1) Fairbanks Dail News; University of Alaska could expand non-discrimination to include sexual orientation
2) Contra Costa Times; Students discuss being gay and in country illegally
3) Laramie Boomerang; A Rally for Rights
4) Air Force Times; Few snags foreseen at academy for gay ban end
5) 365gay; Report: Marquette University hostile to gays
6) Harvard Law Review; Reich elected president of the Harvard Law Review
7) Los Angeles Times; Gay alumni question policy of Christian college in Montecito
1) Fairbanks Daily News Miner, February 13, 2011
University of Alaska could expand non-discrimination to include sexual orientation
Jeff Richardson
FAIRBANKS — University of Alaska President Pat Gamble is recommending the system’s non-discrimination policies be changed to include sexual orientation as a protected status.
Some UA students and employees have lobbied for the change for years, routinely speaking at Board of Regents meetings to request the policy be amended to include homosexual, bisexual and transgender individuals. Regents will consider amending the policy at their meeting in Anchorage on Feb. 17-18.
The change would add “sexual orientation” to a list of a dozen other protected categories in the existing non-discrimination policies, including “race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, veteran status, physical or mental disability, marital status, pregnancy or parenthood.” The proposal doesn’t include gender identity, another status that has also been commonly requested for inclusion.
“Decisions affecting individuals shall be based on the individual’s qualifications, abilities and performance, as appropriate,” the policy reads.
In a short summary on the board agenda, Gamble said he recommends adding sexual orientation as a protected class. He said national trends are heading in the direction of including it as part of the already protected “gender” class, and that the federal government already lists it as a protected class in all federal employee manuals.
“With the elimination of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ from the military, the trend is clear,” the summary reads. “The time has come to acknowledge this protection explicitly.”
Nikki Carvajal, the University of Alaska Fairbanks student-body president, said it’s a change that has long been supported by student leaders. She said at least two resolutions from the Associated Students of UAF have supported the move, and she intends to travel to Anchorage this week to testify in its favor.
“This is a big deal that they’re going to consider this,” Carvajal said. “We’re really excited that they’re finally talking about it.”
UAF Faculty Senate President John Dehn said his group hasn’t taken a formal position on the issue, although discussions among faculty leaders have indicated a general support for sexual orientation being added to the non-discrimination policy.
Dehn said he’s personally wary, however, of the growing list of protected categories in the non-discrimination policy. He said such an approach could potentially lead to a policy that leaves people unprotected unless their status is specifically mentioned.
“I would like to see something that’s a little more of a broader blanket, rather than listing a bunch of specific issues,” he said.
The inclusion of sexual orientation is common at university campuses around the U.S., and the agenda summary said Alaska may be the only state without sexual orientation as a specifically listed protection in a public university policy. That couldn’t be immediately be confirmed on Friday afternoon with Campus Pride, a nationwide support organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
However, the issue has been controversial in Alaska in the recent past.
The municipality of Anchorage attempted to adopt a similar change to its non-discrimination policy in 2009, generating a huge amount of public testimony on both sides of the issue. The Anchorage Assembly ultimately approved the amended policy by a 7-4 vote, but it was vetoed by Mayor Dan Sullivan.
Only on-site testimony will be taken at the meeting, but it may be viewed by videoconference at Room 204 of the Butrovich Building at the UAF campus. A full agenda for the meeting is available online at www.alaska.edu/bor.
Contact staff writer Jeff Richardson at 459-7518.
Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - University of Alaska could expand non discrimination to include sexual orientation
Some UA students and employees have lobbied for the change for years, routinely speaking at Board of Regents meetings to request the policy be amended to include homosexual, bisexual and transgender individuals. Regents will consider amending the policy at their meeting in Anchorage on Feb. 17-18.
The change would add “sexual orientation” to a list of a dozen other protected categories in the existing non-discrimination policies, including “race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, veteran status, physical or mental disability, marital status, pregnancy or parenthood.” The proposal doesn’t include gender identity, another status that has also been commonly requested for inclusion.
“Decisions affecting individuals shall be based on the individual’s qualifications, abilities and performance, as appropriate,” the policy reads.
In a short summary on the board agenda, Gamble said he recommends adding sexual orientation as a protected class. He said national trends are heading in the direction of including it as part of the already protected “gender” class, and that the federal government already lists it as a protected class in all federal employee manuals.
