1)Triblocal; Alumni group promotes gay awareness on Wheaton College campus
2) The Minnesota Independent; More then 60 law professors speak out on anti-gay marriage amendment
3) Pride Source; More than 100 University of Michigan Law School graduates walk out of Ohio Senator Rob Portman's commencement speech
4) Diamond Back Online; Fixing the Facts
5) Harvard Crimson; A gain for the queer community
6) Huffington Post; Isaiah Thomas, Openly Gay Messiah College Student, Leaves School Due To Harassment
7) New York Times; Two straight athletes combat homophobia
1) Alumni group promotes gay awareness on Wheaton College campus
Jen Zimmerman May 2nd
Wheaton College graduates are looking to build awareness and support for the gay community on the conservative Christian campus through the formation of a group coined OneWheaton.
Kristin Winn, spokeswoman for the organization, said its purpose is to offer a safe space for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community that is not widely accepted because of the school’s official position against homosexual behavior.
Organizers began reaching out to students last week by passing out informational fliers outside a chapel service. So far, the group has amassed the support of hundreds of alumni and generated so much website traffic that its site crashed, Winn said.
Reaction has been mixed, but several students were open to the organization when interviewed Monday.
“As a Christian, I think it is our job to love not to judge,” said sophomore Stephen Ianno.
Winn, who is a 2007 graduate of Wheaton College, said the idea began last year as media coverage focused on the rise in teen suicide in the gay community. OneWheaton now has more than 300 alumni who have publicly pledged to support or help students work through issues such as how to come out to their family members or preserving their religious faith, Winn said.
As someone who struggled with her own sexual orientation while at Wheaton College, she often feared losing her support system if she came out. Many gay students share that same fear of isolation, she said, and are need of an outlet to seek help.
The school recently held a chapel series called Sexuality and Wholeness, which Winn said included guest speaker and author Wesley Hill who has chosen to live a life of celibacy rather than homosexuality. Winn said she wanted to offer students an alternative.
The group’s goal is not to change the college’s position on homosexuality or engage in a controversial battle with the administration, she said. Her objective is to let students know help is available.
“Our No. 1 priority is to be a safe space for students and other evangelicals who are dealing with their sexuality,” she said.
Shortly after the group passed out fliers on campus, Wheaton College President Philip Ryken sent an internal email to all students, faculty and staff that recited passages in the Bible that condemned homosexual behavior.
He also said the college stands with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning students as persons created in God’s image and “sinful people in need of God’s forgiveness and love through Jesus Christ, God’s son.”
“We carry a burden for our students, faculty, staff and alumni who experience same-sex attraction because of the pain they so often experience, and pray that we can be a community that loves those who identify as LGBTQ,” he wrote. “While we recognize that Wheaton’s stance may be unsatisfying to some of our alumni, we remain resolved to respond with truth and grace.”
Ryken added that the overall desire of the group to “affirm the full humanity and dignity of every human being, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” is something the college agrees with and every Christian must love their neighbor.
“We recognize that the needs of LGBTQ individuals present a particular challenge for institutions like Wheaton,” he wrote. “Many have experienced insensitive or callous responses in this community, for which we repent and seek forgiveness. We repudiate and condemn violence and injustice directed toward LGBTQ people.”
Several students on campus Monday said his email helped outline how they should respond, which should be from a place of love and understanding.
“We are not perfect, and sometimes we don’t know how to address issues of homosexuals,” said senior Johnny Moy.
Student body president Jessica Min also said, like the group OneWheaton, the college administration has been taking steps to help students understand their identity. Min helped bring the Sexuality and Wholeness event to campus.
She stressed the purpose of the event was not to condemn homosexuality or gay students, but spark conversations on campus about sexual orientation.
“We (are trying to do) a similar thing in the area of having a more embracing and more understanding campus for every student here,” Min said.
Winn said she is pleased with the response – both from alumni looking to join to students seeking help.
“It’s been so incredible,” she said.
2) More then 60 law professors speak out on anti-gay marriage amendment
Andy Berkey May 5th
Sixty-three current and former law school faculty members from the University of Minnesota signed an open letter to state legislators on Wednesday urging them to vote against a bill that would put an anti-gay marriage question on the 2012 ballot. The lawyers said the constitutional amendment would “cement the existing hardships” that gay and lesbian families now face and cause costly legal fights for the state down the road. “The proposed amendment would set in constitutional cement the existing hardships on thousands of families, including children, that many in the legal profession serve,” the group wrote. “Attorneys practicing in such diverse areas as family law, estate planning, real estate, tax, and beyond represent people across Minnesota who confront complex legal challenges because they are currently unable to enter a legally-recognized relationship with a same-sex partner.”
