From: corwin+@CMU.EDU (Scott Safier)
Subject: Re: discrimination at CMU
Originator: scotts@MORPHEUS.CIMDS.RI.CMU.EDU
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
	<1dn3qsINNj0v@mizar.usc.edu>
	<CORWIN+.92Nov10081709@MORPHEUS.CIMDS.RI.CMU.EDU>
	<1dp84bINN550@mizar.usc.edu>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 17:00:16 GMT

In article <1dp84bINN550@mizar.usc.edu> adolphso@mizar.usc.edu (adolphson) writes:

   In article <CORWIN+.92Nov10081709@MORPHEUS.CIMDS.RI.CMU.EDU> 
   corwin+@CMU.EDU (Scott Safier) writes:

   > 2) CMU should judge people based upon their talent, not their sex or
   > sexual orientation.  (Women were kicked out for being too fat, but
   > this was never a complaint about a man)

   I don't understand why you keep harping on talent.  Performing 
   arts programs are not like academic programs, and things that
   wouldn't matter if you were studying chemistry -- such as the
   pitch of your voice, how you stand, what you do with your hands
   when you talk, how you walk, your body -- *do* matter if you
   want to be an actor.  If an actor is in such poor control of
   his voice and body that he camps it up during every scene,
   then I really don't care how much "talent" he has.

CMU's policy of nondiscrimination includes sexual orientation.

Acting is a form of art.  Art, as with anything creative, is an
expression of some aspect of one's self.  Acting, like other performance
art, is an expressive form which seeks to create an illusion of a
different reality which elicits reactions from an audience.  Within
Drama, there are other areas which are art.  Directing, playwriting,
designing the costumes and the set each add to the illusion that is
being created.  And each requires some expression of the person
involved.

To tell an actor or any creative person not to bring something as
intimate as their sexuality into their work is asking them to deny that
sexuality.   If a director/writer/producer/etc does not like their
expression of a piece, then they have the right to get another person
for the part.  Those are the breaks.  But CMU's role is to refine a
person's talent, not criticize their sexuality or ask them to change.

I find the implication that it is OK to force someone to deny their
sexuality repugnant, and that is what I view as going on in Drama.


   > 3) Currently, any drama student who attends a meeting of cmuOUT, the
   > gay/lesbian/bisexual student group on campus, faces the risk of being
   > kicked out of the drama school.

   Is this a fact, or are you just asserting it to make the
   CMU's drama school look bad?

What motivation would I have to make my alma mata look bad?  It is fact.

"One of the first things you hear is if they can tell you are gay
onstage you're in big trouble.  I've seen kids here who are tortured
about it."  This is what a current told Stantin in his article (too bad
you didn't read it, David).  This student told Stantin that there are
times it is the sole response to someone's work.  "There was a student
who was told, 'Your acting work is fine, you're picking up the
technique, but you look effeminate and we can't have that."

   >   Third, from the Theater Week article on the above "campy" student,
   > "But Eric had not done any "campy" scenes, and in terms of physical
   > strength, he was one of the more muscular men in our class, the only
   > one, gay or straight, who regularly visited CMU's gym."

   Oh, puh-leeze. 

So, you believe it is OK for people in the performing arts to be
discriminated against if they are gay?

Scott Safier                                   corwin+@cmu.edu
Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
        
member, T.S.A.K.C.  B0/1 f+ w- g k+ s- m(+) e++

"We don't necessarily discriminate.  We simply exclude certain types of
people."
   Lt. Col. Gerald Wellman, an ROTC instructor at the MIT,
   on the military's ban on gays
   Newsweek, May 25

Newsgroups: soc.motss,alt.politics.homosexuality,co.politics