely to be punished than queer boys.

These appalling and yet not surprising facts come from a study based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The study tracked students across time to show that nonheterosexual youth were far more likely to be stopped by the police, be arrested, face sanctions as adults, and be expelled from school than their heterosexual peers.

In other words, life is unfair, which is exactly what I say when the queer teens tell me about a teacher who insisted that punishment in the U.S. has nothing to do with race. When one of the queer kids raised her hand and pointed out how many more black and Latino Americans are in jail than whites, her teacher, a white woman, blithely told her that “race has nothing to do with it” and that “the criminal justice system is fair.” Then this incredibly optimistic teacher said she was “sick of your attitude” and sent the queer girl out of the room. A trip to the guidance counselor’s office didn’t really resolve the problem. Because, after all, life is unfair and this loud, obnoxious, and yes in many ways dykey young woman is not going to be embraced by the very institutions that systematically discriminate against her.

Female students are expected to be docile, which by definition means easily taught. This is why within the current disciplinary regimes known as public schools, girls tend to be more successful than boys. But when girls act in an unruly manner, when they question, think critically, or otherwise refuse to submit, they become hyper-visible as unruly bodies. Not that differently from black and Latino men in this country. They require stricter sanctions and increased control.

In some ways this entanglement of black and Latino men with queer women of whatever race makes sense. Within the cultural logic we have inherited from Victorian times, certain bodies are too masculine and therefore excessively sexual, violent, and aggressive. Women who desired other women were imagined by the early sexologists as gender inverts, as really men. Black (and later Latino) men were imagined as overly sexual and aggressive and therefore in need of excess force from without to control their bodies. Lesbians and black men were always suspected of wanting to rape “innocent” white women.

The Lesbian Menace and the Black Rapist got twisted together in a way that can only be described as perverse. Unruly bodies and desires in need of excessive control. So the fact that these bodies get treated unfairly and are subjected to increased levels of institutional force should not really surprise us. Life may not be fair, but sadly life does play out in the most overly rehearsed ways.

11. The Badger Herald (University of Wisconsin-Madison), December 9, 2010
326 W. Gorham St., Madison, WI 53703-2017
http://badgerherald.com/news/2010/12/09/asm_endorses_lgbt_an.php
ASM endorses LGBT anti-bullying program
By Julia Birkinbine

The student government endorsed a new Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender anti-bullying action plan Thursday night.

Associated Students of Madison Shared Governance Committee Chair Kyle VandenLangenberg said the campus-wide action plan was developed and revised by students over the past few meetings to support the LGBT anti-bullying campaign.

The plan outlines actions, suggestions and agenda items that the Shared Governance Committee hopes the 14 ASM committees around campus will work on, VandenLangenberg said.

The action plan also outlines the group’s hope that the participating committees will include the LGBT anti-bullying campaign in their discussions as they do with other minority groups.

“This is a historic change for the way student Shared Governance operates on this campus,” VandenLangenberg said.

ASM Shared Governance Director Melissa Hanley said the action plan came as a result of a meeting among shared government leadership to discuss the committee’s semester plans.

The committee developed the anti-bullying action plan to support Dean of Student Lori Berquam’s campaign, as well as the national campaign against LGBT bullying, Hanley said.

“The development of this action plan has showed us just how eager students are to get involved in campus-wide issues,” Hanley said.

VandenLangenberg said the ASM committee chairs would continue work over winter break to encourage different student organizations on campus to adopt the anti-bullying action plan.

He added the campaign will also continue in the spring semester.

On Jan. 27, the LGBT Campus Center will be holding a presentation on its anti-bullying efforts featuring students offering personal accounts and statistics of bullying prevalence.

“The vote to pass this action plan shows just how much unprecedented student support this committee has. So many students who are active and involved on this campus really want to see a culture change,” Hanley said.

The meeting also featured a presentation by the University of Wisconsin Registrar’s Office teaching students about the new course guide feature of the UW student website.

Coordinators from the Student Advisory Board also held discussions with students on several other topics, including the effectiveness of the UW Student Center and the new UW iPhone application that launched earlier this week.

12. TwinCities.com/Pioneer Press, December 10, 2010
345 Cedar Street, St. Paul, MN 55101
http://www.twincities.com/ci_16821676?nclick_check=1
AD Joel Maturi's Gophers golf program accused of discrimination, nepotism
By Brian Murphy

University of Minnesota athletics director Joel Maturi, already under attack for his choices to coach the Gophers football team, now has a scandal brewing in his golf program. A former women's coach claims discrimination and nepotism prevented her from doing her job because of the high-profile leader Maturi hired to manage a low-profile sport.

Katie Brenny alleges first-year director of golf John Harris, a professional seniors tour player and former Gopher, would not let her instruct players or travel with the team this fall because she is a lesbian.

Moreover, Brenny claims Harris circumvented university hiring practices by creating a token position for his son-in-law Ernie Rose to perform her duties despite not having at least a bachelor's degree as required to be a head coach at Minnesota.

Brenny, the 1998 Minnesota state high school champion out of Little Falls, resigned in October after only two months on her "dream job," initially because it was not what she had signed up for. She later charged the university with violating her employment rights based on her sexual preference.

