From: buckmr@RPI.EDU
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: News from Auburn, Alabama
Date: 12 Apr 92 21:35:24 GMT

From: Dale Prince <JPRINCE3@UA1VM.UA.EDU>
Subject:      More on Alabama


*** This was posted to the Queer Nation mailing list qn@queernet.org ***

The following is a reprint (without permission) of an editorial from The
Crimson White, the University of Alabama's campus newspaper.  Material marked
with brackets is my own.

SGA Senate following Auburn's lead on G/LA issue
Business as usual

If only we could come back from spring break to a clean slate, a campus free of
 political ebarrassments waiting to explode into lawsuits  (oops, I don't have
brackets, so these things will have to do.  Note that Auburn administrators
went mad and brought lawsuits against everyone involved in the AGLA contro-
versy there).

If only the SGA Senate hadn't gone so far out of its way to take a cheap shot
at the Gay/Lesbian Association.  (actually the "A" stands for Alliance)

But apparently the oppurtunity to indulge in some typically mean-spirited
legislation against a defenseless target was just too good to pass up.  The Sen
ate gutted the Financial Affairs Committee's recommended allocation  ($800; $23
5 more than last year) for the G/LA, the only group singled out for such treatm
ent.

The Senate was presumably aware that the director of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay
Rights Project has said he is prepared to sue any state university that denies
funding or recognition to a homosexual group based on its sexuality.  But that
didn't stop the Senate from singling the G/LA out.  Nor did it prevent C&BA Sen
. Jeff Hand from explicitly stating that he voted for the cut on grounds of rel
igion and sexuality.  Hand, apparently letting his mother do his thinking for h
im (Hand told the Senate that his mother forbade him to vote in favor of the G/
LA)-didn't mention his constituents' wishes-but that's a minor point next to th
e fact that his moralizing was being taped for use in court. (as per the instru
ctions of the ACLU.)

The Senate's budget decisions now go before the faculty and student membership
of the Student Life Committee, which will make recommendations to Vice Presiden
t for Student Affairs Harry Knopke.  The committee, presumably to clean up the
Senate's mess before it's too late, is holding a special session Tuesday at 3 p
.m.

Hopefully the committee will recommend, and Knopke will decisively support, a r
eversal of the Senate's decision.  But this is no triumph; it is a pity. Becaus
e when we hope for this reversal, we're hoping the administration wil lstep in
to override a student government that can't be relied upon to do what's right.
When that reversal comes to pass, we will be in exactly the same position Aubur
n was in months ago when the president overruled teh student senate to extend a
 charter to the Auburn Gay and Lesbian Association.

Let's review how we came to be in this situation, and consider the role of good
old Machine-style politics (the Machine is a secret coalition of select fratern
ities and sororities designed to affect campus politics; for more information s
ee the most recent ESQUIRE and its article on The Most Powerful Fraternity in A
merica, an article which the UA SGA overwhelmingly voted to condemn, as if to s
ay "Begone, you have no power here.):

1)The 91-92 Senate passes a resolution asking state Attorney General Jimmy Evan
s to decide whether or not organizations like the G/LA can legally be funded, e
ven though the SGA has been funding the G/LA for two years.  The resolution is
authored by Legislative Liason Chad Green and Sens. Liles Burke, Todd Rich and
Chuck Hess (Hess is painted as a young Ralph Nader in the ESQUIRE article.  He
was nearly outed by members of the G/LA who regularly play pool with him at Mic
hael's, Tuscaloosa's gay bar.  Hess attempted to withdraw his support when he n
oted the looks being given him but Burke refused to accept the withdrawal.)

2)Then-SGA president Trey Boston vetoes the resolution. (I understand that his
mother is a um . . . patron of the arts, and that she demanded that he veto the
 resolution.) Later asked about rumors that the veto earned him the enmity of t
he Machine, Boston will only say he did hear from the group.

3)Green, on the night before the Senate votes to cut G/LA funding, says "Expect
 a surprise."  Green, whose service to the Machine has included carrying word t
o SGA president Mark Bain that he had the Machine endorsement, is now an Off-ca
mpus senator appointed by Bain.  (The SGA presidential race consisted of three
candidates, one of whom dropped out due to personal matters i.e. he is young an
d in the closet, although not closeted to me or my roommates, since being somew
hat visible, we --particularly my roommate Joey who recently had a novel publis
hed--tend to attract that uncertain crowd.  Another of the candidates was a you
ng black man who ran in direct oppositon to the Machine.  He later came out to
a friend of mine, but has come out to no one else.  The Machine candidate won.)

4)Green launches the move to cut G/LA funding.  A handful of senators, notably
new appointee John England, oppose.  A vote is taken after truncated debate and
 the motion passes.  It's a voice vote, of course, so the herd following Green'
s lead is able to remain safely anonymous.

Remember how nice it felt to think we lived on a more enlightened campus? If on
ly it were true.
*******End of Article

In fact the student life committee voted to give the G/LA the full amount origi
nally recommended, stating that the SGA will have to rebudget in order to fit t
he G/LA's funds into the picture.  Additionally, Vice-President of the SGA, the
 evil Jason Fair was thoroughly trashed by the faculty members of the committee
when he claimed that the SGA had not been discriminatory.  "We know why you did
it and you know why you did it, so stop pretending."  Fair claimed innocence an
d the G/LA president said, "Jason Fair!  Now you stop that! I have your speeche
s on tape!"  So the UA G/LA continues WITH increased funds in spite of a blind
and deaf SGA and a legalistically moronic attorney general.  End of Story. Hi,
Mom.
---
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735. 
vox:(518)-276-8910 fax:(518)-276-6920 buckmr@rpi.edu buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet
"I might be President by now if it weren't for this 'queer' thing" -Gore Vidal
Newsgroups: soc.motss