“With the elimination of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ from the military, the trend is clear,” the summary reads. “The time has come to acknowledge this protection explicitly.”
Nikki Carvajal, the University of Alaska Fairbanks student-body president, said it’s a change that has long been supported by student leaders. She said at least two resolutions from the Associated Students of UAF have supported the move, and she intends to travel to Anchorage this week to testify in its favor.
“This is a big deal that they’re going to consider this,” Carvajal said. “We’re really excited that they’re finally talking about it.”
UAF Faculty Senate President John Dehn said his group hasn’t taken a formal position on the issue, although discussions among faculty leaders have indicated a general support for sexual orientation being added to the non-discrimination policy.
Dehn said he’s personally wary, however, of the growing list of protected categories in the non-discrimination policy. He said such an approach could potentially lead to a policy that leaves people unprotected unless their status is specifically mentioned.
“I would like to see something that’s a little more of a broader blanket, rather than listing a bunch of specific issues,” he said.
The inclusion of sexual orientation is common at university campuses around the U.S., and the agenda summary said Alaska may be the only state without sexual orientation as a specifically listed protection in a public university policy. That couldn’t be immediately be confirmed on Friday afternoon with Campus Pride, a nationwide support organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
However, the issue has been controversial in Alaska in the recent past.
The municipality of Anchorage attempted to adopt a similar change to its non-discrimination policy in 2009, generating a huge amount of public testimony on both sides of the issue. The Anchorage Assembly ultimately approved the amended policy by a 7-4 vote, but it was vetoed by Mayor Dan Sullivan.
Only on-site testimony will be taken at the meeting, but it may be viewed by videoconference at Room 204 of the Butrovich Building at the UAF campus. A full agenda for the meeting is available online at www.alaska.edu/bor.
Contact staff writer Jeff Richardson at 459-7518.
Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - University of Alaska could expand non discrimination to include sexual orientation
2) Contra Costa Times, February 13, 2011
A struggle on two fronts
Students discuss being gay and in country illegally
Ryan Hagen
Jesus Barrios has spent a lot of time thinking about identity.
For years, he hid one aspect about himself from everyone but close friends and family, afraid of the treatment he might get from classmates - or from the government.
All the while, Barrios buried another piece of himself away from even his family, watching his mother make plans that were completely at odds with who he knew he was.
Now 21, the Cal State San Bernardino student says he's realized there's nothing wrong with what he calls his "statuses." But because so many people are afraid to speak even half the sentence he's about to utter, his usually friendly and thoughtful voice becomes forceful.
"I'm undocumented, and I'm queer," Barrios says. "That's part of who I am."
Not all of who he is, the public-health major adds. But given the discrimination he says is applied to members of both groups, Barrios has joined with others in similar situations to pool their resources and experiences.
The first step, these budding activists say, is sharing their stories.
Barrios begins his in Tijuana, Mexico, where he lived until he was 3.
When he was old enough to understand, his parents explained they had left their home there and come to Los Angeles for safety and job opportunities. They told him the move, which he was too young to remember, classified him as an illegal immigrant.
But he didn't have much reason to talk about it until he was a senior at Eisenhower High School in Rialto and the time came to apply for colleges and college loans.
"You see the application, and you see boxes asking for your Social Security number and your place of birth," he said. "When you've grown up hearing comments like we're `just a bunch of job stealers,' you're afraid to reach out."
After 18 years of keeping his illegal entry a secret from everyone but close friends, Barrios did reach out. He told his high school guidance counselor, who helped him enroll at Chaffey College and find the financial aid to pay for it.
After two years, he transferred to Cal State, having internalized a lesson about trust.
"The more you share, the more doors you're opening," he said. "There's a lot of people who have sympathy. ... They're willing to contribute in any way they can."
It was also sometime during his senior year that he came to terms with the fact that he is gay, he said.
First, he told his friends, then he worked up the nerve to tell his mom that the dreams of marriage she'd expressed would need at least a little tweaking.
"I don't want to say I disappointed her, but that's the way it felt," Barrios said.
The hardest people to tell he was gay were those he knew best, he said - it felt like confessing a lifelong lie.
