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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 29, 1996)
The Battalion Thursday February 29, 1996 Opinion Page 11 Assault on homosexuals'' rights Salt Lake City schools punish gays, chess players T exas A&M has been dis placed. Knocked off the top of the conservative list by the Salt Lake City, Utah, school board, no less. On Feb. 21, the school district banned all extracurricular school clubs to avoid having a gay and les bian student group. Back in Decem ber, students requested such a group, and the state attorney gener al approved it. However, the school board voted 4-3 to disband all extracurricular clubs from its schools rather than allow the gay and lesbian group to meet. This means that the environ mental clubs, peer leadership groups, ethnic clubs, skiing club and the chess club have all been banned for the academic year. The complaint against a club is that it will somehow encourage per version and sexual immorality. Contrary to the popular conserv ative belief, just because a person is homosexual doesn’t mean that he or she is promiscuous. Just because the group was going to be a gay and lesbian group implies in no way that sex was going to be involved. The slated purpose of the club was to merely provide a forum. A place for people to talk. Not a hookup group. Not a group to un dermine school control. And cer tainly not a place to organize “or gies.” Although there is a state law against sodomy, there is no law forbidding homosexuals from speaking with each other. Those who argued against the club said that its existence might implicitly condone homosexuality. But the issue is not homosexuality — the issue is whether homosexual students have the right to associate with other homosexual students. And the school, by denying the stu dents this right, is acting unconsti tutionally. If allowing a gay club to meet on campus condones homosex uality, then the school district had no choice but to condone it, because to forbid it is illegal. Allowing homosexuality is hardly encouraging it. Quietly permitting a homosexuai group would have been nicely neutral, allowing all parties involved to do what they want. This ruling re flects the uncomfort able mixture we have in America. We have to balance rights with an um brella of morality we expect of everyone. In the ideal, free America, people should be able to do whatever they want, as long as it’s not harmful to anyone else. Homosexuality — when all the scary speeches and phobias are drained from its edges — is cer tainly not harmful to anyone else. Homosexuality is a sensitive sub ject for squeamish, conservative Utahans. But not only the gay and lesbian students are suffering be cause of this ruling. Since all the clubs are being sacrificed for the gay and lesbian group, all the clubs de serve to be defended. None should be done away with. Take for instance the chess club. The chess club has been banned, like the rest, because the school board wants to bury the sin of homosexuality in its district. But the chess club hurts no one. Students at the school who prefer checkers, backgammon, Parcheesi or Chutes and Ladders are in no way encouraged to switch to chess or even try a game or two. Students who like chess, on the other hand, play it in the privacy of their own homes and use the chess club only to talk to each other about their game and the social oppres sion they must face as chess play ers. When one is constantly called a geek, dork or rook-grabbing-bishop- fondling-heathen, it helps to talk frankly to others who must bear the same hateful epithets. Despite the fact that many famous people open ly play chess — including Garry Kasparov and the computer that beat him — the chess players are being downtrodden because of some outdated, oppressive social stigma. The students who formed the chess club Eire exercising their rights in a valid way, using a school club to get to know people with common in terests. So are the students who tried to form the gay and lesbian club. There’s no difference. They shouldn’t be treated any differently. Shannon Halbrook is a sopho more English major Shannon Halbrook Columnist Alabama legislature ignores A&M case I magine entering Texas A&M University as a freshman in 1975. Moth er and Father are at least 100 miles away. Distance was essential, because if they found out that you are gay, the repercussions would be catastrophic. Also imagine that Mom and Dad could not provide a celt, so off-cam- pus trips would be few and far between. You are having trouble dealing with your homosexuality and prefer to talk to people in a similar situation to find out how they are dealing with it. Unfortunately, you discover that an organization catering to your needs did not exist; the University refused to recog nize it. In addition, you learn a group of gay students does congregate, but off cam pus. What do you do? The unenlightened among us would respond, “Well, Highway 6 runs both ways.” However, after an eight- year battle, Texas A&M fi nally recognized a group catering to the needs of gays and lesbians. The case, Gay Student Services vs. Texas A&M Univer sity, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Well, it’s 