1) Daily Northwestern; New play will examine LGBT issues at Northwestern
2) Ball State Daily News; Ball State student debates Chick-fil-A controversy
3) The Sacramento Bee; McGeorge law school to honor professor's 25-year tenure
4) Campus Progress; Facebook Adds Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions
5) Colorlines; NCAA’s First Openly Trans Player Kye Allums Gets Benched, Says Mom
6) The Star Ledger; Hundreds of students gather at Rutgers anti-bullying youth summit
7) The Massachusetts Daily Collegian; Pride and Color posters vandalized
8) The Tennessean; Belmont grants official status to gay student group
9) Chestnut Hill Local; Chestnut Hill College fires openly gay priest, professor
10) Daily Targum; Residence halls to offer gender-neutral roommate option
11) NY Daily News; Queer Union, NYU LGBT community to FDA: 'Don't waste our blood!' Protesters draw, discard fake blood
1) New play will examine LGBT issues at Northwestern
By Ben Geier Monday, February 21, 2011
There's no denying that the LGBT community is a prominent one on Northwestern's campus. From Rainbow Week to last spring's blood drive protests, LGBT individuals and their allies have frequently made themselves visible throughout many elements of campus life.Now, Spectrum Theatre, a student theatre company, is putting on an originally produced play called "Where the Grass Isn't Greener," which seeks to bring that visibility to the stage.
The free, hour-long show will debut Thursday at 8 p.m. in Shanley Pavilion. It will also take place Friday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The point of the production is to show NU students the challenges facing gay and lesbian students, said Steven Monacelli, the director of the show. The actors are hoping to put homosexuality "into a lens that NU students can tap into," he added.
"Cooked up from scratch, this devised show on the current state of LGBTQ affairs at Northwestern, America and the whole cosmos is sure to be just the thing to kick your weekend into overdrive and razmatazz social change mode," according to the play's Facebook event.
Kendra Vaculin said the goal of the show is "to get this message out without being preachy."
"It's not a yelling play," said the Communication sophomore, who called the script "brilliant." "It's not a screaming in your face."
Vaculin said she has not seen much discrimination based on sexual orientation because she is from the Bay Area in California. But she said she has had many gay students who have faced serious discrimination.
"(I know) how unfair that is, how incorrect it is," she said.
NU has typically supported LGBT students. In October, after a high-profile suicide by a gay student at Rutgers University who had been the repeated victim of bullying, University President Morton Schapiro and Vice President for Student Affairs Bill Banis sent an e-mail to the NU students asking them to "join us in supporting the LGBT members of the Northwestern University community."
Monacelli said his inspiration for the show was a story he heard that happened in Caifornia: two men, Harold Scull and Clay Greene, had their "rights violated," according to Monacelli.
In that 2008 incident, Scull fell down the stairs in front of his house. After he was taken to the hospital, doctors refused to allow Greene, Scull's partner of 20 years, to see him. Greene was ultimately placed in a separate nursing home and denied from seeing his partner's final months. After Scull died, the county auctioned off the couple's shared property without consulting Greene.
"Where the Grass Isn't Greener" emerged through an 8-week rehearsal process in the fall, Monacelli said.
The Communication sophomore is working on the production in collaboration with nine actors.
"It is driven largely by personal stories," said Monacelli, who is also a senator in Associated Student Government. "All of the actors play version of themselves in the show."
While only two of the actors self-identify as gay, they all have a personal connection to the issue of homosexuality. For example, one of them has two mothers, Monacelli said.
Many are "people who aren't a part of the community wanting to show support and try to find ways to get other people to connect in and realize that they also need to help out," he said.
Ultimately, the cast is hoping to leave its audience thinking about the state of LGBTQ issues at NU.
"(The point is) just to give them something to walk away with. (They should ask,) ‘Should we be more concerned about this?'" Moncaelli said. "Hopefully this will give them some incentive to at least talk about the state of these issues."
bengeier@u.northwestern.edu
2) Ball State student debates Chick-fil-A controversy: Christian-oriented business endorsed anti-gay events
Eric Marty
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
A Ball State student eats Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets. Some students have expressed anger at the company for giving money to anti-gay organizations. It looks like Chick-fil-A restaurants are discriminating against more than cows.