Yet even after he saw his family's unconditional love return, fear of deportation kept him from revealing his immigration status to the wider world until a year later, when he was 19.
"I guess growing up I reserved myself from expressing my feelings for both identities," he said. "So during my teenage years, as I formed my identity, I also denied it."
Admitting one deeply hidden aspect of his identity - and seeing the good that came of it - made it easier to admit the other, he said.
The outline of Barrios' story sounds familiar to Javier Hernandez.
A 22-year-old Chaffey College student who is also here illegally and is gay, Hernandez met Barrios' brother after several years of activism.
Hernandez marched against Proposition 8, which amended the state Constitution to outlaw gay marriage, in 2008 and manned the phones to drum up support for the DREAM Act's path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants in 2010.
Few of those activists identified with the other campaign, Hernandez said, but it's the same struggle.
"It's the same oppression from law," he said. "Laws are being created to put people down and dehumanize people within the two movements."
And hate crimes afflict both groups, he added.
"These movements intersect," Hernandez said. "We can work together."
Hernandez and Barrios did just that at the University of Redlands on Jan. 25. Branching out from what had before been rank-and-file work on one campaign or the other, they spoke on a panel hosted by the LGBT-rights group Equality California about the added challenges of being illegal immigrants.
And they plan to do it again March 19 at Cal State, at an event Barrios is helping organize to recognize the struggles of gay members of other groups he says are oppressed, such as black women.
They hope it's the beginning of a surging effort.
"When I don't have to worry about dealing with explaining myself, and why I do the work I do, and why it's important, I think that's when I have success," Barrios said.
3) Laramie Boomerrang, February 15, 2011
A Rally For Rights
Aaron Leclair
For one young man, the protest was about equal rights, while another said it was about celebrating love.
Another man, who identified himself as straight, said the protest was about keeping families together.
The three were part of a group of 50 people who turned out Monday to both support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights and to protest two anti-gay marriage bills that are making their way through the Wyoming Legislature.
Sponsored by the University of Wyoming Queer Advocacy Network (QAN), the demonstration took place from 12:30-1:30 on campus and from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in downtown Laramie.
Jeremy Adkins, a UW student and founder of QAN, said the protest was organized to show the LGBT community’s displeasure with Senate Joint File 5 and House Bill 74, both of which would direct Wyoming courts to not recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships performed in other states or countries.
Currently, Wyoming does not grant any legal rights to same-sex couples, but it does recognize marriages and civil unions performed out of state.
The demonstration began with the protestors standing near the Wyoming Union’s west exit holding signs with slogans like “Focus on your own Family,” “Straight not Narrow,” “What are we supposed to learn from HB74?” and “Marriage is a human right, NOT heterosexual privilege.”
Jami Jorgensen, who lives in Laramie with her same-sex partner and their three children, said she attended the protest in support of marriage equality.
“Equality is the only acceptable option in the Equality State,” she said.
The bills would strip legally married or civilly joined same-sex couples of about 1, 400 legal rights, Jorgensen added, saying the bills would hurt Wyoming by forcing LGBT people to move out of state while preventing others from moving in.
“I’m working on getting two bachelor’s degrees right now, and what (HB 74 and SJ 5) guarantee is that that education won’t come back to this community,” she said. “It makes sure that my education will benefit somewhere else.”
Jorgensen said she and her partner hope to either be married or civilly joined out of state in November.
“We’ve been together since 2005,” she said. “I think my family deserves the same sort of recognition that everybody else does. I think my children deserve that.”
Rachel Wimbish, a UW student who said she is straight, was handing out flyers that explained why the students were protesting and why marriage equality is needed.
Wimbish said she was protesting because marriage is a civil right and shouldn’t be denied to someone because of his or her sexual orientation.
“It seems a little bizarre to me that in a country that values the separation of church and state, and in a state that values small government and not interrupting in people’s private lives, they would feel the need to pass a bill that does nothing but interrupt private lives,” she said. “It doesn’t do anything for anybody else in Wyoming, it just breaks up marriages of same-sex couples and it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
At 1:15 p.m., Adkins and Will Welch, a UW graduate student and leader of the Wyoming chapter of Get Equal Now, addressed the protestors.
Welch thanked QAN’s straight supporters for attending the protest.
