OPINION
Page 4
Thursday, April 2, 1987
Show
those
true
Blue
The Michigan Dail
a
colors
By Anonymous
Friday, April 3 is Gay Blue Jeans Day,
the culminating activity of the First
Annual Gay Awareness Week on the U of
M campus. On that day LaGROC
(Lesbian and -Gay Rights on Campus)
calls on you to: 1) demonstrate support
for lesbian and gay civil rights by making
sdre you wear something denim; 2)
demonstrate homophobia (fear and hatred
of gay people) by.making sure you avoid
denim; or 3) choose not to make a
political statement, by wearing what you
normally wear. On Friday, look for any,
campus-wide scarcity of blue jeans and
listen for hostile remarks to see how
prevelant anti-gay bigotry is at the 'U.'
The reasons for a Gay Blue Jeans Day
are three-fold. All are important, but if
you realize only the first two, then you
really miss the point about what makes
the tactic of a Blue Jeans Day so unique,
This is part one of a two-part series.
The author's name has been withheld
on request,for obvious reasons.
so frightening to some, and therefore
possibly so effective.
Reason 1: To Symbolize that Gay
People are as Common as Blue Jeans.
Just how many of us are gay depends a
lot on how you define "gay," a task not
as simple as it first may seem. Data from
the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research,
developed over five decades, shows that a
full 50 percent of men and 28 percent of
women experience some degree of
homoeroticism (same-sex emotional or
physical attraction) at some point in their
adult lives. A quarter of all men and a
tenth of all women have as much
homosexual attraction or experience as
they do heterosexual, while 13 percent of
men and 7 percent of women have
predominantly or exclusively homoerotic
attractions and same-sex experiences, for
most lasting throughout their adult lives.
On the average, then, 10 percent of all
Americans - 24 million people - are
predominantly homosexual (not counting
18 million more bisexuals), cutting
across all geographic, ethnic, and
socioeconomic classes. They can't all be
somebody else's acquaintances and not
. your own. Chances are, if you yourself
don't have a significant same-sex erotic
dimension to your own life, then
someone you know or someone
you love does - a friend, a sibling, a
parent (an estimated 10 percent of gay
people are parents), a spouse (a full one-
fourth are or have been married). Thus,
the choice of denim reflects well the
commonness of gay people on campus.
Reason 2: To Publicly Protest Anti-
Gay Bigotry and Discrimination,.and to
Support Equal Rights for Gay People. It
is no accident that lesbians and gay men
remain one of the few groups about
whom it is still socially acceptable to
discriminate against and to blatantly
derride in public. Every human feels her
sexuality very deeply. Our resultant
vulnerability and our uneasiness of
communication on matters sexual,
coupled with the myths, stereotypes, and
misinformation that abounds about
gayness produces a climate rife with fear,
of which the virulence of verbal
harassment and physical violence directed
towards gay-identified people are two of
the more common symptoms.
Homophobia is a disease.
Our society embraces this disease,
rather than challenge its fear, in many
other ways. Every day, lesbians and gay
men are subject to loss of employment,
housing, denial of social services and
other basic life needs without effective
means of legal redress. While our same-
sex families subsidize opposite-sex mar -
riages at discriminatorily higher tax rates,
we are denied custody and visitation rights
to our own children. Gay citizens are
excludable from our military; gay
foreigners are excludable at our borders.
Laws in half the states that criminalize
private adult consensual sexual behavior
(both same- and opposite-sex), are
discriminatorily enforced primarily
against gay men. Courts, no more
iinmune from homophobia than the rest
of society, render such contemptable
decisions as that in last summer's
Hardwick case, which implied that gay
people's feelings and interest in privacy
are somehow less legitimate, less
meritorious, less worthy of societal
recognition and support than anyone
else's.
At the 'U,' where a degree of non
descrimination reform has been attempted,
lesbians and gay men are still relegates to
a conspicuously second-class status,: in
the form of a Presidential Policy
Statement of limited visibility and scope,
instead of through a Regential Bylaw
provision that puts sexual orientation 'on
par with race, sex, and the other
enumerated catagories in the University's
non-discrimination "boiler-plate" clause.
Similarly, when the presence of gay
people on campus is acknowledged at all;
we are often euphemistically referred to as
"alternative lifestyles," saving the speaker
the "embarassment" of publicly uttering
the words "lesbians and gay men" while
relegating our innate sexuality to the
status of dismissable behavioral whim.
Like most of you, most gay people
want no special privileges, only respect
for the dignity of our feeling and
relationships, and effectuation of and
protection for the same basic civil rights
that many non-gay people take fot
granted. Blue Jeans Day affords you a
chance to make a statement in support of
such basic fairness.
