Hi Linda,

I've attached the minutes from last Friday's meeting. Feel free to make changes and distribute or send changes to me and I'll post to the listserve.

Charles

Date: Fri,  5 Sep 2003 23:55:38 -0400
From: cmbrown@atlantic.net
To: cbrown@agen.ufl.edu
Subject: minutes
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University of Florida Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Committee

Minutes for the September 5, 2003 meeting at The Jewish Studies Center, Walker Hall

Attendance

Linda Lamme, Chair; professor, College of Teaching and Learning (lammel@coe.ufl.edu)
Michael Malecki; staff member, T2Center (maleckim@ufl.edu)
Scott Feldman; staff member, Department of Chemistry (beammeup@ufl.edu)
Jim O'Donnell; student member, representing Gator Gay-Straight Alliance
Charles Brown; staff member, representing Rainbow Alliance (cbrown@agen.ufl.edu)
Gwynn Kessler; faculty member, Department of Religion (gkessler@ufl.edu)
Kimberly Browne; staff member, Office of the Provost (kbrowne@ufl.edu)
Michael Roedel; student member, representing Pride Student Union (mikeame@ufl.edu)
Ken Wald; faculty member, Political Science Department (kenwald@polisci.ufl.edu)
Carlos Hernandez; staff member, University Counseling Center (hernandez@counsel.ufl.edu)

Opening

Linda Lamme, chair of the committee, opened the meeting at 1:00 pm. Because this was the first meeting of the year, and there have been changes on the committee, Lamme invited each person present to introduce her/himself. Approximately five members were not present.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Minutes of the meeting of August ?? Were distributed via e-mail on August ??. For a copy, contact Linda Lamme (lammel@ufl.edu).

Reports

Pride Student Union - Michael Roedel reporting

This is Roedel's second year as president of Pride Student Union (PSU). He reported that the current PSU Web site is being relocated from the Student Government server to "grove."

In past years, PSU has sponsored the LGBT Welcome Back event, which takes place in the early weeks of the Fall semester. This year the event is being organized by several groups, including the Office of Student Affairs. This change was sited by Lamme as a significant development, representing an "institutionalization" of the event.

PSU will again organize a Fall conference. This conference will be held on October 11, National Coming Out Day.

Roedel also reported that some students at UCF are trying to organize a statewide LGBT student network.

Gator Gay-Straight Alliance - Jim O'Donnell reporting

O'Donnell reported that the first meeting of the Gator Gay-Straight Alliance (GGSA) for the 2003-2004 school year will be held on September 9.

GGSA has several projects planned for the Fall semester. In conjunction with National Coming Out Week, they will conduct an awareness campaign called "Not a Cutout," for which life-size cut-out silhouettes of couples - some same-sex, some opposite sex - will be placed around campus.

GGSA will again conduct its well received training for dormitory Resident Assistants. They also plan to hold another training session for fraternity leaders.

Lamme suggested that training such as this should also be institutionalized, and that the University should take responsibility for these activities that would make the University a more welcoming place for LGBT people.

LGB Student Affairs Cabinet - Nate Barnes reporting

(Barnes was not present.)

Rainbow Alliance - Charles Brown reporting

Brown reported that, now that the Rainbow Alliance Fund has been set up, that the next major project for the Rainbow Alliance will be promoting an Alumni Club for LGBT alumni of the University. Roedel indicated that PSU had interest in this project and planned to put a PSU member in touch with Brown to work jointly on this project.

Feldman asked about the Alumni Association's participation in last year's Lavender Graduation. At that event, representatives of Association took pictures which they said would be used with an article, presumably in the Alumni magazine, Today. Malecki agreed to look into this.

Agenda Items

Organization and Reports of Standing Subcommittees

Lamme suggested that certain activities of the committee that are ongoing be put in the charge of standing subcommittees. The three committees suggested were: LGBT Service/Research Awards, Transgender Issues, and Campus Climate Survey. A chairperson is needed for each subcommittee.

a. LGBT Service/Research Awards - Last year, this subcommittee was led by Amanda Wolfe, who is not on the Concerns Committee this year. Lamme plans to ask one of the other members of last year's committee if they would be willing to chair.

The question was raised whether there should be a special event to showcase the awards or if they should be given in conjunction with another event, such as Lavender Graduation. Arguments were presented for both ideas. This will not be an issue until next Spring, so the discussion was shelved until a later meeting.

b. Transgender Issues - Kendal Broad (not present) has worked on these issues for the committee, and she is a natural choice to serve as chair. The current project for the subcommittee is getting information for transgendered persons posted on a Web site.

c. Campus Climate Survey - Ken Wald described the background of this issue. About three years ago, the Office of Student Affairs conducted a survey to discover student attitudes in the areas of gender and race. The survey included questions about sexual orientation issues. However, the final report summarized the results regarding race and gender, but excluded any results related to sexual orientation. This issue has been the subject of extensive discussions with Gail Baker, UF Vice President for Public Relations. Baker agreed many months ago to produce the report, but repeated reassurances have ended and Wald's e-mails now go unanswered. Lamme has broached this subject with David Colburn, UF Provost, and she agreed to contact Colburn to discuss this matter.

Report on Meeting with Ed Poppell and Moving Forward with Benefits

Last month, Linda Lamme, Kim Emery and Kathleen Fallon met with Ed Poppell, UF Vice President of Finance and Administration, to discuss to implications and implementation of the new antidiscrimination policy and the eventual domestic partner benefits. Lamme reported that the meeting lasted about two hours and that Poppell seemed very interested. Poppell had requested information on what other universities do regarding domestic partner benefits. Lamme, Emery and Fallon had previously reviewed the procedures that other universities and municipalities use. They focused on the forms that these institutions require and found many of them to be invasive or oppressive. The drafted proposed forms with the help of Berta Troyul-Hernandez, a professor at UF's Levin School of Law and former member of the committee. The principle behind these forms is that people applying for domestic partner benefits should not have to provide any more information than married people do, aside possibly for an affidavit or other instrument assuring the institution of their relationship.

