4. Heterosexual Correctness

Perhaps no group is more persecuted on college campuses than gay, lesbian, and bisexual faculty and students. Deprived of protection under the law, and banned by many colleges, gays and lesbians are still fighting for the right to equality. Many of the same people who condemn "political correctness" are silent about attacks on the rights of gays and lesbians, or are leading the campaign for homophobia.

While fewer gays and lesbians are closeted than in the past and discrimination is less severe than it once was, coming out is still a risk to a teacher's career. Formal discrimination against gay and lesbian faculty has not been eliminated. The worst offenders are religious institutions, and several incidents are described on page 31 of this report. But homophobia also persists at many secular colleges.

In July 1994, openly lesbian poet Nuala Archer was removed as director of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center after she sponsored a national poetry contest for "all lesbian poets of color" that was funded by a $5,635 grant from the Women's Community Foundation. Her critics claim the firing was due to her poor administration of the Poetry Center. But David Evert of the Poetry Center committee noted, "My only concern was that the last thing we wanted was to have something coming out of CSU that was potentially controversial without some sort of warning." Even if Archer's administrative skills were questionable, the fear of something "controversial" was clearly the major factor in her dismissal. (Cleveland Plain-Dealer, 8/9/94)

At the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology, English professor Henry Gonshak proposed a summer course on "gay and lesbian studies." A fundamentalist pastor in a local church wrote a letter to the newspaper protesting the class title. Gonshak reports, "the alumni soon began besieging Tech administrators with letters and telephone calls. They threatened to withdraw thousands of dollars in contributions unless the class was dropped." (Democratic Culture, Spring 1995)

Students supporting gay and lesbian rights are also heavily regulated. Administrators at many colleges encourage homophobia by banning gay and lesbian student groups and in some cases by making homosexuality grounds for expulsion. In 1993, Gonzaga University trustees refused to recognize a gay and lesbian group because of the university's Catholic affiliation. Gonzaga president Bernard Coughlin declared, "such a movement clearly is a betrayal of the university's tradition and mission." In 1993, the student government at St. John's University banned the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Alliance for being inconsistent with the institution's religious values, a day after the student group returned from a national march on Washington for gay rights. The administration refused to overturn the decision. (New York Times, 5/13/93) Gay and lesbian student groups have also been banned at Notre Dame, Boston College, and several other campuses.

In 1993, the student senate at Ohio Northern University voted to deny recognition to the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Alliance because the student body president claimed that "a club based solely on sexual orientation is not needed on this campus." In 1994, administrators at Stephen F. Austin State University overturned a student government's decision to ban a gay and lesbian student group from campus and revoke its funding because "a group that advocates breaking the law shouldn't be getting student fees." (Dallas Morning Star, 11/10/94)

In 1991, Auburn's student government refused to charter the Auburn Gay and Lesbian Alliance. After administrators approved the group under threat of an ACLU lawsuit, Alabama passed a law unanimous against using public funds or facilities to support a group that "promotes a lifestyle or actions" prohibited by state sodomy laws. Auburn University requested all student groups to sign a promise not to encourage violations of the state's sodomy law. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/21/92, 8/16/94)

When gay and lesbian activities are supported at public universities, state legislators often intervene and threaten funding. In 1994, the University of Texas at Austin changed the funding for gay and lesbian counseling workshops under threats from state legislators, who warned declared: "the funding arrangement could have jeopardized their credibility with the Legislature." (Houston Chronicle, 9/16/94)

At Indiana University, plans to spend $50,000 on an Office of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Student Support Services were scrapped after a state legislator threatened to cut $500,000 from the university's budget and a wealthy alumnus threatened to withhold a million dollar donation. Instead, the support center will be renamed the Office of Student Ethics and Anti-Harassment Office, and will be funded by private donations. (Campus Report, November 1994)

At Kent State University, the College Republicans protested allowing a class on the sociology of gays and lesbians to be taught, arguing that offering to students was tantamount to University sanctioning of the gay lifestyle. In 1993, before the course was ever taught, an Ohio state senator wrote to Kent State president Carol Cartwright, threatening to cut state funding if it was permitted. (Campus Report, November 1994) The interference of state legislators in university affairs poses a dramatic threat to academic freedom, particularly when their goal is to silence gays and lesbians.