Settlement negotiations that began last month have stalled this week, according to Brenny's attorney, Donald Mark Jr. If a deal cannot be reached, Mark said, his client is prepared to sue the university in Hennepin County for allegedly creating a hostile work environment when Harris learned she was gay, which led to Brenny quitting.

"We think it's related to discrimination," Mark said. "Our hope is to resolve this matter without litigation and that our client is fully and fairly compensated for what she has had to go through these past several months — a person who was hired for one position and then not given that position.
"From our investigation," Mark continued, "the discrimination began in the golf program, but as we continue to learn things, the facts may well lead beyond the golf program and into the athletic department."

Harris, whom Maturi hired July 30, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the athletics director. Maturi was asked Monday after introducing new football coach Jerry Kill whether he had any response to Brenny's allegations.

"No, not at this time," he said.

Asked whether he still had confidence in Harris hiring Brenny's replacement, Maturi said, "Certainly."

University spokesman Daniel Wolter acknowledged the settlement talks Thursday but declined further comment.

"University lawyers are in discussions with Ms. Brenny's lawyers about the matter. We're hopeful a lawsuit can be avoided," Wolter wrote in an e-mail. "Should a lawsuit be filed, we would likely have more comment at that time."

Brenny's resignation and allegations have roiled the Gophers golf community, including several prominent alumni who criticized Harris' hiring from the start.

In August, Phil Ebner resigned as president of the Minnesota Golf Booster Club, frustrated that Maturi did not heed his pleas and those from several members of the 2002 NCAA championship men's team to hire longtime associate coach Andrew Tank, who left to become head coach at Iowa State.

"The way that he handled the hiring of a new coach said one of two things: He didn't give a rat's you-know-what about the golf team, or he's an idiot," Ebner said this week.

During the search last summer to replace outgoing golf director Brad James, Ebner warned Maturi in a series of e-mails that Harris, who has earned $3 million on the Champions Tour since 2002 and has no coaching or recruiting experience, had ulterior motives for returning to Minnesota, where he played hockey under Herb Brooks and was a two-time All-America golfer from 1971-74.

Harris, 58, is under contract for $110,000 at Minnesota.

"John has donated little or no money to the golf team and has shown very little interest in the team," Ebner wrote Maturi on July 12. "His main objective is to hire his son-in-law (Ernie Rose) as men's coach, and eventually have Ernie take over.

"Although Ernie is a good guy, he has very LITTLE experience in recruiting and coaching Division I college golf. I might add that John has no experience in it as well. Why does someone almost 60 and very wealthy, that has never showed interest in college golf (except that he played for the Gophers in the '70s), want to become coach now?"

According to the e-mail chain Ebner provided, Maturi responded: "Phil, appreciate your e-mail. John Harris is a candidate and many believe a very viable one. If hired he will getvtodetermine (sic) his staff but not his successor."

Rose, an instructor at Windsong Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minn., spent the 2009-10 season as an assistant coach on James' staff. He caddied for Harris on the Champions Tour after playing professionally on the PGA Tour of Australasia starting in 2001.

Ebner, a former Gophers assistant coach who captained the 1994 men's team, believes Maturi ignored boosters because he was star-struck by Harris' cachet as a former Gopher, three-time Minnesota State Amateur champion and renowned professional who would be a boon for fundraising.

"It's not just John Harris, it's Maturi, Harris and the way it's been handled," Ebner said. "Every alum is frustrated. I know of at least 10 people who won't donate anymore."

To be fair, the Gophers women's team under Harris' stewardship recorded four of the lowest 54-hole scores in the program's history this fall, and the squad finished no worse than eighth in any tournament.

Maturi hired Harris after learning he planned to scale back on competing on the Champions Tour.

"John had expressed interest in the position, and it became clear to us that it was a great match," Maturi said in a statement released when Harris was hired. "John understands Minnesota and is committed to achieving success with both of our golf programs."

One of Harris' first tasks was hiring a replacement for associate women's coach Kristine Wessinger, who left to start the women's program at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

Brenny, 30, played collegiately at Wake Forest before winning the 2007 Minnesota State Amateur championship. She was an instructor in North Carolina when she applied for the associate head coach's job, assuming she would teach and lead the entire 10-woman roster.

Instead, according to a person close to Brenny, she was allowed to work only with the freshmen, prohibited from talking about golf with upperclassmen and spent the majority of her time running early-morning conditioning drills and doing paperwork.

Brenny, a coaching novice who was hired at a salary of $44,000, did not travel with the team on their four outstate trips. But Rose did accompany the team on the road after being moved into the newly created position of director of instruction. Harris, whose contract allows him to compete on the Champions Tour, played three tournaments in the fall and did not travel with the teams.

Rose is earning $49,500 as an independent contractor not subject to the university's hiring standards, Ebner said.

In September, Brenny wrote a letter to associate athletics director Liz Eull complaining about her vague status, which led to a contentious meeting with Harris, Eull and associate athletics director David Crum, according to a person close to Brenny.

That led to Brenny being reassigned to a sales job at TCF Bank Stadium, that person said.

After tendering her resignation in late October, Brenny allegedly was told by a team member that she had been prevented from coaching because of her sexual preference, according to a person close to Brenny. And she decided to retain a lawyer.

Brenny hired Mark, whose Eden Prairie firm in May won a $1.25 million judgment in Hennepin County for Jimmy Williams after Gophers coach Tubby Smith misrepresented a job offer to the longtime assistant coach.

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