LETTERS
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Black med students address disease
Vol. XCVlI, NQ. 125
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the Daily.
Go blue!
ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS, no one
faces greater personal abuses than
the University lesbian and gay male
community. In the midst of a larger
campaign to promote minority
rights on campus, a newly-formed
group calling itself Lesbian and
Gay Rights on Campus (LaGROC)
presented to University 'President
Harold Shapiro a list of twelve
demands which deserve immediate
implementation. The requests are:,
1. Inclusion of "sexual
orientation" in the University's
Non-Discrimination Logo - the
existing non-discrimination state -
ment - and in the appropriate
Regental Bylaw.
2. A procedure established for
handling anonymous complaints of
harassment and/or discrimination
based on sexual orientation.
3. Increased funding for the
Lesbian and Gay Male Programs
Office (LGMPO), including full-
time appointment status for the Co-
coordinators, totalling $111,500
per year.
4. Addition of "Gay Raps"
through the Lesbian and Gay Male
Programs Office's Educational
Outreach Program in the
Orientation Program for incoming
University students.
5. Appointment of a system-
wide, full-time coordinator for Gay
programming in University
Residence Halls.
6. Hiring of Gay Minority Peer
Advisors in the Residence Halls.
7. Establishment of a Mandatory
.a .
Course on Tolerance and Diversity,
with input from the LGMPO.
8. Appointment of a LGMPO
staff member to AIDS Task Force.
9. A campus-wide educational
event on AIDS.
10. Transfer of the book Gay is
Not Good from the "Homo -
sexuality" section of the graduate
library to the Religious Studies
section.
11. Establishment of a Gay
Studies Program at the University.
12. Establishment of a Gay
Studies literature collection and
reading room.
These demands address essential
needs of a publicly ridiculed and
neglected sector of the University.
Experts on Human Sexuality assert
that approximately ten percent of
the population is gay. Dis -
crimination or harassment based on
alleged sexual orientation, which
victimizes over 3,000 homosexual
students at the University, needs to
be combatted on all fronts.
LaGROC has asked students to
join them in opposing dis -
crimination on the basis of sexual
orientation by wearing blue jeans
on Friday and attending a rally on
the Diag at noon today, featuring
Craig Covey, President of the
Michigan Organization for Human
Rights. Although an aversion to
denim on Friday will assuredly
reveal much existing homophobia,
a personal commitment to basic
human rights should be demon -
strated by all. Go blue on Friday.
To the Daily:
With regard to the "Will
This Madness Ever Stop" letter
printed in the March 19
Michigan Daily, we as Black
medical students and members
of the Black Medical
Association see fit to respond
to its author and the University
community.
Had the author been
responsible enough to speak
with the Admissions office at
the Medical School before
writing such a letter, he would
have found no support for his
claims regarding Black student
admissions. The author stated
in his letter that the "Medical
School has to lower their
standards to accept the Black
student simply because they
have to reach their quota." He
also stated that "the Medical
School is forced to take
students who are not qualified."
The author made these
statements with no objective
data to support them, and
without data these are merely
wild speculations.
While it is true that the
University of Michigan
Medical School is involved in
programs designed to further
opportunities for Medical
School and careers in medicine
for members of minority and
financially disadvantaged
groups, there are no enrollment
quotas. The Medical School
has never been and is not
currently forced to take any
unqualified student. Every
student in this Medical School
is qualified and we all have to
pass the same objectively
graded examinations, complete
all of the same requirements,
and obtain the same board
certifications to graduate. And
further, the vast majority of
Black students in the Medical
School graduate and go on to
outstanding residency pro -
grams.
The Medical School's
involvement in Affirmative
Action is meant to increase the
number of minorities, who are
underrepresented in medicine.
It is a very simple concept;
take the number of Black
physicians in the United
States, and divide by the
number of Black people in the
country, and you come up with
a number that barely shows
upon your calculator! This
number is what these sort of
programs are designed to
increase. They are not designed
to accept unqualified ap -
plicants. And contrary to
common belief, Blacks have
the lowest application-
acceptance rate nationwide, so
those that are accepted, are
well-qualified Black medical
students are committed to, and
end up practicing in inner-city
areas heavily populated by
Blacks. These areas are often
medically underserved, and have
a need for qualified doctors who
are able to deal with the
cultural dynamics involved
with effective health care
delivery.
Having already dispelled the
misconception that the Medical
School is forced to admit
unqualified students, let us
move on to another issue.
Most medical schools were
permitted, ,to, exclude all
qualified Black students until
the 1950s. ''es it is true, most
medical schools did not admit
any Blacks, and out of that era,
came the Black medical schools
- namely Howard University,
and Meharry Medical College.