The Christian-oriented business is receiving flak nationwide for its endorsement of anti-gay events, and Ball State students are speaking out.
Spectrum, a campus organization that supports, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer students, has taken notice, but because it's a university-funded student group, it's not allowed to take a political stance.
"We talked about it with our members, and let them know what was going on, about how you are what you pay for; you are what businesses you support. If you want to try and make a difference on your own, then just don't buy products from them, don't buy their food," senior nursing major and Spectrum President Taylor Pallatin said.
The controversy started earlier this year when a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Pennsylvania donated free food to the Pennsylvania Family Institute for two marriage seminars.
The Pennsylvania Family Institute has a history of opposition against legalizing gay marriage in the state. The institute is the sole sponsor of The Art of Marriage seminars, a "video-guided event [that]... will help couples apply what the Bible teaches about marriage in powerful way," according to the Pennsylvania Family Institute's website. Until recently, Chick-fil-A had also sponsored The Art of Marriage.
Protests against Chick-fil-A have taken place at college campuses around the country. Indiana University-South Bend has temporarily shut down Chick-fil-A's services on campus.
The university decided at the beginning of the spring semester to temporarily suspend the Chick-fil-A franchise's once-a-week operations. This move was decided because of a pending donation to the Pennsylvania Family Institute. Faculty members of IUSB's Campus Ally Network brought the issue to administrators' attention.
"The suspension of once-a-week service does not reflect an endorsement of any position, but was done to give the campus to properly review the issue with appropriate representatives," according to a statement released by the university.
IUSB's Academic Senate is reviewing the issue, and Pallatin, a South Bend native, thinks it is possible the senate could recommend ending IUSB's contract with Chick-fil-A.
However, she does not think Ball State will take similar action. Pallatin's first reaction was that Ball State should shut down Chick-fil-A on campus. But she said she also realizes the money and contract obligations of the university.
"I don't know how students would react to not having Chick-fil-A," she said. "So do I think it will happen here? Probably not. Do I wish something like it would? Yes. Just because people would then question why are they gone... They'd look into it, and maybe become educated on Chick-fil-A's stance and whether they agree with it," Pallatin said.
Chick-fil-A isn't the only well-known company with religious ties. According to an article on CNN, the women's clothing store, Forever 21, has the biblical verse of John 3:16 on the bottom of its stores' bags. The message is a "demonstration of the owners' faith," according to a spokewoman of the company.
Arts and crafts store Hobby Lobby has its Christian base in its statement of purpose on its website. "In order to effectively serve our owners, employees and customers the Board of Directors is committed to: Honoring the Lord in all we do by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles... We believe that it is by God's grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has endured. He has been faithful in the past, we trust Him for our future."
Feeling the backlash of frustration from customers, Chick-fil-A issued a statement in January on its Facebook page.
"As our fans, you know we do our best to serve our local communities, and one of the ways we do that is by providing food to schools, colleges, civic groups, businesses, places of worship, not-for-profit groups, etc.," according to the statement. "Our Chick-fil-A operators and their employees try very hard every day to go the extra mile in serving ALL of our customers with honor, dignity and respect."
3) McGeorge law school to honor professor's 25-year tenure
Bill Lindelof, blindelof@sacbee.com
Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011
The University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law in Oak Park will honor Professor Larry Levine's 25 years of service on Friday.A campus reception at 5:30 p.m. Friday to celebrate Levine's teaching will coincide with the annual Jeffrey K. Poile LGBT Civil Rights Memorial Scholarship fundraiser. McGeorge has an endowed scholarship for "the betterment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT)," according to a university press release.
Levine has served on the California State Bar's Committee on Sexual Orientation Discrimination and the Law School Admission Council's Subcommittee on LGBT Issues. Along with Eileen Gillis, he founded Sacramento Lawyers for Equality of Gays and Lesbians (SacLEGAL).