Minnesota’s same-sex couples current face 515 such legal challenges, from serious issues involving taxes and end-of-life issues to more mundane concerns such as the inability to purchase a family fishing license, according to a report by Project 515. The professors also argued that the amendment could have unintended legal consequences.
“The potential applications of an amendment and its collateral consequences in other areas of the law could be far-reaching. Frankly, the full implications of the proposed amendment are unknown,” they wrote. “Accordingly, it will likely generate litigation over both its validity and its scope; in effect, the legislature is inviting significant and needless expense for the state and its citizens during a time of extraordinary economic difficulty.”
They also questioned the need for such an amendment:
Minnesotans of good will may continue to debate the merits of legally recognizing same-sex couples through marriage or some other status. But in its entire history, Minnesota has never cut short the ordinary legislative process regarding marriage and family law by enshrining one particular view into its constitution. There is no compelling need to do so now.
3) More than 100 University of Michigan Law School graduates walk out of Ohio Senator Rob Portman's commencement speech
Students: LGBT rights are not debatable
ANN ARBOR: "Don't open the doors!" the University of Michigan security official instructed her counterparts. "If they want to walk out on their own, fine, but don't open the doors for them."
Everyone at the University of Michigan Law School's Senior Day ceremony knew that a mass student walkout was coming when Ohio Senator Rob Portman took the podium - they'd been told as much. Security at the Hill Auditorium wasn't about to stop the students from walking out, but it wasn't about to open the doors for them either.
Senator Portman, a 1984 alum of the Michigan Law School, was invited to speak at Senior Day last month. It is a custom for Michigan Law grads who are elected to the U.S. Senate to be invited back. Portman is the third Wolverine elected to the Senate over the last decade and until today he was the only one who hadn't spoken to a graduating class. Portman was elected in November 2010.
Andrew Selbst, a 2011 graduate of the Michigan Law School, emerged as the unofficial spokesperson for the protest. When Portman was announced as commencement speaker, a number of the law school's outgoing seniors planned to protest in some way, but it was unorganized, Selbst said. Eventually they settled on the silent protest, a walkout during the Senator's speech.
A small number of the graduates were invited to engage in a dialogue with Senator Portman prior to the ceremony. While students were tight-lipped about what was discussed at the meeting, apparently it did little to squelch the planned walkout.
Days before the ceremony, Selbst told Between The Lines that he expected maybe 40 people to walk out of Portman's speech; more than twice that did. So great was the urge for the protestors to turn their backs on Portman that they actually went ahead of their cue, Selbst said, taking a pause in Kerins' introduction as their chance to leave the auditorium en masse and talk amongst themselves in the lobby.
In his opening remarks, Law School Dean Evan Caminker said that the law school would always be there to welcome its graduates home. Part of the purpose of Senior Day is to bring back Michigan Law grads who have been successful since leaving Ann Arbor. It is custom for U.S. Senators with Michigan Law degrees to be invited back.
Caminker said in his statement announcing Portman as speaker that he thought the senator was a great example of where a Michigan Law degree can take a person: "anywhere." Before being elected Portman had served as a Congressman and was the U.S. Trade Representative and later the director of the Office of Management and the Budget, both under President George W. Bush.
Bringing Portman back to Ann Arbor might be custom, but Selbst and others said it was unacceptable, given Portman's votes against gay marriage and, more recently, gay adoption in Washington, D.C. A number of students who took part in the protest described gay marriage and gay adoption as human rights, as issues that don't permit reasonable people to disagree.
Outside the Hill Auditorium guests attending Senior Day were handed a pamphlet explaining the coming protest. About 60 percent of the graduates wore rainbow buttons or flair on their gowns. Family and friends of the graduates wore the rainbow ribbon to show solidarity with grads who would be affected by Portman's votes.
The pamphlet contained a letter from more than 200 Michigan Law alumni to Dean Caminker.
"Senator Portman, in public life, has actively worked to deny some members of the graduating class their civil rights ... Our objection is not a political one ... rather we are concerned about the message Michigan Law is sending by giving an anti-gay rights speaker the honor of marking what should be a joyful occasion," the letter read.
Inside Hill, guests were handed the official program. Everything about it was normal - an image of the law school, the itinerary for the ceremony, the names of this year's graduates - except for a baby-blue insert affirming both the right of the offended graduates to protest and the right of the Senator to be heard without protestors "interfering unduly" by shouting him down.
"If the hosts of this event or University representatives believe that protestors are interfering unduly with a speaker's freedom of expression, those protestors will be warned," the letter admonished. "If the warnings are not heeded and the interference continues, then the individuals responsible may be removed from the building."