1996, and such organizations are common fixtures at most college cam puses. However, the Alabama Legisla ture sought to become the exception when it passed a statute prohibiting “any college from spending public funds or us ing facilities to recognize any group that promotes a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy or sexual misconduct laws.” The statute also prohibits any group from “permitting or encouraging its members or others to engage in or provide materials on how to engage in the lifestyle or actions.” In Alabama, “sexual misconduct” is de fined by the state’s constitution as inter course between unmarried persons, oral sex and sodomy. All homosexual conduct is considered criminal. The statute re ferred to this section of the constitution for justification. However, if “sexual misconduct” were any of these things, organizations for mEir- ried persons, fraternities and sororities and perhaps other organizations would lose recognition and funding, too. Who is to say that members of these groups do not practice “sexual mis conduct?” There is no way to deter mine this. Likewise, one cannot as sume that members of a gay group practice such behavior or advocate it. In fact, the mission statements of all gay and lesbian organizations that were denied funding relay basically the same purpose: the organization was there to provide support to the local gay and lesbian community and to combat homophobia. Nowhere in their respective constitutions did it say that the organization existed to promote its “lifestyle” or to encourage members to practice sodomy. The section describing the prac tice of a homosexual “lifestyle” as criminal is equally disturbing. A “lifestyle” implies choice. If a person desires to live a certain lifestyle, her of she would choose to acquire those things that would allow him or her to lead that lifestyle. Most, if not all, psychologists today say that individ uals do not choose homosexuality. With the amount of persecution ho mosexuals in America face, who would “choose” it? Clearly, the Alabama Legislature unfairly targeted gays and lesbians. We would think the ruling in Gay Student Services vs. Texas A&M University, as well as the inalien able right of Americans to assemble, would make the legislators think twice before enacting such an asi nine statute, but who said lawmak ers were required to know the law? And who’s to say that this waste of time and money won’t happen again? H. L. Baxter is a junior geography major Clinton courts terrorists in Northern Ireland N orthern Ire- land. Why should any body at A&M cEire? Unless their roots or family are over there, they don’t have much of a reason. However, the president and her husband decreed otherwise. I guess it was a slow day in the Oval Office, and not having enough problems of their own (Bosnia, poverty and crime), they decided to stick their noses into something that does not concern them, perhaps in the hopes of dis tracting the American public from the problems they have failed to fix over here. How arrogant can you get? This is a conflict that has raged in the area since Cromwell became the Great FTotector, and Clinton thinks he can fix it in his spare time. This on its own would not be a huge prob lem; after all, countries being intermediaries is what diplomacy is about. However, the way to try to solve this problem is not to invite Gerry Adams, a man who is a murderer and an anarchist, to the White House. The correct way would be to im partially look at both sides and then try to suggest a solution. Inviting Adams to America last year just to make the pro-IRA voters happy was a juvenile at tempt at politics. How would Clin ton, and more importantly the American people, feel if the British government invited Timo thy McVeigh to 10 Downing St., wined and dined him, then chas tised the American government for being so gosh darned mean as to expect a murderer to face his punishment? Rather annoyed, I would imagine. Maybe Clinton has some plan to make alliances with the world’s terrorists and scEire the American public into giving him a second term. One aspect of this conflict is slightly amusing. I asked a friend who supports Northern Ireland’s bid for separation how the resi dents who want to be part of Eng land would feel if they were abEin- doned by the British government. She did not even know there were residents who are pro-Britain. This is not a csise of a country de ciding to go on an invasion binge just for something to do. British subjects live and work in North ern Ireland and have the right to live without fear of terrorism. The next question is why would anyone want to rejoin Ire land. The only reason Ireland is still economically viable is be cause Britain props it up. For years the government has re stricted capital movement out of Ireland, property values have plummeted, and taxes have sky rocketed. Several of my relatives left Ireland as soon as they were old enough to get a British work permit. Emigration has become a national pastime. Britain, on the other hand, has the best economic outlook in Eu rope. Britain, as of last week, has the lowest unemployment rate of any country in Europe, the high est number of new jobs