Newspaper Page Text
2 Southern Voice/November 8, 1990
NEWS
Tech Gays Get Funding
for Trip to Conference
But only after last minute intervention by graduate senate
Atlanta—An October 22 demonstration by
a group of about 30 lesbian and gay Georgia
Tech students and their supporters brought
much attention to their oiganization's dilemma
but had little influence on the school's
Undergraduate Student Council(USC).
The USC had refused to fund a $482
request from Tech’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance
(GALA) despite the support of GALA from
the school's administration and the Graduate
Senate. GALA requested the funds to attend a
lesbian/gay/bisexual conference in Boston.
While various excuses were given for the
USC's refusal to fund the trip, homophobia
was generally agreed to be at the root of the
problem.
A 50 person crowd stood on the sidelines
of the October 22 demonstration. Many of
them cheered the protesters, but comments
like "Kill the faggots," and "I wish I had my
shotgun" were also heard. Several shouting
matches between homophobic students and
GALA members occurred after the demon
stration.
Hoping that the demonstration had
made its point, GALA, on October 23, intro
duced a slightly different funding bill to the
USC, but a vote was delayed until Oct. 30—
after the conference for which the group was
requesting funds.
Following that USC meeting a pellet from
a high powered air pistol smashed the window
in GALA member Kyle Rogers dorm room.
Rogers was not in the room and campus offi
cials claim that the incident had nothing to do
with GALA's request, the demonstration, or
Rogers sexual orientation. Members of GALA
say that there is not enough evidence to prove
that the incident was definitely a hate crime,
so they will not pursue the matter further.
After the USC's second refusal to fund
GALA's trip to Boston, Michael Wileman,
Treasurer of Tech's Graduate Senate, and oth
ers wrote a bill which paid for GALA's travel
expense to the conference. The funds came
from the Graduate Student Senate's own
funds, which are usually reserved solely for
Graduate School activities.
Five students made the trip to Boston. "It
was very informative and very empowering,"
said GALA member Steve Jones. "Given what
they [the USC] has funded in the past I think it
was a very good value for the school.
Wileman says he felt that the entire student
body could benefit from GALA attending the
conference, not just the Graduate School. But,
"it was obvious from the debate in the USC
that they seem to focus more on morality
issues than the narrative."
The USC's revote on GALA's bill has been
postponed again—this time until Nov. 6.
GALA members remain adamant in their
resolve to see their trip funded by the under
graduate student government.
■ ■■
A review of policies at other universities
and colleges in the area reveals that many
mention sexual orientation in their harassment
clauses and human rights statements, which
are not legally binding. But only Morehouse
College has taken the step of including sexual
orientation—along with race, religion, sex,
age, and national origin—in its legally
enforceable non-discrimination clause.
After a long drawn out battle, The
University of Georgia’s Gay and Lesbian asso
ciation has managed to push a "Human Rights
Statement" through its student government
association. The statement acknowledges that
harassment of lesbians and gays is undesir
able, but does not protect them from from dis
crimination. A representative from UGA's
Gay and Lesbian association called passage of
the measure in lieu of inclusion in the non-dis
crimination clause "a little disappointment...
but a small victory".
In response to S.V.'s question about adding
sexual orientation to the school's non-discrim
ination clause UGA President Knapp replied,
"The real question is whether it is appropriate
for this institution, through internal policy, to
attempt to cut off these entities (the
Department of Defense and private businesses
who discriminate based on sexual orientation)
from access to our campus programs and
graduates. 1 do not support such an action."
The real question, of course, is whether our
institutions of higher learning are willing to let
gays and lesbians be treated as second class
citizens.
UGA President Knapp also said "to pre
tend the University can dictate to state and
federal governments on this issue would raise
serious legal questions. And, as indicated
above, we would in effect be cutting the
University off from many important outside
GALA's Shawn Badinger addresses the crowd
Eveit Bennett
institutions."
President Knapp failed to clarify what legal
issues this would raise and exactly how many
important institutions would be cut off from
the University.
But while President Knapp is spouting
rhetoric, the UGA law school has, in fact,
added sexual orientation to its non-discrimina
tion clause. That's because the American
Association of Law Schools (AALS) has
recently taken a similar action and all mem
bers schools are obligated to match their stan
dards with the bylaws of the AALS. One
small, private law firm and the Judge
Advocate General Corps (JAG Corp)—the
law branch of the US military—do not recruit
at UGA's law school because they refuse to
sign the school's new nondiscrimination
clause.
Like Georgia Tech and UGA, Emory
University, in 1988, amended its discrimina
tory harassment policy to include sexual ori
entation.
Representatives from the Emory Law
School Admissions Office say they conform
with with AALS policy. But, when asked
whether it was written in a nondiscrimination
clause or in official policy, a representative
from the Law School replied, "We [go] with
the spirit of the policy rather than the strict let
ter." They conceded, however, "[although] we
haven't printed it yet; it will be written down
next fall when we send out our next mailing”.
Georgia State University does not
include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimi
nation policy, but its Law School—as a mem
ber of the AALS—does require those individ
uals who interview on campus to sign a
nondiscrimination by sexual orientation state
ment. The JAG Corps will not sign this state
ment and therefore does not recruit at Georgia
State Law School.