“All of you straight people that came out holding signs supporting marriage equality and love are awesome,” he said. “It means a lot to the gay community to have people walking around publicly showing support for marriage equality.”
Welch said QAN’s marriage-equality demonstration was one of 37 that were taking place throughout the country on Valentine’s Day.
He said many same-sex couples who are protesting in other parts of the country are also walking into county courthouses to ask for marriage licenses.
“It’s about time that people went out publicly and requested marriage licenses,” he said.
The protestors left the Simpson Family Plaza and walked west on Ivinson Avenue to downtown Laramie.
They stopped when they reached the county courthouse so two men and several women could ask for marriage licenses.
Holding roses and dressed in suits, Welch and fellow UW student Alex Sullivan-Brink were the first in line to tell a county deputy clerk they wanted to apply for a marriage license.
They were taken into the clerk’s office, where County Clerk Jackie Gonzales told them she could not issue them a license because state law does not grant marriages between same-sex couples.
Two female couples who followed Welch and Sullivan-Brink were also denied marriage licenses.
While walking out of the county courthouse, Sullivan-Brink expressed his disappointment.
“They can’t even start the process,” he said. “They would do a background check based on our state-issued I.D. But, since we are both men, we are not allowed to be married.
“They were very cordial,” he said of the county clerk’s staff. “They treated us with dignity, which was appreciated.”
While it might have been a small consolation, Welch said the county clerk’s staff expressed sympathy for denying him a marriage license.
“They said they really didn’t want to treat us differently, but they had to follow the Wyoming statues because they took an oath,” he said.
Despite their rejection, Welch said he was glad he and his partner tried to go through the process.
“I’m really glad that we had a number of couples come to show the public and the people in the courthouse there are same-sex people that want to get married,” he said.
Sullivan-Brink said the denial was not going to stop the fight for equal rights.
After their failed attempt to obtain marriage licenses, the protestors continued their march to downtown Laramie, where they stood at all four corners of the intersection of Third and Grand.
They held their signs and cheered when passing motorists would honk their horns and wave.
Adkins, who stood holding a sign in front of Tommy Jack’s Cajun Grill, said he was pleased with how many attended the protest to publicly show their support for marriage equality.
“I think we’ve had a pretty good turn out,” he said.
Another man, who identified himself as straight, said the protest was about keeping families together.
The three were part of a group of 50 people who turned out Monday to both support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights and to protest two anti-gay marriage bills that are making their way through the Wyoming Legislature.
Sponsored by the University of Wyoming Queer Advocacy Network (QAN), the demonstration took place from 12:30-1:30 on campus and from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in downtown Laramie.
Jeremy Adkins, a UW student and founder of QAN, said the protest was organized to show the LGBT community’s displeasure with Senate Joint File 5 and House Bill 74, both of which would direct Wyoming courts to not recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships performed in other states or countries.
Currently, Wyoming does not grant any legal rights to same-sex couples, but it does recognize marriages and civil unions performed out of state.
The demonstration began with the protestors standing near the Wyoming Union’s west exit holding signs with slogans like “Focus on your own Family,” “Straight not Narrow,” “What are we supposed to learn from HB74?” and “Marriage is a human right, NOT heterosexual privilege.”
Jami Jorgensen, who lives in Laramie with her same-sex partner and their three children, said she attended the protest in support of marriage equality.
“Equality is the only acceptable option in the Equality State,” she said.
The bills would strip legally married or civilly joined same-sex couples of about 1, 400 legal rights, Jorgensen added, saying the bills would hurt Wyoming by forcing LGBT people to move out of state while preventing others from moving in.
“I’m working on getting two bachelor’s degrees right now, and what (HB 74 and SJ 5) guarantee is that that education won’t come back to this community,” she said. “It makes sure that my education will benefit somewhere else.”
Jorgensen said she and her partner hope to either be married or civilly joined out of state in November.
“We’ve been together since 2005,” she said. “I think my family deserves the same sort of recognition that everybody else does. I think my children deserve that.”
Rachel Wimbish, a UW student who said she is straight, was handing out flyers that explained why the students were protesting and why marriage equality is needed.
Wimbish said she was protesting because marriage is a civil right and shouldn’t be denied to someone because of his or her sexual orientation.