There was no shout-down. When Caminker mentioned Portman briefly in his opening remarks, the crowd did not boo. When Portman was introduced to speak, the graduates filed out quietly, no hooting or hollering. When Portman was done speaking and Matthew Jaret Budow, a class of 2011 graduate, was introduced, the seniors returned as quietly as they left.
"We wanted (the protest) to be dignified," Selbst explained in the hallway as Portman spoke. He was joined by about 100 future lawyers from his graduating class. "The legal profession has always led the way in terms of civil rights. I'm proud to graduate with so many people who want to keep leading the way."
Kaitlin Jackson, who is heading to New York to do public defense work after graduation, said that equal rights for the LGBT community is not just another debatable political issue. Jackson, who is a member of the LGBT community, did not attend the forum with Senator Portman, preferring instead that this be a day of celebration. But she did walk out during Portman's speech.
Ringo Vail, a 2011 graduate, is engaged to marry her partner and move to Arizona. She will practice immigration law with the U.S. Department of Justice.
"We can't get married in either of our home states, Minnesota or New York." Arizona, where the two are moving, poses another problem: It doesn't allow for second-parent adoption. While Vail has a male friend who would be willing to father her child, her fiancee would have no rights to the child. She said that politicians who vote the way Portman does are part of the problem.
"I couldn't imagine sitting there, smiling, and being honored by someone who would deny me the right to my civil, human, basic right to marry my partner and raise a family," Vail said.
4) Fixing the Facts
Monday, May 9, 2011
Transgender people are a small and widely misunderstood segment of the population — they often face extreme disadvantages due to ignorance and discrimination. Michael Kossin's May 5 guest column, "An unreal proposal," only showcased this lack of understanding by claiming "special consideration" for transgender students is unnecessary. His ill-informed argument was that a Diamondback article and editorial from the previous week provided insufficient evidence of anti-transgender intolerance at this university. This is a unified response on behalf of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Staff and Faculty Association.
As staff and faculty, we listen to those who feel excluded at the university. General knowledge and comments from transgender students stating their own needs are sufficiently convincing in pointing out the challenges they face. As educators and researchers, we also understand the need for empirical knowledge. Unfortunately, too few surveys ask about gender identity, and large random samples are required to achieve enough transgender respondents for analysis. There is also insufficient funding and support in academia for research on transgender issues. This should be rectified.
While there are few studies about transgender people, the ones that are available show transgender people are not treated equally. In February, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey was published. The study included 6,450 transgender and gender non-conforming participants from throughout the U.S. and its territories. Hostility was pervasive. Ninty percent of respondents faced harassment, mistreatment or discrimination in the workplace and 78 percent experienced harassment and bullying in school. Thirty-five percent reported experiencing physical assault in a K-12 environment, and nearly 15 percent of those assaulted were assaulted by teachers or staff. The 2010 State of Higher Education for LGBT People, released last fall, found nearly 40 percent of transgender college students faced harassment and nearly as many seriously considered leaving their colleges as a result. Transgender students who fear harassment are not experiencing "paranoia," as Kossin calls it.
This university already has taken significant, low-cost steps toward ensuring transgender people can safely use restrooms. The university already committed to label every lockable single-user restroom as gender-neutral, and all new construction and major renovation of buildings must include at least one gender-neutral restroom. These restrooms provide greater access not only for transgender people but also to people with disabilities and parents with small children who need additional privacy.
Kossin promotes unfounded fears that a person appearing to be transgender may be more likely to assault another person while using the restroom. We should judge people on their behavior, not on their appearance. In fact, doing otherwise could land us in hot water. In 2008, a New York City restaurant paid a major settlement and changed its policies after it kicked a woman out of the women's restroom because she looked too masculine. In Washington, it is illegal to force someone to prove his or her gender or sex to use a restroom.
Washington regulations also allow college students to access campus housing based on their gender identity or their sex, and, particularly if requested, colleges must provide special accommodations when the student feels otherwise likely to face harassment or hostility. We encourage this university to follow this lead by making housing-assignment policies more flexible and by offering more accessible options for gender-neutral housing to all students who may choose it or need it.
Kossin's column, whether intentional or not, was offensive and baseless. We must develop transgender-inclusive practices now, and not wait for discrimination, violence and lawsuits. Furthermore, we need deeper education on transgender issues. Not only should transgender students have full access and empowerment in higher education environments, but all of the university community must become more educated on the issues facing transgender people.
