Anti-gay actions protested

Letter writing and rally planned by new group

Oberlin students protested anti-gay, lesbian and bisexual Utah legislation over the weekend, giving rise to a new student organization supporting homosexual rights.

The group's first organizational meeting was held on March 1, and was attended by about 30 students, faculty and community members. The meeting was organized by first-year Adam Heintz and junior Julianne Donnelly.

The meeting's agenda included constructing a statement of goals. The group's statement of vision described the organization's identity as "a coalition of people of diverse sexualities formed specifically in response to the attack on human (specifically queer) rights in the Feb. 20 Salt Lake City School Board decision and two anti-homosexual bills in the Utah State Legislature."

The group gathered in response to actions taken by the Utah State Legislature and the Salt Lake City School Board concerning the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance in East High School of Salt Lake City.

The Salt Lake School Board banned all extracurricular activities at East High on Feb. 20 in compliance with a Utah state law that does not allow the school board to refuse to grant a charter to a single extracurricular organization without banning all other extracurricular organizations. Because the Salt Lake City School Board refused to grant a charter to the Gay-Straight Alliance, all extracurricular activities at East High were banned.

The Utah State Legislature responded by drawing up two bills concerning homosexuality in public schools. One of the bills, SB246, intended to "prevent school employees and volunteers from encouraging, condoning or supporting illegal conduct such as sodomy," as reported in the Salt Lake Tribune on Feb. 24. This bill has passed through the legislature and awaits to be signed into law by republican governor Mike Leavitt. The group's agenda on March 1 included discussion of ways to protest the Utah State Government and Salt Lake School Board. Methods discussed included contacting other lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) organizations in the state of Ohio to assemble in a statewide rally.

The group has also sent the addresses of Leavitt and members of The Salt Lake School Board to other organizations via e-mail. One of the goals listed on the vision statement was for the group to network with as many colleges, national activist organizations, high school students and teachers, religious groups and media as possible, in order to make their message as far-reaching as possible.

A second meeting was held on Wednesday. Members again discussed the statewide rally and resolved unclarified details. March 16 was picked as the date of the rally, and Columbus was agreed upon for the site of the rally, though a specific location in the city remains unidentified.

The group agreed to attract speakers who would address the issues of anti-homosexual activities in Ohio and across the nation, youth stances on homosexuality and how the Utah legislation parallels other acts of oppression against various minorities in schools. The group also hopes to get speakers who will share their personal experiences with homosexuality and oppression.

Students who attended the meetings voiced strong support for protesting the Utah and Salt Lake City measures. First-year Yvonne Doble said, "I think that this whole thing really moved me in that it's targeted at youth and we see a lot of homophobia in the culture. It's really important that we notice that it affects youth just as much, if not more, than anyone else … I really think that it's also important to make this a rallying point, and we need to involve youth in all levels of Queer activism and working in the communities to embrace youth as a real resource, as something that should be supported and interacted with."

The organization's main method of protest was to send letters of protest directly to Leavitt and the Salt Lake School Board, and letter writing sessions were held on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Writers were asked by organizers to be sincere and courteous regarding letter content, and were also given guidelines as to what the letters should contain. Letters directed to Leavitt were supposed to argue that SB246 dictated morality too vaguely and violated the First Amendment. Letters sent to members of the Salt Lake School Board were supposed to explain the importance of LGB support groups, and point out that the board would be upholding its own integrity by accepting LGB groups.

First-year Greg Will also attended Wednesday night's meeting and a letter writing session. Will said, "When I saw the fliers I was extremely angry, although somehow not surprised because it was somehow consistent with my experience in high school in Virginia, even though it's completely across the country. I went to a letter-writing session, thinking that if I wrote a letter that I personally would feel better, and I would have done something and I became involved in doing the activism wanting to write the platform, because that suddenly became important to me in having a standing group doing something about it."

Heintz said that the group focused its attention on the Salt Lake City case "because it's blatantly homophobic and because it's blatantly violating the freedom of speech and it's trying to legislate one version of morality."

Heintz also stressed the importance of protesting anti-homosexual legislation in Utah. He said it was important to support the high school students and club organizers involved, and that Salt Lake City was very important in influencing the policy of the surrounding geographical area.

He also stressed that young homosexuals are highly targeted by the legislation. "It's clearly directed against queer children, and people who are young and therefore the most defenseless. It's also an area which is very prone to violence against queers."

Another desired, though not immediate, organization goal is to deal with oppressive measures against various racial and ethnic minorities, not just the homosexual community. Donnelly said that a goal of the group is to combat "all kinds of oppression, specifically oppressions that are being put through in legal format … legislation, school board decisions - basically institutionalized oppression."

Donnelly said it is not yet certain whether the group will consist of specialized groups of minorities, because the group has not yet approached minority communities. "It is definitely our hope, but it is not verified by the other communities. Before they do, we cannot say that it absolutely surely will happen," Donnelly said. The group will approach minority communities and clubs after the rally in Columbus.

Donnelly said it is important for the group to address oppression against all minorities as well as homosexuals because the ideologies employed against homosexuals is similar to that employed to discriminate against other minorities. "I think these are not isolated problems, I think the issues of marginalization and dehumanization happen to apply to many different groups that have been identified as somehow different from the mainstream," said Donnelly.

Names suggested for the organization are "Coalition Against Homophobia and Oppression" and "Youth Against Homophobia and Oppressive Organizations."

Donnelly expressed hope that the group would receive its charter this semester.