Advance tickets are $75 for the reception. Contact Carissa Crail at ccrail@pacific.edu or (916) 739-7288.
4) Facebook Adds Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions
Ryan Brown February 23, 2011
On Sunday morning I noticed that an acquaintance of mine had changed his relationship status on Facebook.“Taylor is now in a domestic partnership,” my newsfeed announced. But the status change wasn’t actually the result of his finding a new beau. It’s just that last Thursday, Facebook finally let him recognize what his partnership when the company added two new types of couples to its drop-down relationship status menu: “in a domestic partnership” and “in a civil union.”
The change comes as a result of consultation with Facebook’s “Network of Support,” an anti-bullying advisory board that includes several LGBTQ organizations. It seems they’ve recently clued in Mark Zuckerberg and Co. to a novel fact about the romantic partnerships of Facebook users: Not everyone has the legal right to get married, but that doesn’t mean they’re just “in a relationship” either.
The new relationship statuses join old standbys like married, “in an open relationship,” widowed, separated, and divorced. All are designed to make the social network more welcoming. "This has been a highly requested feature from users," said Andrew Noyes, the site’s manager of public policy communications. “We want to provide options for people to genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships on Facebook.”
That kind of inclusivity is never a bad thing, and for people like my friend who already characterize their relationships with one of the new categories, it’s certainly a welcome change to finally see their relationships reflected back on that drop-down menu. Plus, having all those different categories has the unintended side benefit of providing a constant, nagging reminder that there is something fundamentally different about the legal status of most gay couples in the United States.
But I have to wonder how many people will actually use the new feature. A senior at Cornell University who asked to remain anonymous, told me that calling her same-sex relationship a marriage on Facebook would actually be a political statement in and of itself, a reminder not only of her commitment to her partner but also as a protest against those who don’t see their relationship as deserving of the marriage moniker.
Sure, she could call a spade a spade (or in her case, call a domestic partnership a domestic partnership) just to make the point that it is, in fact, something legally different than marriage, but for her it’s not worth it.
“For me at least, wanting other people to know that I considered my relationship a 'marriage' would take precedence over wanting people to remember that I don't have full rights,” she says.
When it comes down to it, Facebook’s changes do more to reveal the problem of marriage inequality than it does to solve it. It’s all well and good if you can characterize your relationship as you see fit on a social network, but when you exit that browser window, you’re still living in a country and a world that treats people vastly differently based on the gender of the people they fall in love with.
So good for Facebook, I suppose, I just wish it could have been, say, the U.S. government instead.
Ryan Brown is a staff writer with Campus Progress. You can e-mail her at ryan.brown@duke.edu.
5) NCAA’s First Openly Trans Player Kye Allums Gets Benched, Says Mom
Thoai Lu
February 24 2011
Remember last year’s story about Kye Allums, the NCAA’s first openly trans basketball player? Turns out things aren’t going so well, after all.Allums, who plays guard for the George Washington University women’s basketball team, made history last year when he came out publicly as transgender. His was a heartfelt story of courage and, at least at first, the university vouched for him. But according to the Advocate, Allums’ mother Rolanda Delemartinez told reporters in a phone interview recently that her son has been prevented from playing, despite recovering from two concussions.
Since Allums made his first start last fall, he’s missed all but eight games of the season. Two were due concussions. Team doctors allegedly told Allums that in order to be cleared to play, he would have to run for two hours.
“I know professional athletes,” Delemartinez told the Post. “None of them had ever heard of anything like that.”
According to a report in the Washington Post, the university’s athletic director Jack Kvancz has denied accustations that Allums’ lack of play on the court this season has anything to do with his gender identity.“To my knowledge, no team doctor has ever cleared him, “Kvancz told reporters, according to the Post. “The only thing I had ever heard was the doctor did not want to clear him, and that the concussions are a very, very big thing. I never even thought of saying that person is not going to play because that person has a different belief than I do. That’s crazy.”