generated in Europe, and the brightest eco nomic future in Europe. Northern Ireland is British sovereign soil. It is Britain's to defend any way she sees fit from thugs and terrorists who bomb innocent people and kill noncom batants who are just trying to stay in the world’s eye. Kieran Watson is a sophomore finance major Kieran Watson Columnist Not just literature encourages creativity In response to Helen Clancy’s Feb. 23 column advocating a lit erature requirement in the core curriculum, I would like to make a few comments. Clancy seems to think that everyone should be required to take a literature course in order to “help students articulate cre ative and independent thought.” Does Clancy believe that litera ture is the only academic study that promotes creativity and in dependent thought? Has she for gotten about philosophy, psy- Mail O 1 - 1 - chology, history (other than the required American history), and the performing and visual arts? The humanities electives in the core curriculum all promote the vitally important, aforemen tioned attributes. Who is to judge the effective ness of one course over anoth er? All of these studies enrich our minds and broaden our ex istence. Should we then require students to take courses in not just literature, but psychology, philosophy, music and all of the other enriching and cre ative courses? Borrowing from Jeremy Valdez, we would “make stu dents out of the elderly” by do ing this. The fact that there is a choice of humanities courses ac knowledges the fact that every one is different and everyone is creative in different ways. We shouldn’t deprive students of the remaining freedom they have in course selection. To expand on Clancy’s use of Voltaire, the University pro vides many tools to cultivate your intellectual garden. It also allows you to choose what to grow. Besides, a garden with nothing but roses would be nice, but a’garden with carna tions, tulips and others is even better. Greg Ziegler Class of ’96 Football player deserves support Leeland McElroy came in to eat at the place I work in Col lege Station. I just wanted to let everyone know that he is a pret ty down-to-earth guy. He didn’t have the attitude I thought he would. When he said that he was going to enter the NFL draft, I was upset, but now I re alize it was the best decision for him. I wish him all the luck in the future. Marty Rouse Class of’97 The Battalion encourages letters to the editor and will print as many as space al lows. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class, and phone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 01 3 Reed McDon ald. A valid student ID is required. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: Batt@tamvm1.tamu.edu The Battalion Established in 1893 Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views of the editorials board. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns, cartoons and letters express the opinions of the authors. Contact the opinion editor for information on submitting guest columns. Editorials Board Sterling Hayman Editor in Chief Stacy Stanton Managing Editor Michael Landauer Opinion Editor Jason Brown Assistant Opinion Editor Fact or Fiction The Evans Library made the right decision in reclassifying false books Although there is no doubt that the Holocaust occurred during World War II, some books in Sterling C. Evans Library would have students believe otherwise. David Gershom Myers, an associate professor of English, and Arnold Krammer, a histo ry professor, found eight books in the library that assert that the Holocaust never happened. Through film reels, books journals and other reputable sources, students of history know that those eight books are wrong. However, they are placed along side the true historical accounts in the li brary, as if to represent the same consideration as fact. Krammer, who teaches history of Nazi Germany, should be commended for his role in distinguishing the true history books from the fictional accounts that shared the same shelves. This incident makes it evi dent that we must protect our history from false revi sion. Keeping watch on our history may be a thankless task for historians, but it is an invaluable asset to our selves and our posterity. Myers deserves credit for bringing this to the attention of library administrators. Al though the administrators do not want to remove the books because of censorship con cerns, a compromise was found. The library now classi fies the books as fiction, list ing them as mistaken history of the Jewish experience. In one sense, acknowledging the fictitious nature of these books sends a stronger mes sage than removing them from the library. This solution is fair to both sides. Although people have the right to exert their freedom of speech, the Insti tute for Historical Review in Torrance, Calif., which pub lished most of the disputed books, and similar organiza tions do a huge injustice to the memory of those who died in the Holocaust. Students can learn from the real history books on the shelves of the library and learn even more from Holo caust survivors. But fictional theories have no educationEd value except to illustrate how blind hate can make some people.