The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - 7
GOP hopefuls to
debate in Dearborn
CAMPAIGN From page 1
born student government presi-
dent, said his group is helping to
organize a live broadcast of pre-
and post-debate activity on the
Dearborn campus on radio station
WWJ throughout the day.
The Dearborn student govern-
ment also invited candidates to
come talk to students before the
debate.
Terry Gallagher, a spokes-
man for the University's
Dearborn campus, said the Uni-
versity is working with the Mich-
igan Republican Party and the
city of Dearborn to work out the
logistics of transportation, facili-
ties and broadcasting.
Michigan will likely see more
attention from the Republican
presidential candidates over the
next few months. Gov. Jennifer
DEPOSITS
From page 1
get adequately resolved by the
landlord," Chang said. "And some
tenants aren't taking full advan-
tage of their rights."
Goldstein had a similar view
of the approximately 28,000 stu-
dents who live in housing reg-
istered with the University's
Off-Campus Housing Program.
Landlords who join the program
agree to work with Student Legal
Services and OSCR. She said land-
lords often have a leg-up on stu-
PI-PES
From page 1
moderate Muslims is the key to
overcoming radical Islamism.
Pipes's views have drawn some
criticism.
Gottfried Hagen, director
of the University's Center for
Middle East and North African
Studies, said Pipes's interpreta-
tions of political Islam and radi-
cal Islamism are not shared by.
the majority of scholars in Middle
Eastern Studies in this country.
"Many are concerned about his
blurring the distinctions between
Islam, political Islam, mili-
tant Islam and terrorism," said
Hagen, who described Pipes as
having a "narrow understand-
ing" of Middle Eastern studies.
Prior to Pipes's speech, several
protesters outside the Modern
Languages Building carried signs
Granholm signed a bill last month
to hold a state primary on Jan.
15, one of the earliest dates in the
country.
Democrats, meanwhile, have
vowed to stay away from Michigan.
The Democratic National Commit-
tee has threatened to strip the state
of its convention delegates because
it broke party rules by scheduling
its primary before Feb. 5.
Six of the Republican candidates
spoke at the Mackinac Republi-
can Leadership Conference last
month. The last time the Demo-
crats descended on Michigan en
masse was in July, when nine can-
didates spoke at a forum in Detroit
sponsored by the NAACP.
Chris Irvine, chair of the Uni-
versity's chapter of the College
Republicans, said he thinks the
eventual GOP nominee will have
a better chance of winning Michi-
dents when it comes to disputes
because they are more familiar
with housing laws.
Goldstein said one of the best
defenses against extra charges is
attention to details.
"Students want to make sure to
read the lease atthe beginning," she
said. "The lease will say who gets
the money under what condition."
Student Legal Services also
advises students to adhere to a
series of deadlines outlined by
state law concerning landlord/
tenant relationships.
The timeline begins four days
after the property is vacated,
bearing messages like "Zionism
is Racism" and "Palestinians are
People."
Henry Herskovitz, a member of
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and
Friends, was among the protesters
opposed to Pipes's visiting cam-
pus.
Herskovitz, an Ann Arbor resi-
dent, said Pipes's Zionist views
"run contrary to the essence of
Judaism."
Zeeshaan Bhatti, president of
the Muslim Students' Association,
described Pipes' views on Islam
as "biased, misinformed and dis-
torted."
"(Pipes) is not relaying the
truth," said Bhatti, an LSA junior.
"He is distorting the truth and
using it for his own purposes."
Bhatti said that just as Pipes has
the right to articulate his positions
on Islam at public institutions
like the University of Michigan,
students have the right to "see
gan in the general election because
of the attention from the candi-
dates.
"The Republicans do seem to be
putting a lot of emphasis on Michi-
gan," he said. "The economy is
definitely a factor a lot of people in
Michigan are going to be curious
about."
But Sam Harper, the chair of the
University's chapter of the College
Democrats, said he isn't concerned
about the debate drawing focus
from the Democratic candidates.