Of course, Allums and his mother aren’t buying it. And probably for good reason. This is also from the Post:
Delamartinez said her son wants to help other transgender athletes but school officials have refused to allow him to tell his story to reporters. According to Delamartinez, school officials told her and Allums not to speak to any reporters because the school had arranged to give an exclusive to Oprah Winfrey.”
The university denies those accusations, too. But for the record: Oprah doesn’t have the greatest track record in her interviews with trans folks. Jorge Rivas wrote last week about trans supermodel Leah T’s appearance on the show. Oprah just couldn’t stay away from the dumb questions. “Some of your pictures are very revealing,” she started. “How do you, if I may ask, how do you hide your penis? You must have to strap that thing down in there? Really… whaaa’ what where is it? Really, how do you hide it?”
6) Hundreds of students gather at Rutgers anti-bullying youth summit
Kelly Heyboer
February 24, 2011
"Stop bullying! Stop bullying!" the group shouted.
The students, who were gathered for a "Youth Summit Against Bullying," donned anti-bullying t-shirts and cheered loudly. But all of the participants acknowledged it will take more than chants to solve what many educators believe is a growing national problem.
"This is not your parents’ bullying. And I think young people today understand that much more than adults do," said Paula RodrÃguez Rust, a sociologist and board member of the Central New Jersey Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Alliance.
Students from around the state attended the anti-bullying summit in the Livingston Student Center on Rutgers’ Piscataway campus to learn how to fight bullying. The event was sponsored by a dozen university groups, community advocates and gay and lesbian organizations.
Participants discussed how to prevent traditional physical harassment in the schoolyard. But they also noted much of today’s bullying is done via Facebook, Twitter and text messages.
The summit was held about a mile from the dorm where Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi lived last semester, when two of his classmates allegedly used a webcam to watch him in an intimate situation with another man. Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge a few days later in a case that made international headlines.
Though it is unclear exactly why Clementi committed suicide, his death helped rally anti-bullying advocates. In November, New Jersey passed one of toughest anti-bullying laws in the nation.
Students at the Rutgers summit were given fliers outlining ways to help gay classmates and how to intervene if they see someone else being bullied. They were also asked to let classmates know phrases like "That’s so gay" and "That’s retarded" are unacceptable.
Shehnaz Sheik Abdeljaber, outreach coordinator for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said many students don’t realize they are bullies. She was horrified when her son, who is Arab-American, came home from school with a yearbook filled with signatures from friends who referred to him as their favorite "bomb man" or joked he was a terrorist.
"They didn’t realize they were doing it, but they really hurt him," Abdeljaber said.
Author Jodee Blanco told the students her dramatic story about being bullied daily as a child in Illinois. She endured everything from spitballs in her hair to being jumped by classmates outside of school. She eventually tried to bring a knife to school, but was stopped by her mother.
Blanco’s books are now used to teach schoolchildren about the long-term effects of taunting a classmate.
"You are damaging that person for life. And I know, because I stand here in front of every single one of you (as) damaged goods," Blanco said.
Rutgers junior Qualiyah Arrington said it is easy for students attend a summit and say they are going to fight bullying. But speaking up when you witness bullying is difficult.
"It’s always a fight. It’s always a battle," Arrington said. "If you stand up for somebody else, you will hope that they will turn around and stand up for you."
7) Pride and Color posters vandalized
Tim Jones
February 23 2011
Local Amherst-based book shop Food for Thought Books has plastered its front window with posters showing images developed by Amherst College’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Queer Racial/Ethnic minorities (GLBTQREM) group.The group, known as “Pride and Color,” has recently been the target of defamation and vandalism, as the group has recently discovered an unknown person or persons has been covering its images of homosexual partners across town with duct tape. The group is dedicated to promoting ethnic and racial diversity among homosexuals, and is based in the five-college consortium.
Robert Thompson, president of GLBTQREM, said “Pride and Color” is trying to break the boundaries present in the minds’ of those who have preconceived notions of what defines a normal relationship.
“We’re trying to fight the stereotype that homosexuality is a white phenomenon,” Thompson said.