More Censorship at the University of Iowa

In October 1993, the Iowa Board of Regents imposed a policy on the University of Iowa requiring professors to warn students before any materials, "graphic, still photo, motion film form, or otherwise" are presented which include "explicit representation of human sexual acts that could reasonably be expected to be offensive to some students." These students, the Board ruled, must be allowed to skip class without penalty and complete an alternative assignment, or drop the course without penalty.

The policy was prompted by an option film, "Taxi zum Klo" shown as part of the German Film and Video Series for German conversation classes in 1991 at the University of Iowa. The flier promoting the film included the disclaimer, "Don't come near this film if the world of homosexuality upsets you in any way." Although students in German conversation classes were told attendance was optional, Iowa President Hunter Rawlings quickly condemned the showing of the movie: "I find it difficult to believe that it was appropriate to use this film in the course, and I have conveyed this concern to the College of Liberal Arts." In response to the film, then-Board of Regents President Marvin Pomerantz said, "We hope that we don't see this kind of thing again, and we're going to make sure everyone involved hears that from the regents." Pomerantz did not believe the instructors would be fired, but only because "it would be difficult to make the dismissals stick." But he declared, "There is some appropriate action that should be taken that is clear and decisive so that the faculty understands that, while we protect their rights and we stand for their rights, we don't tolerate bad judgment."

The University of Iowa tried to stop further showings of "Taxi zum Klo." The administration continued to refuse to allow permission for the movie to be shown, until a few hours before its screening on November 21, 1991, when the Iowa Attorney General informed the university that they had no legal authority to prevent it. After the controversy over "Taxi zum Klo," the Board of Regents ordered a policy developed for sexually explicit materials at all Iowa public universities. While faculty debated proposals for regulating the use of sexually explicit materials, two additional incidents led to reprimands of instructors at the University of Iowa.

In February 1993, teaching assistant Megan O'Connell was reprimanded and ordered to apologize to students for showing offensive material in a class and failing to inform the students of their right to leave. An eight-minute video by Iowa City artist Franklin Evans which depicted two men engaged in oral sex was shown to her art colloquium of 150 students at the University of Iowa. The video consisted of a collage of images altered by various technical tricks, including three short segments totaling 15 seconds that contained the offensive material. A first-year student who objected to the video called her mother, who attacked the video as "pornographic" and declared, "For a man to be having oral sex with another man is objectionable." The student said, "To me, it wasn't art at all because this guy was trying to push his way of life on other people. I don't think that's right, showing a sexual act in class and condoning it." Former Board of Regents President Marvin Pomerantz warned in a board meeting: "Somebody is going to get fired around this university if they don't follow the rules."

In April 1994, a teaching assistant for an "American Cultures" class was reprimanded for showing "Paris is Burning" to a class, even though the film about transvestites had no graphic sex scenes at all, and despite the fact that the TA had warned the class beforehand about its content. Nevertheless, three students complained to university officials about being shown a film on drag queens. Only when the TA fought back and protested the decision was a letter rescinding the reprimand put in his file. However, the original letter was not removed, and the retraction occurred only because the policies "were not readily available or widely known."

After the University of Iowa (unlike other Iowa universities) failed to pass a sexually explicit materials policy that satisfied the Board of Regents, a policy was unilaterally imposed on it which required instructors to warn students of potentially offensive sexual materials and to consult with the offended students to offer alternative assignments or the option of dropping the course.

In 1994, the University of Iowa president imposed a "compromise" version of the rule requiring teachers "to give students adequate indication of any unusual or unexpected class presentations or materials." While the new rule eliminated the specific attack on issues of sexuality, it broadened the policy to cover any material which any student might feel is "unusual or unexpected." There is little doubt that a chilling effect on discussions of sexuality, especially homosexuality, has been the result. (Democratic Culture, Spring 1994)

In December 1995, the Iowa Board of Regents voted 7 to 2 to eliminated the "unusual or unexpected" clause. However, faculty are now required "to present to appropriate context for course content" and strictly prohibited from using materials that have "no pedagogical relationship to the subject matter of the course." The old language was dropped because it was "too hard to define," but the new language is no better. Now instead of being required to warn students about offensive material, teachers are banned from using anything the Regents deem "pedagogically unrelated" to the course topic. Like the old ban, the new ban is an unnecessary restriction on academic freedom which will have a chilling effect on what is discussed in the classroom. The Iowa Board of Regents should stop protecting students from learning, and start protecting faculty from vague and arbitrary bans on classroom speech.