Spelman College (no law school) does not
have sexual orientation in its non-discrimina
tion clause.
Representatives from Clark Atlanta
University admitted confusion over the issue,
claiming policies were unclear due to their
recent merger. They, however, felt that sexual
orientation was not listed in their non-discrim
ination clause.
Despite the fact that Morehouse College
is the only area college that publicly and offi
cially includes sexual orientation in its nondis
crimination clause, a spokesperson for the
school seemed confused about whether the
policy was actually good or bad and thus
declined to comment about it.
Spate of Positive
Lesbian/Gay/AIDS Bills Pass in
Last Hours of 101st Congress
Historic AIDS housing and immigration measures top the list;
NEA is safe but some say the compromise is unacceptable
By Cliff O'Neill
Washington—In a last minute flurry of lob
bying, compromise and cajoling the 101st
Congress passed four bills with substantial
impact on the lesbian/gay and AIDS commu
nities. And, while the case can be made that
all could have been stronger, the four bills rep
resent the largest and most comprehensive
group of such legislation ever passed by
Congress at one time.
Immigration: Perhaps the biggest surprise
and least publicized victory of the session was
passage of a broadbased immigration measure
which includes a removal of the federal bans
on immigration by gays and lesbians as well
as people with AIDS.
The bill, which includes the largest revi
sion of the quotas of foreign nationals allowed
into the U.S., is strongly supported by
President George Bush.
Among the plethora of provisions in the
legislation is a removal of the decades-old ban
on immigration by communists, the mentally
ill and gay men and lesbians.
Dating back to the McCarren Walter Act of
1952, the federal ban on immigration by “sex
ual deviants” and “psychopathic personalities”
had been used sporadically over the years to
keep lesbian and gay immigrants and visitors
out of the country.
Although the gay exclusion was informally
voided by the Carter Administration in the
'70s, it was reinstated by the Reagan
Administration and used on rare occasion.
Most recently, a widely publicized govern
ment memo suggested that the ban be
enforced to bar foreign lesbian and gay visi
tors from entering the U.S. for the 6th
International Conference On AIDS, held in
San Francisco last June. Although the gay ban
was not enforced, it did draw renewed atten
tion to the legislation.
“It was obnoxious to just have it on the
books,” commented Rep. Barney Frank (D-
Mass.), who sponsored the removal of the gay
ban and shepherded it through Congress. “I
think we now have the American statute
books clean. There are still obnoxious poli
cies, like in the military, but there is nothing
statutory that I am aware of now on the feder
al level that is anti-gay.”
“It really is a message of a terrible period
in our history,” added Tim McFeeley, execu
tive director for the Human Rights Campaign
Fund. “I’m glad it’s gone.”
Unlike the bill’s changes in the immigra
tion quotas, the change in the gay-exclusion
ary policy goes into effect with the President’s
signature. The change affects both visitors and
long-term immigrants.
AIDS Housing: Equally under-publicized
in the near hysteria surrounding the battle of
the budget was passage of two-year $57.4 bil
lion plan expanding the federal government’s
commitment to public assisted housing; it
includes the nation’s first-ever AIDS-specific
housing set asides. The measure now goes to
the President for his expected signature.
The massive bill includes in it a series of
provisions from a House proposal which
authorizes $238 million to be spent for AIDS
specific housing programs over the 1991 and
1992 fiscal years.
“This is a 'makes sense’ proposal that pro
vides better options for people living with
AIDS while reducing health care costs for tax
payers,” stated bill co-sponsor Rep. Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif) on the bill’s passage. “It is
compassionate and cost-effective.”
The AIDS provisions of the bill are intend
ed to ease the burden on the estimated 8
10,000 people with AIDS living on the streets
of nearly every city and town in the U.S.,
according to AIDS and homeless advocates.
The legislation is also intended to lift some
pressure off public hospitals in areas dispro
portionately affected by AIDS, as with specif
ic housing set aside for homeless people with
AIDS, they may not have to turn to public
hospitals or crowded, inhospitable shelters for
housing.
The measure is also intended to help pre
vent homelessness among people with AIDS
by assisting them with rental and perhaps
mortgage payments and offering funds for
new information and referral programs.
AIDS CARE: After a series of maneuvers
and battles that saw the Ryan White AIDS
Care Act overwhelmingly approved by both
the House and Senate only to later be totally
de-funded by a Senate appropriations sub
committee, the measure emerged from the
101st Congress with $350.6 million in fund
ing for fiscal '91. Total federal AIDS funding
for the year is nearly $1.9 million, a 20 per
cent increase over 1990 levels.
Stunned when the bill was not funded by
the Senate appropriations subcommittee,
AIDS activists launched a forceful campaign
to effect implementation of the bill in the cur
rent fiscal year which began Oct. 1.
The original AIDS CARE bill authorized
$4.4 billion to be spent over five years in
areas disproportionately affected by the epi
demic. Metro Atlanta was originally sched
uled to receive $4.5 million in relief in fiscal
'91.
According to Gary Cox—project coordina
tor for the HIV Health Services Planning
Council which will decide where Atlanta's
share of the the money actually goes—the
metro Atlanta area will be eligible for a total
of $2.4 million in fiscal '90.
Cox says that he has been told $1.2 million
will be available within 90 days. Fulton
County, which is legally responsible for
Continued on page 24