GLBTQREM’s most-recent campaign is called “No Normal,” which seeks to inform and educate local residents and college students of the falsehood of such a stereotype. The “No Normal” campaign idea was developed after Thompson had spoken with his mentor about his homosexuality for the first time.
“My mentor told me that there is no such thing as normal,” he said. “There is no standard by which you should hope to conform.”
The posters’ images, which depict homosexual and ethnic couples kissing and holding each other, have been covered by duct tape several times since they were hung up in December of last year. Group members are unsure of who the responsible party is, but said this isn’t the first time they have encountered resistance and opposition to their campaign.
While tabling in Amherst, the group encountered a person who wrote on their signs “straight is normal.”
Mitch Gaslin, collective owner of Food for Thought, said the taping has been somewhat sporadic over time.
“This is the first time someone has been so persistent,” Gaslin said.
‘It’s really not a big deal taking the tape off, and I think it’s not having the effect they want. If anything, it’s drawing more attention to the campaign,” he added.
A member of the group who wished to remain anonymous said she believed ethnicity played a part in the vandalism.
“A part of me feels that the image of two members of the same gender acting intimately wasn’t the only reason people wanted to cover it up,” she said. “I think that the individuals’ races made the images even more shocking to some people.”
She continued, “In the end, the disturbing duct tape incident actually brought people together and made us all the more committed to celebrating our identities.”
Sentamu Kiremerwa, a member of the group, said he wasn’t expecting this type of behavior in Amherst.
“I am shocked that such an incident happened in Amherst. Our posters were taken down at Amherst College, which was sort of expected,” he said. “However to encounter the same behavior in downtown Amherst, that was a surprise. It is sort of dispiriting “
TK Tunchez, former collective member of Food for Thought, said this particular campaign was unique.
“It’s obviously incredibly offensive, but it’s unclear if this is just a homophobic statement or just plain racist,” she said. “We have had other posters with gays on them, but nothing like this has ever happened.”
These types of incidents, in which members of the gay community have been targeted, are not the first in the Amherst community. In 2007, Hampshire students who were attending a Gay and Proud (GAP) function on the Amherst College campus were allegedly harassed by several Amherst College students. The students reportedly threatened the Hampshire students with homophobic slurs, threw water balloons and poured beer on them as they attempted to leave.
Again in 2007, a student was allegedly assaulted by a couple of University of Massachusetts students in the Southwest Residential Area. Several friends of the alleged victim claimed he was targeted because the alleged attackers believed him to be gay.
A similar event occurred in 2008, where posters from the Radical Student Union depicting two homosexual men engaging in sexual intercourse were removed from the UMass campus. The UMass Republican Club considered the posters “gay pornography” and scheduled a “Rally for Public Decency” on the campus to protest the posters.
Justin Thompson of the UMass Republican club denied any affiliation with this event.
“No one from the club two years ago is left and the board has changed completely,” he said. “In my own opinion, it’s in poor taste, and we are supportive of all race, age and sexual identity.”
Robert Thompson wants to leave these incidents behind and said his group stands firm in their activities.
“I wasn’t surprised by it, and for me it was just another obstacle,” he said. “You just keep on moving forward with the goal, and at least I know our goal is having some effect.”
“Pride and Color” will continue their poster campaign and have other events planned for fund raising for future dates.
Tim Jones can be reached at timothyj@student.umass.edu.
8) Belmont grants official status to gay student group
Jennifer Brooks
February 25 2011
Bridge Builders, a group dedicated to opening a dialog on issues important to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues on campus, had tried twice before to gain official status on campus, only to be turned down.
But when Belmont and openly gay soccer coach Lisa Howe parted ways in December, the controversy that followed pushed the student group’s efforts center stage.
The campus newspaper, the Belmont Vision, broke the news of Bridge Builders’ acceptance this afternoon.
The university confirmed the decision with a joint statement from Belmont Provost Thomas Burns and Bridge Builders president Robbie Maris:
“This outcome represents many months of conversation, collaboration and cooperation between Belmont students, faculty and staff,” the statement read.