“It seems a little bizarre to me that in a country that values the separation of church and state, and in a state that values small government and not interrupting in people’s private lives, they would feel the need to pass a bill that does nothing but interrupt private lives,” she said. “It doesn’t do anything for anybody else in Wyoming, it just breaks up marriages of same-sex couples and it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
At 1:15 p.m., Adkins and Will Welch, a UW graduate student and leader of the Wyoming chapter of Get Equal Now, addressed the protestors.
Welch thanked QAN’s straight supporters for attending the protest.
“All of you straight people that came out holding signs supporting marriage equality and love are awesome,” he said. “It means a lot to the gay community to have people walking around publicly showing support for marriage equality.”
Welch said QAN’s marriage-equality demonstration was one of 37 that were taking place throughout the country on Valentine’s Day.
He said many same-sex couples who are protesting in other parts of the country are also walking into county courthouses to ask for marriage licenses.
“It’s about time that people went out publicly and requested marriage licenses,” he said.
The protestors left the Simpson Family Plaza and walked west on Ivinson Avenue to downtown Laramie.
They stopped when they reached the county courthouse so two men and several women could ask for marriage licenses.
Holding roses and dressed in suits, Welch and fellow UW student Alex Sullivan-Brink were the first in line to tell a county deputy clerk they wanted to apply for a marriage license.
They were taken into the clerk’s office, where County Clerk Jackie Gonzales told them she could not issue them a license because state law does not grant marriages between same-sex couples.
Two female couples who followed Welch and Sullivan-Brink were also denied marriage licenses.
While walking out of the county courthouse, Sullivan-Brink expressed his disappointment.
“They can’t even start the process,” he said. “They would do a background check based on our state-issued I.D. But, since we are both men, we are not allowed to be married.
“They were very cordial,” he said of the county clerk’s staff. “They treated us with dignity, which was appreciated.”
While it might have been a small consolation, Welch said the county clerk’s staff expressed sympathy for denying him a marriage license.
“They said they really didn’t want to treat us differently, but they had to follow the Wyoming statues because they took an oath,” he said.
Despite their rejection, Welch said he was glad he and his partner tried to go through the process.
“I’m really glad that we had a number of couples come to show the public and the people in the courthouse there are same-sex people that want to get married,” he said.
Sullivan-Brink said the denial was not going to stop the fight for equal rights.
After their failed attempt to obtain marriage licenses, the protestors continued their march to downtown Laramie, where they stood at all four corners of the intersection of Third and Grand.
They held their signs and cheered when passing motorists would honk their horns and wave.
Adkins, who stood holding a sign in front of Tommy Jack’s Cajun Grill, said he was pleased with how many attended the protest to publicly show their support for marriage equality.
“I think we’ve had a pretty good turn out,” he said.
4) Air Force Times February 14, 2011
Few snags foreseen at academy for gay ban end
DENVER — The Air Force Academy will make a smooth transition when the military ends its “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule this year despite a history of problems in the academy’s treatment of women and religious minorities, according to gay and lesbian alumni.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a big issue, honestly,” said Greg Mooneyham, a 1987 academy graduate and executive director of the Blue Alliance, an association of gay and lesbian alumni. “I think the (AFA) administration is going to do the right thing.”
The Defense Department is moving to lift the ban on openly gay and lesbian service members by the end of the year at the direction of Congress and President Barack Obama, but timetables for training and implementation aren’t final.
On Friday, the Pentagon distributed training guidelines to top officials of each service branch and ordered them to report on their progress every two weeks starting March 1.
Air Force Academy officials said last week they couldn’t discuss their preparations because they were waiting for guidance from Air Force higher-ups. But the academy superintendent, Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, told cadets, faculty and staff in late January that “we will get this right.”
“We will follow the letter of the law, and we will follow the spirit of the law, and we will do it together,” Gould said in remarks quoted on the academy’s website.
Commanders at the school outside Colorado Springs have confronted other tolerance issues over the past decade. A 2003 scandal prompted the ouster of top academy leaders after female cadets said they were ignored or ostracized by commanders when they reported sexual assaults by other cadets.
Reports in 2004 and 2005 found chaplains and other officials had been proselytizing cadets in settings in which such actions were forbidden by school rules and that the academy failed to accommodate the religious needs of some cadets and staff.