He said the College Democrats
have been working to promote
the Democratic Party by hosting a
student debate last week. He also
mentioned that the College Demo-
crats are in the process of planning
an event - which would take place
Nov. 5 on the Diag - to kick off
the year-long countdown until the
presidential election.
when tenants are required by law
to send their landlord a forward-
ing address. A Student Legal Ser-
vices guide on security deposits
recommends that students pro-
vide an in-state address because
landlords know that out-of-state
residents are less likely to fight
for a small claims case.
If the landlord doesn't have
a forwarding address within 30
days, he or she doesn'tihave to give
the former tenant an itemized list
of deductions for damages. Ten-
ants can't take legal action against
their landlord until 45 days after
they've moved out.
through (Pipes's) propaganda" and
"know the truth."
Ari Siegel, president of Israel
IDEA, said Pipes's status as one
of the foremost experts on Middle
East policy was behind the deci-
sion to bring the prize-winning
columnist to campus.
There were no disruptions
during Pipes's speech. A Depart-
ment of Public Safety officer and
several of Pipes's personal body-
guards were positioned through-
out the auditorium. Members of
Israel IDEA and Susan Wilson, the
director of the University's Office
of Student Activities and Leader-
ship, stood outside the auditorium
searching bags.
DPS spokeswoman Diane
Brown said cooperation before
the event between organizers, the
office of Student Activities and
Leadership and DPS ensured that
the event happened without inci-
dents.
BEN SIMON/Daily
LSA junior Amber Sue - who would only give her first and middle name - tried out for Playboy's Girls of the Big Ten pictorial at
Weber's Inn yesterday.
PLAYBOY From page 1
before tryouts are held in a college
town, Playboy runs an ad in the
university's newspaper.
To try out, women must be full
or part-time students at a Big Ten
university and at least 18 years old.
The tryout consists of basic shots in
a bathing suit or lingerie - but mod-
els are allowed to strip completely if
they want. If the magazine chooses a
woman from the University, it could
start shooting as soon as Wednes-
day. The Playboyteam plans to leave
Ann Arbor by Sunday. They were
last at Michigan State University..
On average, about 30 girls will
turn up for college tryouts in each
town, but certain regions will turn
out more, Mizuno said.
"You go to Florida, California,
some of the Texas schools - except
for Baylor - and you'll get more
girls," Mizuno said. "Some people
say the higher the (academics), the
lower the turnout."
Mizuno said he doesn't think
that's true.
Models don't have to pose com-
pletely nude for the magazine.
"You're able to choose how much
you want to expose," said Renee,
who said if she were chosen, she
would "probay" be willing to get
naked for the Ksagazine.
Renee's keeping her Playboy try-
out relatively quiet. But that would
change quickly if she made it into
the pictorial.
"I'd tell everybody," she said.
She expects response to be posi-
tive, except, perhaps, in the nursing
school.
"It'd be 'drama,'" she said, mak-
ing air quotes. "'Oh my God, I can't
believe she did that."'
But she said she wouldn't care.
"I think it's liberating," she said.
The college girls feature can be
a stepping stone into the Playboy
world. Sara Jean Underwood,2007's
Playmate of the Year, was first fea-
tured in the- magazine's October
2005 "Girls of the PAC 10" pictorial.
"I would like to be in a regular
issue, a Playmate - maybe even
Playmate of the Year someday,"
Amber said. "Who knows?"
Homophobia ramp ant
in some nursing homes
Jerusalem division takes
center stage in Israeli debate
Olmert tells Knesset
of need for peace
JERUSALEM (AP) - Two
senior Israeli politicians, includ-
ing the prime minister's closest
ally, talked openly yesterday about
dividing Jerusalem, signaling a
possible shift in Israeli opinion
about one of the Mideast's most
contentious issues.
The dispute over Jerusalem has
derailed negotiations in the past,
and the latest comments come at a
time when Israeli and Palestinian
teams are trying to agree on prin-
ciples guiding future peace talks.
The ideas raisedbyVicePremier
Haim Ramon still fall far short of
Palestinian demands to establish
their capital in all of the city's east-
ern sector, annexed by Israel after
the 1967 Mideast War.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert, meanwhile, told parlia-
ment he will not be deterred from
seeking a peace deal with the
Palestinians. He said Israel has.
missed opportunities in the past,
and warned that continued failure
would mean a "demographic strug-
gle steeped in blood and tears."