“We are pleased that our ongoing campus dialog about Christian faith and human sexuality has helped us to establish Bridge Builders as an official student organization at Belmont University.”
The statement continued: “What we have accomplished working together represents our community well and is better than what we ever could have accomplished working separately. Our commitment to work together in developing this meaningful and important group on our campus reflects our community’s spirit of collaboration and dialog as we strengthen our diverse Christian community of learning and service through disciplined intelligence and compassion.”
Luke Harold
February 25 2011
St. George, 44, said he would “hate to think” that his homosexuality was a factor in the school’s decision. “I don’t hide the fact that I’m openly gay,” he said.
But he can’t be sure, because Chestnut Hill College has not said anything to him regarding his termination.
“Be honest with me and say, ‘here’s why we had to let you go,’” St. George said. “I felt like a criminal, that I had done something so bad they couldn’t even meet with me.”
St. George has been the pastor of St. Miriam Catholic Church in Blue Bell for three years. St. Miriam is a part of the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of America, which allows its priests to be gay, straight, celibate or married. St. George said he has been in a relationship with his boyfriend for 15 years.
“Obviously [Chestnut Hill College] knew my parish, it was never hidden,” St. George said. “But I never sat down and put [that I’m gay] on paper.”
A Chestnut Hill College spokesperson said the school would release a statement on Monday. [See our update to this story and the college's response]
St. George said he believed that an e-mail Blue Bell attorney James J. Pepper sent last week to Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, influenced his firing. Pepper forwarded the e-mail to Daily News columnist Ronnie Polaneczky, who reported that Pepper described St. George as “quite plainly a heretic” and that his teaching at a Catholic institution as a homosexual was “scandalous.”
Pepper is a former high school teacher in the Philadelphia Archdiocesan school system. Phone calls to his office were unanswered.
Archdiocesan spokesperson Donna Farrell confirmed that the Archdiocese had received the letter, but had not taken any action.
“The Archdiocese had no conversations with Chestnut Hill College regarding [St. George],” she said.
“Obviously this Jim Pepper has influence,” said St. George. “I think it has more to do with politics and money than with who I am as an individual.”
Since last week, St. George has been besieged with phone calls, e-mails and text messages from his students offering their support.
Chestnut Hill College senior Jessica Murray took one of St. George’s classes last fall. She found out about his firing on Tuesday.
“To find this school that claims to be more spiritual than religious has fired him without warning … is ridiculous,” Murray said in an e-mail to the Local. “I am disgusted with this school and will not be returning to this school for my master’s degree.”
St. George said he never shared his homosexuality with his students because it was “not relevant” to the coursework. But in the classroom, he did like to “peel back the onion and find the truth” on a wide array of controversial issues.
Murray has started a petition for Chestnut Hill College to rehire St. George.
“I would hope they would ask me back,” St. George said. “But my mission and the rules they state have to be lived out, and I don’t see that.”
Before his firing, St. George had been preparing for the start of one of his classes –“Theology and Justice.”
10) Residence halls to offer gender-neutral roommate option
Mary Diduch
February 25 2011
Demarest Hall on the College Avenue campus, New Gibbons on Douglass campus and Rockoff Hall in downtown New Brunswick will allow those who receive a lottery assignment to live there the option to live with another of the opposite legal gender, said Joan Carbone, executive director of Residence Life.
Students must choose their roommate if they select the gender-neutral housing option, she said.
"We will not place students together who don't know each other of different genders. It has to be someone you choose," Carbone said.
Students can also apply to Demarest or New Gibbons' special interest housing and if accepted, elect the gender-neutral housing option, she said. But these rooms will not be set aside for anyone male or female wishing to live together without the given housing assignment or acceptance into the programs.
School of Arts and Sciences first-year student Nina Macapinlac will be residing with her friend Philip Lu, also a School of Arts and Sciences first-year, next year in Demarest.
"Phil and I were really good friends before so I'm completely fine with this," she said, adding that her parents also did not mind.
As an anthropology major, Macapinlac applied for the Cultural Studies special interest housing option in Demarest and became intrigued when she saw the option to live with a male on the program application.
