Monday, October 8, 1984/The Battalion/Page 3
Trailways offers transport
Runaways home free
By SARAH OATES
Staff Writer
I For many runaways, returning
home can be as difficult as leaving.
■ hey often have no money and no
one to turn to for help.
■ Trailways Corp. has a solution to
the problem of getting home. OP
ERATION: Home Free is an effort
to help runaways return home by
providing them free transportation.
■ “We came up with the idea two
t years ago,” said Tricia Barnett, vice-
president of public relations. “We go
Everywhere and runaways go every-
t where. As a corporation, we felt a re
sponsibility to give something back
; to the public.”
■ Barnett said the corporation was
unable to start a program without
the cooperation of law enforcement
officials.
Then Trailways was contacted by
the International Association of the
Chiefs of Police, asking for its coop
eration in a program to help run
aways return home. The organiza
tions effectively worked together to
get it started.
The program, which began in
June and is available in every city
and town served by Trailways, has
been even more successful than its
initiators had hoped.
“We’ve helped over 1,000 run
aways,” said Robert Angrisani, IACP
director of communications. “We’re
returning about 40 per day.
“It’s fantastic. We would not have
predicted those numbers.”
To use the service, a runaway
must contact local police, who verify
he has been reported missing. Police
notify the person’s guardians, and
escort him to a Trailways station.
Trailways provides the ticket and
transportation home.
Free transportation is available to
runaways up to the age of 18 who
are not under criminal charges.
“Most of them are teenagers,”
Barnett said.
Some runaways have signed re
leases giving their permission to be
interviewed. However, because the
releases haven’t been returned, the
IACP cannot yet release names of
runaways who have agreed to speak
to the press.
Arrow Trailways bus services in
Bryan and College Station are par
ticipating in the program.
GSS president: bad feelings
caused by misinformation
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By MICHAEL CRAWFORD
Reporter
He enjoys working out with
weights, swimming, drawing still life
Pictures and he supports President
Reagan. What separates Marco Rob
erts from 90 percent of Americans is
his homosexuality. The Kinsey
Study reports that about 10 percent
»fall Americans are homosexual.
Roberts is president of Gay Stu
dent Services (GSS).
He says he realized he was differ
ent at an early age.
I “I am so gay that there really
lasn’t enough room for question,”
te says. “Whereas, many people
don’t fall into that extreme and then
[hey have something to confuse
temselves with. They try to pretend
[to be straight).
“As obvious as it was to me, I don’t
think I actually admitted it to myself
until I was 14.”
I The process of a person admitting
(o being homosexual may take years,
depending on the circumstances,
Roberts says.
■ In high school, Roberts would go
to the school library and look up ev
erything he could on homosexuality,
he says.
“I was really very curious. At that
[ime I would never check the books
nit. I would read them in secret.”
Roberts says he knew he had to
[■admit his homosexuality to himself if
he was going to outgrow the helples
sness he felt. Once he started going
out to bars and meeting other homo
sexuals, he says, he began to feel
lood about himself.
Roberts says he never felt guilty
about his sexual orientation.
I “In my logic, a person who is very
ugly may feel embarrassed, but I
don’t think that person feels guilty,”
he says. “I think 1 always recognized
that I had not done anything to do
that (feel guilty).
“I was still keeping up a cover with
my friends. I would date girls and
say that I was interested in this girl
or that girl.”
Friends who are told by Roberts
that he is gay often think he is lying
or being cruel. “Often times the ini
tial reaction ends up being the oppo
site of the long-term reaction,” says
Roberts.
Roberts says he understands what
a straight person feels when they
find out about his sexual preference.
“I do my best to try and explain our
point of view and see how it goes,”
he says.
Roberts says negative feelings
about homosexuals are rooted in
misunderstanding. A transvestite is
not necessarily a homosexual and
homosexuality does not mean a per
son is a transvestite.People confuse
the two, not realizing that the issues
are separate, Roberts says.
“Doing what I do now, under
going what I have been undergoing
as far as criticism and exposure, I
knew this would come out,” he says.
“I prepared myself. Anything peo
ple have negative to say I don’t pay
attention to. I just think they are
misguided and I can’t let it upset
me.”
Roberts spent many years in Latin
America and was suprised at the dif
ferences between attitudes in the
American and Latin American uni
versity systems. Universities in Latin
America are considered sacred
grounds where any idea can be ex
pressed, says Roberts.
“I’m just kind of suprised, coming
to the United States, a land of free
dom, that suddenly the universities
have so many regulations as to what
you can and cannot say on campus,”
he says. “If you can’t express differ
ent ideas at the centers of learning,
then where can you do it?
“I like this University and I want
to stay here. I think the University
has a lot of potential, but I’m disap
pointed that such a large institution,
with so many resources at its hands,
feels the need to control so much
about what the students read, see or
experience.”
Roberts says he was sure the court
fight for GSS recognition against
Texas A&M would resurface while
he was president of the organization.
Roberts was elected president af
ter only two months in the GSS.
“Most of the stress of being presi
dent is from keeping the group to
gether in a working body rather
than from addressing the class
room,” says Roberts.
Roberts is a member of a speaker
panel provided by GSS to address in
terested groups.
“Sometimes I get more flak from
my own members than I do from the
people we address,” he says. “They
want me to do the best job possible.
GSS is composed of members of dif
ferent ideas, and we are concerned
with the image we portray.”
Roberts says the GSS cannot af
ford to make even a minor mistake
because those opposed to the group
will focus on it. Roberts includes the
A&M University administration
among those who would concentrate
on any error.
“You can’t just say to some group
‘we don’t want you here because we
don’t like what you say,”’ Roberts
says. “The test of freedom is not
when the will of the majority is being
followed.”
Beyond the immediate concern of
achieving recognition for GSS, Rob
erts wants to have a career as an
elected official in the public service.
“A gay person can get elected if he
proves and shows to people that the
stereotypes they hold about gays are
not true,” he says.
“We would not have a female vice-
presidential candidate if some
woman 40 or 50 years ago had not
tried to start to do something. Even
if she knew the odds were against
her.”
ALCOHOL AWARENESS
WEEK
☆
☆
SPECIAL EVENTS
October 8-12
The Texas ASM University Alcohol Awareness Program will host the
FOLLOWING SPECIAL EVENTS DURING ALCOHOL AWARENESS WEEK. In ADDITION
TO THESE EVENTS^ AN ALCOHOL RESOURCE TABLE WILL BE AVAILABLE EACH
DAY IN THE MSC HALLWAY FROM 10:00AM - 2:00PM.
FY Of
DWI
TALK ABOUT SUCH TOPICS AS
BREATH-TEST PROCEDURES.
I0:00am - 2:00pm MSC hallway
LAWS I
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EXAS AND ARREST AND
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'Booze Cruise" or
Iii£SMY: Test your decision making skills on the
"Mouse Maze" computer games.
10:00am - 2:00pm MSC hallway
btEDiESMY: Free, non-alcoholic beverage bar.
10:00am - 2:00pm Rudder Fountain
Imurshay^Resource table representing M.A.D.D. and the TAMU Wellness
Program.
10:00am - 2:00pm MSC hallway
EbidaY: Free, non-alcoholic beverage bar.
10:00am - 2:00pm Blocker Building.
SPONSORED BY OPA C THE DEPT. 0E STUDENT AFFAIRS.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CAtL. 8^S-$826.
VVT. ?.v- s&t. *’vr. y;-2- gy*. •}; .
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