Mooneyham, who went on to pilot A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft before leaving the Air Force as a captain in 1994, said history “sometimes makes you wonder” whether the school’s tolerance issues have been settled. While gay and lesbian cadets should encounter few problems overall, Mooneyham predicted, they may run into obstacles in individual areas such as athletics or appointments to leadership roles in the cadet wing, as the student body is called.
“Are you going to have some kid who doesn’t know any better do something stupid? Yes,” he said. “They’re not going to have all 1.4 million (personnel in all the services) on board.”
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, an openly gay congressman and member of the academy’s Board of Visitors, predicts gay and lesbian cadets will get a better welcome than did the first women admitted to the academy in 1976. Some women in the first co-ed class reported harassment and said male colleagues attributed their promotions to tokenism.
“There’s a very high degree of professionalism in the Air Force Academy, as well as in the Air Force as a whole,” said Polis, D-Colo.
The Board of Visitors reports to Congress and the Pentagon about academy matters.
Trish Heller, a 1987 graduate who is on the Blue Alliance board, said the academy and other service schools have invested time and thought to the transition.
“You’re going to have your hiccups, just like anything. I don’t expect it will be completely smooth sailing,” said Heller, who left the Air Force about five years ago as a lieutenant colonel after piloting cargo planes and working on Capitol Hill as an adviser to a senator.
5) 365gay, February 15, 2011
Report: Marquette University hostile to gays
Louis Weisberg
Marquette University, a private, Jesuit-run institution in Milwaukee, Wisc., appears to have few LGBT students, and those who are out on campus face ongoing harassment in classrooms and residence halls, according to an investigation commissioned by university officials.
LGBT faculty members also face a hostile atmosphere at Marquette. One unnamed professor told the investigator, “As a lesbian faculty member, I am in constant terror that I will become the next big campus controversy, so I tend to avoid campus events and speaking out.”
Those are among the findings in a 31-page report by Ronni Sanlo, senior associate dean of students at UCLA.
She visited Marquette by invitation last October “to examine campus issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity/expression,” according to the report.
Last spring Marquette caused an international stir in academia when university president Fr. Robert A. Wild made but then withdrew an offer to out lesbian scholar Jody O’Brien to serve as dean of the college of arts and sciences.
News of the job retraction brought charges of anti-LGBT discrimination, spurring demonstrations on campus and raising questions about academic freedom at the university.
Several major academic organizations considered censuring Marquette.
Fallout over the hiring scandal prompted Sanlo’s investigation – and overshadowed it. “That singular event has placed a pale over the entire institution and cannot be separated from the current campus climate,” her report noted.
Little Support
Sanlo told the Wisconsin Gazette she was unable to comment on the study she conducted. But in her report, Sanlo said her investigation brought her face-to-face with students, faculty, staff and administrators in a variety of settings Oct. 28-29, 2010. Her interviews ranged from one-on-one meetings to discussions involving groups of as many as 40 people at a time. She also used online surveys to garner feedback.
One of the report’s most disturbing findings is that the university does not allow students to report hate incidents without being publicly identified. During her investigation, Sanlo spoke with two male students who said they were victims of an anti-gay assault but declined to report it after being told by the university’s department of public safety that their identities could not be protected.
They dropped the complaint, fearing further victimization.
Sanlo’s investigation found few “substantive” support systems for LGBT students at Marquette, including no LGBT campus center. Although the university has a diversity office, its focus is on racial issues.
The few support channels that do exist for LGBT students are informal – “loosely developed” and “unaware of what the others are doing,” according to the report.
Reflecting the institution’s Jesuit roots, there’s a social justice thread running throughout the Marquette community, the report stated; but it added that LGBT inclusion generally is not included in that tradition.
Sanlo found that although Marquette has a Gay Straight Alliance, its functions are more limited than similar groups on other university campuses. And unlike other organizations on its own campus, Marquette’s GSA is not allowed to engage in activism or advocacy. The group does not even have a current website.
Sanlo found that transgender and genderqueer inclusion are not addressed at all on campus.