"I was curious, but I didn't know I was going to pursue it because I didn't know who I was going to live with," she said.
When Lu told her he was having difficulty finding housing for next year, they decided to room together.
"Now that there's gender-neutral housing, friends that are the opposite sex can room together," Macapinlac said. "It was just a really convenient situation."
The program next year will be conducted in only three residence halls as a pilot to see if this change is successful and one the University will continue, Carbone said.
One potential issue stems from Residence Life's requirement to fill every space at the University. If a student in gender-neutral housing drops out of his or her room, it makes it more difficult to replace that void, she said.
"The way the agreement will be is if your roommate drops out and you can't find another, we will place someone in there of your legal gender," Carbone said.
In Demarest and New Gibbons, the gender-neutral housing will be clustered within the rest of the residence hall because these floors will have gender-neutral restrooms as well. Some students may not feel comfortable with gender-neutral restrooms, she said. In Rockoff, these rooms will be mixed with the legal gender-assigned rooms.
The change originated from those in the University's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) community, who sat down with Carbone through many hours of meetings.
"They gave me all of the reasons why it was necessary for their community and why they felt it was important for them," she said.
The change could be beneficial for LGBTQ students who may not feel comfortable with the traditional legal-sex room assignments, said Jenny Kurtz, acting director of the Center for Social Justice.
The change also aligns with what other universities are doing, she said. Hundreds around the nation have already adopted this housing environment successfully.
Carbone said gender-neutral housing could eliminate an LGBTQ student's fear of a randomly assigned roommate not accepting them.
"There are a lot of issues perhaps we don't think about for the average student, but for the LGBTQ community and particularly the transgender community, it's a huge issue," she said.
School of Arts and Sciences senior Aaron Lee was one student who advocated for gender-neutral housing with Residence Life in the past.
"I think it's really great that we're going to have it, and it will be available for kids next year," Lee said.
Especially in light of Tyler Clementi's suicide last semester — which occurred shortly after the first-year student's roommate allegedly filmed his encounter with another male without his knowledge — Lee said this change is important to ensuring future LGBTQ students feel more comfortable living on campus.
"I just think it's really awesome that it's going to be an option for people living there … I bet it's not just going to be a pilot program," Lee said.
Kurtz thinks the new policy is a good start but said it remains to be seen whether it will expand or not.
"What we have to do is see what are the evolving needs, see what folks are asking for and then arise to meet those needs," Kurtz said.
11) Queer Union, NYU LGBT community to FDA: 'Don't waste our blood!' Protesters draw, discard fake blood
Doak Jantzen
February 25 2011
A blood drive in Washington Square Park on Friday had some unlikely protesters: its own organizers.
New York University's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered organization, Queer Union, co-sponsored a blood drive outside the university student center with the New York City Blood Center and No Boundaries, an international LGBT organization.
The LGBT groups were also there to protest the Food and Drug Administration's policy barring men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with men who have sex with men (WSMSM) from donating blood.
According to the FDA, the ban goes back to 1983, when the possibility of spreading HIV through transfusions was first recognized. The current policy deferring donations from MSM and WSMSM has been in place since 1992.
Chanting "Don't waste our blood!" members of Queer Union encouraged pedestrians to sign their petition against the policy and donate blood.
To draw attention to those prohibited from donating, the protesters symbolically drew fake blood from illegible donors and dumped it in a waste basket.
Queer Union Co-Vice President Carlo Maria Ampil called the ban "institutionalized homophobia." A statement from Queer Union said the ban stems from a “heterosexist discourse from the HIV/AIDS crisis that designated the queer body as the diseased, the contaminated, and the unwanted body.”
After pouring a pint of fake blood in the trash can to represent the blood he would have donated, NYU junior Doug Miller said, "My understanding is they're screening the blood anyway. I know so many people in [the LGBT] community that would donate if they could.”
Keith Hudson, manager of regional communications at the New York Blood Center, said the barrage of heavy snow that hit the city this winter shut down blood drives by keeping potential donors indoors. After the NYBC's reserves fell to a dangerous two-day supply level, the center held an emergency appeal for blood donations from Jan. 27 to Feb. 9.