Nicholas Sakurai is the associate director of the Office of LGBT equity. He can be reached at sakurai at umd dot edu. Shaunna Payne Gold is the chairwoman of the LGBT Staff and Faculty Association. She can be reached at spgold at umd dot edu.
5) A gain for the queer community
May 9th
The decision came after an extensive review of the BGLTQ experience at Harvard, and we applaud Dean Hammonds for taking this long overdue step and hiring a director to oversee the diverse BGLTQ resources on campus. This new position promises to promote greater visibility and awareness of Harvard’s BGLTQ community and to cement the College’s commitment to these issues—both essential steps for creating an accepting environment on Harvard’s campus. Peer institutions like Stanford and Princeton, which both have full-time BGLTQ directors, have made tremendous progress organizing their resources, and we hope Harvard will be able to do the same. At present, the BGLTQ resources and initiatives on campus are largely decentralized, lacking the coordination needed to bring a diverse community together. Despite the presence of eight different BGLTQ organizations on campus, almost three-quarters of BGLTQ-identified students did not report being active in such a group. However, close to half of the undergraduates consulted strongly believed that Harvard students would benefit from more BGLTQ-related events. This obvious discrepancy represents a significant potential for increased outreach and community building among BGLTQ students. Having a central figure to advise and coordinate student initiatives would facilitate this effort and lend a public face to many of these endeavors. The College’s decision to appoint a public figure to direct BGLTQ student life is both an important symbolic gesture and course of action. Having a vocal figure to stand behind the BGLTQ community is a necessary step toward increasing the visibility of these issues on campus and providing students with a strong role model. In addition, by serving as a liaison between the administration and the students, a BGLTQ director can smooth communication issues and hasten progress on student initiatives.
Ideally however, some of the new director’s resources and efforts should extend beyond the BGLTQ community and serve to raise awareness among Harvard’s heterosexual student body. Recent tragedies such as the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi show that tremendous progress remains to be made in terms of bringing an understanding of these issues to the heterosexual community. In the student life survey, close to a third of BGLTQ students stated that they had avoided participating in an event or organization due to “a potential for heterosexist bias, harassment, and/or discrimination.” Such a disheartening fact indicates the importance of educating the heterosexual population on BGLTQ issues and creating an atmosphere that is not only tolerant but welcoming of gender diversity, even at the seemingly progressive Harvard. The history of Harvard’s BGLTQ community has undoubtedly been filled with both tremendous challenges and successes. It is important to acknowledge that many of these efforts were led by small groups of outspoken individuals, such as the founders of the Harvard-Radcliffe Gay Students Association, one of the earliest organizations to address BGLTQ issues in 1971. While the College’s decision to appoint a public BGLTQ figure is an important validation of support for the BGLTQ movement, a great deal of credit should be given to the students, alumnae, and faculty members whose autonomous efforts have made these changes possible. The decision to hire a BGLTQ director represents a socially responsible and moral action on the part of the College. As an institution that prides itself on welcoming diversity among its students, Harvard has an obligation to live up to this image and do what it can to foster inclusivity on its campus.
6) Isaiah Thomas, Openly Gay Messiah College Student, Leaves School Due To Harassment
May 5 2011
A student at Messiah College is planning on leaving the school after he was victim to harassment there because he is openly gay.
Isaiah Thomas, who was attending Messiah on a full scholarship, says his id was stolen and then soaked in urine, he has received a death threat and he has even been called an "abomination" in class.
Thomas said at the center of his Messiah experience is the school’s Community Covenant, which outlines student behavioral expectations. The document, based on the school’s theological traditions, prohibits “homosexual behavior” and must be signed by all students.
Thomas said he had not been told about the covenant.
“I rather you tell me I can’t come than bring me here and strip me of who I am,” he said. “That’s worse than telling someone they can’t come.”
.
“These are institutional issues and protocol we just can't talk about them, but I can say we followed through with them,” College Provost Randy Basinger said to CBS 21 in response to Thomas' allegations. Basinger explained the school's policy in greater detail.
"We don't exclude homosexuals, we make a distinction between homosexual orientation and homosexual behavior...We make it clear though what the lifestyle expectations are.”
Isaiah Thomas is heading to Harrisburg Area Community College next year.
"Messiah's built on reconciliation, changing things. But reconciling is more than just color of skin and dialect," Thomas told Abc27 . "It's orientations. It's sex. It's everything."
7) Two straight athletes combat homophobia
John Branch May 13th 2011
Ben Cohen is a world-class English rugby star, and Hudson Taylor is a three-time college all-American wrestler. They live on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. They barely know each other. But they have something quite unusual in common. They may be the only two high-profile heterosexual athletes dedicating their lives to the issues of bullying and homophobia in sports.
