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