These schools are still strong
educators of close to 85 percent
of the Black physicians in the
United States. It also seems
ironic that the author can
comfortably discredit Blacks in
medicine when we have made
some of the most important
contributions to the medical
field - namely Dr. Charles
Drew, who pioneered tech -
niques to process blood plasma
still being used today by the
American Red Cross, and Dr.
Daniel Hale Williams, the first
man to operate successfully on
the human heart. Enough said
of history, or should we say
"Black" history, since in
traditional American history
courses, these renowned
physicians and other great
Black Americans are not
acknowleged.
To address the issue of
Black organizations on
campus, it was tragic but true
that 30-40 years ago, many
professional organizations
systematically excluded Blacks.
Whentthe organizations felt
societal pressures to admit
Blacks, they did not express
concerns for issues unique to
Blacks, or if they did, they did
so without much vigor. This
led to the development of
"Black" groups - groups
designed to address issues
unique to Black people. These
groups were needed then, and
even today, to help us retain
cultural identity, to keep us
informed about conditions
confronting our people, and to
act as a support system for
incoming and currently enrolled
students. When you thinly
about it, many groups are.
formed in order to address
common personal concerns-
there are womens groups;
religious groups, environ
mental groups, senior citizens
groups, etc. Are you against
them also?
In conclusion, we would
like to say that we agree that
the rallies and demonstrations
will not end all racism; the}
can't, racism is inherent in
one's heart and soul. What we
feel they represent is an outcry
against a segment of out
society that openly expressk4
racist opinions that will
interfere with our progressas,
individuals and as a people.
-Tonya F. Fuller, BMA
member
Tony StalliQn,
Admissions Committee
memfier
Steven McClark,- BMA,
Vice President, 1984-85
Cassandra L. Tribbl'e,
BMA President 198647
Keven L Robinson, BMA
President 1985-86
Lisa Thorton;
BMA President 1984-84
Brian K. McClenic, BMA
Liason to Admissions
March 20
Who will pay the price of Latin debt?
To the Daily:
The latest occurrences in the
Latin American debt scene may
be the most radical change in
perspective for both the debtor
nations and the international
lenders since 1982. Last week,
Brazil startled the world's
bankers by indefinitely sus-
pending interest payments on
$70 billion of its $108 billion
foreign debt. Since then,
Ecuador has suspended interest
payments on its $9.1 billion
debt, and Argentina's treasury
secretary suggested that his
country could follow Brazil's
lead.
But even without an actual
moratorium on debt payments,
the Latin American countries
are now bargaining from a
stronger position. Mexico -
the region's largest debtor after
Brazil - is still waiting for
banks to come through with
,the $7.7 billion loan they
agreed to provide in September.
To date 330 of the 400 banks
involved in Mexico's loan have
indicated their agreement, with
the remaining 70 small and
medium-sized banks compris-
ing only three percent of the
total package. Despite the
holdouts, the ceremony to sign
the agreement is slated for
offered to a Third World debtor,
and many banks have said that
granting such a low rate would
be difficult.
Mexico is current with its
interest payments, but warned
last week that if it doesn't
receive the new loans by March
20, the situation could change.
Federal Reserve Chairman
Paul A. Volker told congres-
sional committees last week
that he is increasingly con-
cerned about the problems in
the debtor countries and is
worried that "battle fatigue" is
setting in among the debtors
and creditors. Most economists
agree that the debt problems in
Latin America are largely the
result of mismanagement and
waste. Every six years another
Mexican president retires as
one of the richest men in the
world, as Mexico slips further
away from solvency.
Brazil's current problems are
largely the result of the
economic policy of the Jose
Sarny administration. To boost
his sagging popularity, Sarney
adopted policies to encourage
domestic growth, and the
resulting boom increased da-
mestic demand for goods that
used to be exported, and for
imported goods as well. This
evaporated the massive trade
surplus that had enabled Brazil
to pay off its foreign debts. But
whether or not Brazil's prol-
lems are Sarney's fault, they
are now the problems of the
international financial system
and the world economy.
Meanwhile, Argentina-
the region's third largest debtori
owing $52 billion in foreign
loans - has taken out an
emergency loan from the
United States and other lending
countries, to pay its bank's
until it can reach new ternrs
with them. The financial fate
of Argentina, Mexico, and the
rest of the Latin American
debtor nations remains to be
seen, but the head of inter
national lending at a' major
U.S. multinational bank wak
quoted in the Mexico City
News as saying, "the rules are
going to change."
-Daniel Blank
March 18
The Daily welnme. letter.v from it.v
'
I- :-AM M7!
11