The question that each one frequently gets — besides “Are you gay?” — is why are they involved in something that does not directly impact them, or so it would seem.
That is just the point, they said. In much the same way that the hockey player Sean Avery’s recent endorsement of gay marriage resonated in large part because it came from an unexpected source, their sexual orientation helps the message cross to broader audiences, Cohen and Taylor said.
“It’s massively important,” Cohen said Friday in New York, a stopover on a cross-country campaign for his fledgling Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation. “Massively. Of course it is. I’m the other side of that bridge.”
Gay slurs have emerged into the public consciousness recently. The Los Angeles Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant used one against an N.B.A. referee and was fined $100,000. The Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell was said to have made homophobic gestures and remarks to fans in San Francisco, and was suspended by Major League Baseball for two weeks. Widespread criticism of both men was seen as cultural progress by gay-rights supporters.
But in a world where no active American athletes in a major male team sport has declared his homosexuality, it remains rare for athletes to chime in on the issue of gay rights. Recent exceptions, beyond Avery, include Grant Hill and Jared Dudley of the Phoenix Suns, who recorded a public-service announcement decrying gay slurs in sports.
Cohen and Taylor are going much further.
Cohen, 32, just retired from a rugby career that included a World Cup title for England in 2003 and more than a decade with the Northampton Saints. Despite being married with 3 ½-year-old twin daughters, he has long had a huge following among gay fans.
“They probably see me as a sex object, I suppose,” he said. His shirtless photographs have done little to squelch his popularity.
With the surge in the use of social media in recent years, Cohen — whose Facebook pagehas been “liked” by more than 150,000 people — began hearing more and more personal accounts from fans who have felt ostracized for being gay. Some said they quit sports because of the harassment, or had been shamed into staying closeted, unable to find support from friends, family and teammates. “It brings me to bloody tears,” he said, as he read a few e-mails aloud. He wore a T-shirt that read, “I stand up with Ben Cohen,” and included his silhouette as a logo.
But his quest to get involved is even more personal. In 2000, Cohen’s father, Peter, was attacked by several young men outside the nightclub he owned. He sustained severe injuries, including bite marks to his face, and died a few weeks later.
With those experiences as a backdrop, Cohen started this year what he believes is the first anti-bullying organization led by a straight athlete aimed at helping the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. After a couple recent stops in England, he is promoting the campaign in Washington, Atlanta, Seattle and New York in the next two weeks. Beyond raising his family on his English farm, he plans on making the foundation his postcareer priority.
“I can say something, and it can be so little for me,” said Cohen, scheduled to be a celebrity presenter at Saturday’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation awards in San Francisco. “But it can be so powerful for tens of thousands of people.”
Taylor, 24, finished a decorated wrestling career at Maryland last year and is an assistant coach at Columbia. In college, he said, he was struck by the disparity in how gay students in his theater classes were so warmly accepted and how easily gay slurs were tossed around the wrestling mats.
He attracted national attention when he wore a Human Rights Campaign sticker on his headgear. Earlier this year, he launchedAthlete Ally, asking athletes of all ages to sign a pledge to help end homophobia in sports. Several thousand have made the pledge. Taylor suspended plans for law school and spends much of his time speaking at schools, mostly colleges. He usually asks his audiences if they have recently heard someone or something derided as “gay.” Almost always, everyone raises his or her hand, he said.
Most raise their hands when asked if they have heard the term, used as an insult, in the past day, Taylor said.
“In a lot of people’s minds, it’s not a straight person’s issue,” said Taylor, who will marry his longtime girlfriend in September. “That’s an obstacle that has to be overcome.”
Taylor said that heterosexual athletes rarely get involved in the issue because they do not see how it affects them. He called it a “chicken-or-egg problem.” Most male professional athletes, as far as they know, do not have gay teammates. And people are less likely to fight for a cause when they do not have personal connections to it.
“How do you make it personal?” Taylor said. “That’s the question.”
That is what Cohen and Taylor hope to answer.
On Friday, the two men got together for a quick hello at the West Village apartment where Cohen stayed for a couple of nights. Taylor had just driven from Maine, where he spoke at Bates College and got most of its athletes to sign the pledge on Thursday evening. Cohen was about to leave for the airport and a flight to San Francisco, to be a celebrity presenter.
Their paths crossed, briefly, as they worked separately for the same cause.
“I love what he’s doing,” Taylor said over lunch Wednesday. “We need more Ben Cohens in this world. He has a platform that allows the message to carry farther and ring louder than my own. We need more allies in position of power to speak out.”