Olmert was unusually impas-
sioned but short on specifics. He
made no mention of Jerusalem.
Later yesterday, Israeli and Pal-
estinian teams met for the first time
to start drafting a joint declaration
of principles that would guide nego-
tiators if peace talks were to resume
after a seven-year freeze.
Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo
said afterward that no results
could have been expected from the
first meeting, but he hoped a mean-
ingful document would emerge.
The document, which is to
address the key disputes - bor-
For some elderly, homebuyers and those living in
their own homes.
move can mean "Many times gay people avoid
seeking help at all because of their
return to the closet fears abouthowthey'llbe treated,"
said David Aronstein, president of
By JANE GROSS Stonewall Communities. "Unless
The New York Times they see affirming actions, they'll
assume the worst."
Even now, at 81 and with her Homophobia directed at the
memory beginning to fade, Glo- elderly has many faces.
ria Donadello recalls her painful Home health aides must be
brush with bigotry at an assisted- reminded not to wear gloves at
living center in Sante Fe, N.M. inappropriate times, for example
Sitting with those she considered while opening the front door or
friends, "people were laughing making the bed, when there is no
and making certain kinds of com- evidence of HIV infection, said
ments, and I told them, 'Please Joe Collura, a nurse at the largest
don't do that, because I'm gay."' home care agency in the Green-
The result of her outspoken- wich Village neighborhood of
ness, Donadello said, was swift Manhattan.
and merciless. "Everyone looked A lesbian checking into a double
horrified," she said. No longer room at a Chicago rehabilitation
included in conversation or wel- center was greeted by a roommate
come at meals, she plunged into yelling, "Get the man out of here!"
depression. Medication did not The lesbian patient, Renae Ogle-
help. With her emotional health tree, summoned a friend to take
deteriorating, Donadello moved her'elsewhere.
into an adult community nearby Sometimes tragedy results. In a
that caters to gay men and lesbi- nursing home inan East Coast city,
ans. an openly gay man, without fam-
"I felt like I was a pariah," she ily or friends, was recently moved
said, settled in her new home. "For off his floor to quiet the protests
me, it was a choice between life of other residents and their fami-
and death." lies. He was given a room among
Elderly gay people like Don- patients with severe disabilities or
adello, living in nursing homes or dementia. The home called upon
assisted-living centers or receiv- Amber Hollibaugh, now a senior
ing home care, increasingly report strategist at the National Gay and
that they have been disrespected, Lesbian Task Force and the author
shunned or mistreated in ways of the first training curriculum for
that range from hurtful to deadly, nursinghomes. Hollibaughsaid she
even leading some to commit sui- assured the 79-year-old man that a
cide. more humane solution would be
Some have seen their partners found, but he hanged himself. She
and friends insulted or isolated. was unwilling to identify the nurs-
Others live in fear of the day when ing home, because she still con-
they are dependent on strangers sults there, among other places.
for the most personal care. That While this outcome is exceed-
dread alone can be damaging, ingly rare, moving gay residents to
physically and emotionally, say placate others is common, said Dr.
geriatric doctors, psychiatrists Melinda Lantz, chief of geriatric
and social workers. psychiatry at Beth Israel Medical
The plight of the gay elderly has Center in New York, who spent 13
been taken up by a generation of years in a similar post at the Jew-
gay men and lesbians, concerned ish Home and Hospital Lifecare
about their own futures, who have System. "When you're stuck and
begun a national drive to educate have to move someone because
care providers about the social iso- they're being ganged up on, you
lation, even outright discrimina- put them with people who are very
tion, that gay, lesbian bisexual and confused," Lantz said. "That's a
transgender clients face. terrible nuts-and-bolts reality."