In the wake of the O’Brien hiring scandal, faculty members who are LGBT allies feel unsupported by the administration – and even ostracized. A number of them told Sanlo they were “on the market,” looking for new jobs. Others have simply given up trying to change things on campus.
“I regularly try to challenge and interrupt anti-gay language and actions, and have done so for a number of years, but I am very close to deciding that it is no longer worth it to try to reform Marquette’s sexist/heterosexist culture,” one faculty member is quoted as saying in the report.
6) Harvard Law Review, February 16, 2011
Reich elected president of the Harvard Law Review
The Harvard Law Review has elected Mitchell Reich ’12 as its 125th president.
“Mitch has proven himself as an outstanding editor — insightful, hardworking, and deeply committed to the Review and its community,” said outgoing President Zach Schauf ’11. “He will make a superb president, and I look forward to seeing him guide the Review in the year ahead.”
Before attending Harvard Law School, Reich graduated from Yale College with a B.A. in Classics and Political Science. He is a native of New York, and is the first openly gay editor elected to lead the Review.
“Following in Zach’s footsteps will be an enormous honor and challenge,” Reich said. “Zach was the rare leader who combined a deep intellect and devotion to the law with tremendous dignity and warmth. The Review is a stronger, more vibrant community for his leadership. In the coming year, I look forward to working with an extraordinary group of colleagues to take our turn advancing excellence in legal scholarship.”
The Law Review, founded in 1887 by future Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis LL.B. 1887, is an entirely student-edited journal with the largest circulation of any law journal in the world. It is published monthly from November through June.
7) Los Angeles Times, Febrary 16, 2011
Gay alumni question policy of Christian college in Montecito
Steve Chawkins
When Melissa Durkee was in her senior year at Westmont College, her grades were outstanding, she was fielding offers from top law schools — and she was stricken by fear.
"I was terrified that I'd be found out as someone dating a woman and that I'd be expelled," said Durkee, who went on to Yale Law School and a New York law firm.
Durkee is one of 31 gay and lesbian Westmont alumni who earlier this month roiled the Christian college in Montecito with an open letter in the college newspaper that spoke of the "doubt, loneliness and fear" they felt on a campus where homosexuality is taboo.
"I was terrified that I'd be found out as someone dating a woman and that I'd be expelled," said Durkee, who went on to Yale Law School and a New York law firm.
Durkee is one of 31 gay and lesbian Westmont alumni who earlier this month roiled the Christian college in Montecito with an open letter in the college newspaper that spoke of the "doubt, loneliness and fear" they felt on a campus where homosexuality is taboo.
More than 100 fellow alumni signed on in support, and last week, 50 of Westmont's 92 faculty members responded to them in a sympathetic letter seeking "forgiveness for ways we might have added to your pain."
Although LGBT — an umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — is a commonplace designation at schools across the United States, many Christian colleges have struggled with just how much to condone homosexuality, which is seen by some of their religious leaders as scripturally prohibited.
At the leafy campus near Santa Barbara, there are no gay-pride events or clubs in which gay students can socialize openly. The small, nondenominational school requires incoming students to sign a campus code that forbids "occult practices, sexual relations outside of marriage, homosexual practice, drunkenness, theft, profanity and dishonesty."
Such restrictions would generate loud protests at mainstream schools, but at Westmont, even now there's barely a raised voice. Instead, parties on all sides are issuing declarations of love and respect, with calls for a campus-wide dialogue.
"We're hoping to do a better job of talking to and loving each other and holding true to our scriptural principles," said Jane Higa, the school's vice president for student life.
But nobody believes that the school's Campus Life Statement will change anytime soon.
"All the students have signed it and they know where the college stands," Higa said.
For Durkee, who graduated in 2000, the ban was chilling.
"It was hard to tell what that meant," she said. "Is 'homosexual practice' holding hands? A stray look or touch? Dating?"
Administrators say the ban is not on being gay but on the "practice" — just as there's a ban on sex between unmarried straight students. In Higa's 22 years at Westmont, she said, the school has not expelled anyone for being gay. A straight, unmarried couple left, she said, after they refused to live apart: "They understood what they had agreed to and they dropped out."
But for all the compassion being expressed now, Nathan Welty, who graduated in 2008, feared that he would be shunned if he even suggested that he was gay.