"We have a great relationship with NYU, so when they approached us to do this blood drive and this demonstration, we were happy to come down," Hudson said.
The NYBC distributes blood to some 200 hospitals in the area, including city hospitals and hospitals on Long Island, in the Hudson Valley, and in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
"The MSM issue is one that has been around since 1983," said Hudson. "We're just happy to be here so that people can donate blood and [Queer Union] can tell people about the ban."
In April 2010, the New York City Council held a meeting about the ban, prompting the FDA to review its policy. Hudson said that such reviews have occurred periodically over the decades.
"It is [the position of the NYBC] that the FDA should continue to review this policy," said Hudson. "They take this issue very seriously and have lots of statistical data that they use."
According to the FDA's website, men who have had sex with men since 1977 (the official beginning of the AIDS epidemic) are 60 times more likely to test HIV-positive than the general population.
"The FDA's primary responsibility is to enhance blood safety and protect blood recipients. Therefore FDA would change this policy only if supported by scientific data showing that a change in policy would not present a significant and preventable risk to blood recipients," reads a statement on the FDA’s website.
"We just want to bring a university perspective to the debate and let people know that this ban exists," said Ampil. "Lots of people think it has been lifted, but it still is here."
New York University's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered organization, Queer Union, co-sponsored a blood drive outside the university student center with the New York City Blood Center and No Boundaries, an international LGBT organization.
The LGBT groups were also there to protest the Food and Drug Administration's policy barring men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with men who have sex with men (WSMSM) from donating blood.
According to the FDA, the ban goes back to 1983, when the possibility of spreading HIV through transfusions was first recognized. The current policy deferring donations from MSM and WSMSM has been in place since 1992.
Chanting "Don't waste our blood!" members of Queer Union encouraged pedestrians to sign their petition against the policy and donate blood.
To draw attention to those prohibited from donating, the protesters symbolically drew fake blood from illegible donors and dumped it in a waste basket.
Queer Union Co-Vice President Carlo Maria Ampil called the ban "institutionalized homophobia." A statement from Queer Union said the ban stems from a “heterosexist discourse from the HIV/AIDS crisis that designated the queer body as the diseased, the contaminated, and the unwanted body.”
After pouring a pint of fake blood in the trash can to represent the blood he would have donated, NYU junior Doug Miller said, "My understanding is they're screening the blood anyway. I know so many people in [the LGBT] community that would donate if they could.”
Keith Hudson, manager of regional communications at the New York Blood Center, said the barrage of heavy snow that hit the city this winter shut down blood drives by keeping potential donors indoors. After the NYBC's reserves fell to a dangerous two-day supply level, the center held an emergency appeal for blood donations from Jan. 27 to Feb. 9.
"We have a great relationship with NYU, so when they approached us to do this blood drive and this demonstration, we were happy to come down," Hudson said.
The NYBC distributes blood to some 200 hospitals in the area, including city hospitals and hospitals on Long Island, in the Hudson Valley, and in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
"The MSM issue is one that has been around since 1983," said Hudson. "We're just happy to be here so that people can donate blood and [Queer Union] can tell people about the ban."
In April 2010, the New York City Council held a meeting about the ban, prompting the FDA to review its policy. Hudson said that such reviews have occurred periodically over the decades.
"It is [the position of the NYBC] that the FDA should continue to review this policy," said Hudson. "They take this issue very seriously and have lots of statistical data that they use."
According to the FDA's website, men who have had sex with men since 1977 (the official beginning of the AIDS epidemic) are 60 times more likely to test HIV-positive than the general population.
"The FDA's primary responsibility is to enhance blood safety and protect blood recipients. Therefore FDA would change this policy only if supported by scientific data showing that a change in policy would not present a significant and preventable risk to blood recipients," reads a statement on the FDA’s website.
"We just want to bring a university perspective to the debate and let people know that this ban exists," said Ampil. "Lots of people think it has been lifted, but it still is here."