Several solutions are emerging. The most common reaction, in a
In Boston, New York, Chicago, generation accustomed to being in
Atlanta and other urban centers, the closet, is a retreat back to the
so-called LGBT Aging Projects are invisibility that was necessary for
springing up, to train long-term most of their lives, when homo-
care providers. There are also sexuality was considered both a
openly gay geriatric case manag- crime and a mental illness. A part-
ers who can guide clients to com- ner is identified as a brother. No
passionate services. pictures or gay-themed books are
At the same time, there is a left around.
move to separate-but-equal care. Elderly heterosexuals also suf-
In the Boston suburbs, the Chel- fer the indignities of old age, but
sea Jewish Nursing Home will not to the same extent, Lantz said.
break ground in December for a "There is something special about
complex that includes a unit for having to hide this part of your
the gay and lesbian elderly. And identity at a'time when your entire
Stonewall Communities in Boston identity is threatened," she said.
has begun selling homes designed "That's a faster pathway to depres-
for older gay people with support- sion, failure to thrive and even
ive services similar to assisted-liv- premature death."
ing centers, available to both new The movement to improve con-
ditions for the gay elderly is driven
by demographics. There are an
estimated 2.4 million gay, les-
bian or bisexual Americans over
the age of 55, said Gary Gates, a
senior research fellow at the Wil-
liams Institute at the University of
California, Los Angeles. That esti-
mate was extrapolated by Gates
using census data that counts only
same-sex couples along with other
government data that counts both
single and coupled gay people.
Among those in same-sex cou-
ples, the number of gay men and
women over 55 has almost doubled
from 2000 to 2006, Gates said, to
416,000, from 222,000.
California is the only state with
a law saying the gay elderly have
special needs, like other members
of minority groups. A new law
encourages training for employees
and contractors who work with the
elderly and permits state financing
of projects like gay senior centers.
Federal law provides no anti-
discrimination protections to
gay people. Twenty states explic-
itly outlaw such discrimination
in housing and public accommo-
dations. But no civil rights claims
have been made by gay residents
of nursing homes, according to
the Lambda Legal Defense Fund,
which litigates and monitors such
cases. Potential plaintiffs, the
organization says, are too frail or
frightened to bring action.
The problem is compounded,
experts say, because most of the
gay elderly do not declare their
identity, and institutions rarely
make an effort to find out who they
are to prepare staff members and
residents for what may be an unfa-
miliar situation.
So that is where Lisa Krinsky,
the director of the LGBT Aging
Project in Massachusetts, begins
her "cultural competency" train-
ing sessions, including one last
month at North Shore Elder Ser-
vices in Danvers, outside Boston.
Admissions forms for long-
term care have boxes to check for
marital status and next of kin. But
none of the boxes match the cir-
cumstances of gay men or lesbi-
ans. Krinsky suggested follow-up
questions like "Who is important
in your life?"
In the last two years, Krin-
sky has trained more than 2,000
employees of agencies serving
the elderly across Massachusetts.
She presents them with common
problems and nudges them toward
solutions.
A gay man fired his home health
aide. Did the case manager ask
why? The patient might be receiv-
ing unwanted Bible readings from
someone who thinks homosexual-
ity is a sin. What about a lesbian at
an assisted-living center refusing
visitors? Maybe she is afraid that
her friends' appearance will give
her away to fellow residents.
"We need to be open and sensi-
tive," Krinsky said, "but not wrap
them in a rainbow flag and make
them march in a parade."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Israeli parliament yesterday that a fail-
ure to reach peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians would mean "demo~
graphic struggle steeped in bloodshed and tears."
ders, Jerusalem, Israeli settle-
ments, Palestinian refugees - will
be the centerpiece of a U.S.-hosted
Mideast conference in November.
Olmert's speech appeared to be
a careful balancing act - sending
an encouraging message to the
Palestinians, while not giving his
hardline critics at home too much
ammunition by going into detail.
His central theme was a pledge
not to miss an opportunity to reach
a long-elusive peace deal, even
if it requires costly concessions.
Olmert said Israelis will have to
led go of some of the beliefs that
"fed the national ethos for many
years," a reference to giving up
West Bank land.
Olmert praised Mahmoud
Abbas, whom he has met six times
since the spring, as a trustworthy
partner, but at the same time por-
trayed the Palestinian president,
known as Abu Mazen, as weak.
"I know that the gap between the
honest and fair intentions of Abu
Mazen and (Palestinian Prime
Minister) Salam Fayyad, and their
ability to translate that into reality
is troublesome and arouses con-
cerns," Olmert said.