7. Homophobia on Campus

RECOMMENDATIONS:

All institutions, including religious ones, should adopt anti-discrimination policies and assure that gay and lesbian students, staff, and faculty are given equal treatment.

Military recruiters should be required to provide warnings on recruitment materials and recruitment appearances, to alert students about the ban on gay and lesbian soldiers. Requiring recruiters who discriminate to provide notice of such policies and the college’s opposition to them is not a violation of the Solomon Amendment. Colleges should also lobby to remove Solomon Amendment restrictions from federal law, and work together to seek a legal challenge to its restrictions on academic autonomy.

Introduction:

Campus Climate for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People: A National Perspective, a 2003 report by Susan Rankin for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, found that more than one in three GLBT undergraduates experienced anti-gay harassment in the previous year. Almost 20 percent of respondents had feared for their safety. Anti-gay graffiti and vandalism of posters for GLBT activities are common.

Federal regulations force all colleges accepting federal money to allow military recruiters on campus even in open violation of campus anti-discrimination rules. The 1996 Solomon Amendment forces all colleges accepting money from the federal government to allow military recruiters access to campus. After the Pentagon imposed a more restrictive interpretation threatening all federal funding, many law schools compromised with "minimal compliance," which allowed military recruiters on campus without being hosted by the career services office. However, in May 2002, the Air Force sent letters to 22 elite law schools, threatening to cut off all federal funding (totaling billions of dollars each year) unless total and equal access was given to military recruiters.

(AP, Aug. 27, 2002; New York Times, Aug. 28, 2002; Georgetown Hoya, Oct. 8, 2002; Boston College Heights, Oct. 22, 2002)

a) Boston University: Chancellor John Silber banned a gay-straight alliance from the university-controlled Boston University Academy, claiming that group was "forcing young people to define themselves in terms of sexual orientation." Silber declared, “We’re not running a program in sex education…. They can go to public school and learn to put a condom over a banana.”

(Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 9, 2002; Oct. 11, 2002)

b) Central College (Iowa): Brad Clark, the student body president and a leader with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, came out of the closet. Clark was asked to step down by InterVarsity staffers because he would not agree that homosexuality is illegitimate. The Student Senate voted 22-12 to continue to recognize the group, even though it violate the college’s nondiscrimination policy.

(Iowa State Daily, April 2, 2003)

c) Chestnut Hill College: Meghan Sullivan, an alum and part-time religion teacher, attended a lecture on gay rights at the University of Pennsylvania, and was quoted in its student newspaper identifying herself as a lesbian. When Sister Carol Jean Vale, president of Chestnut Hill College, saw a story about, she ordered a meeting. According to Sister Vale, "When speaking as a representative of the college, we expect faculty to accurately represent the teachings of the church and to refrain from criticism of those teachings." Sullivan reported that she was given a choice between identifying herself publicly as a Chestnut Hill professor or as a lesbian, but not both. Sullivan decided to resign.

(Philadelphia Inquirer, May 15, 2003)

COMMENT: Sullivan never claimed to be representing the teachings of any church. Forcing faculty to conceal their sexual identity is a clear violation of their right to speak publicly. No one should ever be threatened for disclosing their institutional affiliation.

d) University of Maryland: The Family Policy Network threatened to sue the university for distributing copies of the play about Matthew Shepard, "The Laramie Project,” if a litigant could be found. Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, attacked the play as "heavy-handed liberal bias masquerading as open discussion and free inquiry." Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America’s Cultural and Family Institute denounced it as a “state-supported institution trying to force-feed homosexual promotion down the throats of college kids.” The anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas brought demonstrators to campus to oppose the distribution of the book to students, led by Fred Phelps, who called it “a lying piece of fag propaganda."

(Diamondback, Sept. 3, 2002; Oct. 4, 2002; Nov. 11, 2002; Hannity & Colmes, August 27, 2002)

Back to 2002-03 State of Academic Freedom Report

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