"My goal was to suppress everything in me that was telling me I was gay — to just completely ignore and suppress it," said Welty, who is pursuing both a doctorate and a medical degree at the University of Minnesota.
Other Christian colleges are grappling with their own "don't ask, don't tell" policies. A recent editorial in Christianity Today magazine criticized collegiate bans on homosexual behavior: "Consistency means not singling out those with same-sex orientation. The same standard should apply to all."
Many religious scholars object to reading the Bible literally.
"No one today would point to the Bible and say we can hold others in bondage," said Bernard Schlager, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. "Yet the Old and New Testaments clearly support slavery."
At Westmont, administrators and student leaders say they have been quietly talking for some time about how to make the college less isolating for gay students. The subject became much more public last November, when the Horizon, Westmont's student newspaper, published a letter from Artie Van Why, a gay man who wrote of his silent struggles at a Christian school in Kentucky.
Asked about the response to his letter at Westmont, he said, "I'm very surprised. I'm overwhelmed."
Jane Highstreet, president of Westmont's student government, is hopeful.
She said students are starting to feel more able to raise the topic. One of her friends came out onFacebook — first telling administrators and then asking how she might help in any campus-wide programs.
In March, Highstreet said, students will be addressed by a psychologist from a Christian university who has written extensively on gay issues.
"There's a hunger for this conversation to happen," she said.
steve.chawkins@latimes.com
Although LGBT — an umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — is a commonplace designation at schools across the United States, many Christian colleges have struggled with just how much to condone homosexuality, which is seen by some of their religious leaders as scripturally prohibited.
At the leafy campus near Santa Barbara, there are no gay-pride events or clubs in which gay students can socialize openly. The small, nondenominational school requires incoming students to sign a campus code that forbids "occult practices, sexual relations outside of marriage, homosexual practice, drunkenness, theft, profanity and dishonesty."
Such restrictions would generate loud protests at mainstream schools, but at Westmont, even now there's barely a raised voice. Instead, parties on all sides are issuing declarations of love and respect, with calls for a campus-wide dialogue.
"We're hoping to do a better job of talking to and loving each other and holding true to our scriptural principles," said Jane Higa, the school's vice president for student life.
But nobody believes that the school's Campus Life Statement will change anytime soon.
"All the students have signed it and they know where the college stands," Higa said.
For Durkee, who graduated in 2000, the ban was chilling.
"It was hard to tell what that meant," she said. "Is 'homosexual practice' holding hands? A stray look or touch? Dating?"
Administrators say the ban is not on being gay but on the "practice" — just as there's a ban on sex between unmarried straight students. In Higa's 22 years at Westmont, she said, the school has not expelled anyone for being gay. A straight, unmarried couple left, she said, after they refused to live apart: "They understood what they had agreed to and they dropped out."
But for all the compassion being expressed now, Nathan Welty, who graduated in 2008, feared that he would be shunned if he even suggested that he was gay.
"My goal was to suppress everything in me that was telling me I was gay — to just completely ignore and suppress it," said Welty, who is pursuing both a doctorate and a medical degree at the University of Minnesota.
Other Christian colleges are grappling with their own "don't ask, don't tell" policies. A recent editorial in Christianity Today magazine criticized collegiate bans on homosexual behavior: "Consistency means not singling out those with same-sex orientation. The same standard should apply to all."
Many religious scholars object to reading the Bible literally.
"No one today would point to the Bible and say we can hold others in bondage," said Bernard Schlager, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. "Yet the Old and New Testaments clearly support slavery."
At Westmont, administrators and student leaders say they have been quietly talking for some time about how to make the college less isolating for gay students. The subject became much more public last November, when the Horizon, Westmont's student newspaper, published a letter from Artie Van Why, a gay man who wrote of his silent struggles at a Christian school in Kentucky.
Asked about the response to his letter at Westmont, he said, "I'm very surprised. I'm overwhelmed."
Jane Highstreet, president of Westmont's student government, is hopeful.
She said students are starting to feel more able to raise the topic. One of her friends came out onFacebook — first telling administrators and then asking how she might help in any campus-wide programs.
In March, Highstreet said, students will be addressed by a psychologist from a Christian university who has written extensively on gay issues.
"There's a hunger for this conversation to happen," she said.
steve.chawkins@latimes.com
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