One area of concern expressed by Poppell was what happens to the benefits if a couple breaks up, or if, for example, out of anger, the UF-employed partner terminates the coverage of the partner. Hernandez indicated later that this is not s serious concern, but since it may remain a concern of Poppell, it should be addressed.

Poppell indicated that the nondiscrimination policy should formally pass at the Board of Trustees meeting in Coral Gables in the coming days. The policy would be officially implemented in November 2003. Domestic partner benefits cannot be approved by the University until it has full control of its financial affairs, which will not occur until July 2004. Poppell suggested that at that time, domestic partner benefits would be put before the Board of Trustees. A unanimous vote in favor of these benefits is not expected as some Board members have already expressed their opposition, however, there are probably enough votes in favor for the measure to carry.

Lamme stated that UF Housing has created policies that make it possible for same-sex couples to share faculty or staff housing. They are working on developing policies that would apply to student housing.

Methods of Reporting Harassment

Mary Kay Schneider, Associate Dean of Students, has been working on this, however she was not present. She is not a committee member. Michael Malecki has worked on the technical side of this issue, creating a Web site that would allow anonymous reporting of harassment. Malecki stated that though the Web programming was completed, it was not possible to implement the site for technical reasons.

Zimbardi Lawsuit against the University Athletic Association

[In May 2003, Andrea Zimbardi, a UF softball player, filed a lawsuit against the University of Florida Athletic Association (UAA) alleging that she was discriminated against because she is a lesbian.]

The Concerns Committee contacted Jeremy Foley and suggested that some kind of in-service training for UF coaches and staff was appropriate. Carlos Hernandez reported that Foley agreed to allow a team of four individuals, one of whom is Hernandez, to conduct a 45-minute session for men's and women's coaches. It was not clear whether football coaching staff would be present. The training should take place sometime in mid-October. Hernandez stated that the session would cover the new UAA regulations regarding sexual orientation discrimination, the psychological and emotional impact of discrimination on both closeted and out student athletes, what happens when the environment is not supportive, and preventing incidents of harassment and discrimination. He hoped that time would be allowed for a questions and answers period.

Lamme suggested that the book Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport by Pat Griffin (Human Kinetics Publishing; February 1998) would be useful to the women's coaching staff.

The question was raised whether it was possible to bring in former Gator athletes who are now out to talk to current coaching staff about their experiences at UF.

Hernandez stated that the training session would focus on how discrimination and harassment negatively affect personal performance, team cohesion, and, as a result, team performance. He said that this approach would counter coaches fears that the new regulations would be the source of anxiety and division.

Hernandez also stated that he knew of no other university that provided this kind of training to coaching staff. In response to questioning, Hernandez stated that the UAA regulations on sexual orientation discrimination are adopted from the NCAA, but within the NCAA these regulations only have the force of recommendations and they are optional.

Revisiting InSite Magazine

Lamme reported that two local businessmen approached the Concerns committee about harassment they were receiving in the pages of InSite magazine, an off-campus publication that caters to students. Lamme handed out a packet of information supplied to the committee by the businessmen detailing the history of InSite magazine and its most notorious act of harassment against UF employees Brandon Miller and Julie Sina. Miller was UF's assistant dean for Greek affairs, and Sina was Dean of Students and Miller's supervisor.

This took place in 2000. At that time, publisher of InSite was Mark Meisel. Meisel published several attacks on Miller and Sina, outing Miller in extremely homophobic terms and exposing both of them to ridicule. The University took the position that no action was possible on its employees behalf because the magazine was an off-campus publication and because Miller and Sina were "public figures." Miller and Sina both left the University.

The packet details the events of 2000 including Meisel's public apology in the pages of the Gainesville and various business documents that attempt to show that through a series of maneuvers Meisel continues to control InSite magazine.

Roedel stated that the main advertiser in InSite magazine is Student Government (SG), and that on an annual basis SG spends around $60,000 dollars with the magazine. Speaking for PSU, Roedel stated that he refuses to work with InSite, and that it is an open secret that InSite insures its relationship with SG through gifts to SG officers.

The committee decided that in the current circumstances it had no place in the efforts of the businessmen to restrain InSite because the harassment is not homophobic and not within the purview of the committee.

Future Issues and Actions

The committee decided to defer plans to invite the new associate provost, Deborah Walker King, or the new chief of the University Police Department, Linda J. Stump, until after a meeting could be scheduled with the provost, David Colburn.

Lamme reported that Colburn had suggested to her that she work with associate provost, Joe Glover, to add sexual orientation discrimination to the required sexual harassment seminars. Some committee members felt that the two issues are very different issues and should not be combined. Others felt that the sexual harassment seminars would at least give sexual orientation discrimination a venue. Other methods of promulgating the new antidiscrimination policy were discussed including putting a notice in UF pay slips. Wald suggested a wording for this notice:

"It is now the official policy of the University of Florida that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation will not be tolerated. If you feel you are the victim of such discrimination, contact:

Undergraduates - Tom Howard,
Graduate Students - Ken Gerhardt, Associate Dean of the Graduate School
Faculty - Joe Glover, Associate Provost
Staff - Larry Ellis, Director of Human Resources

"For more information, visit the following Web site <www....>"

Adjournment

Lamme concluded the meeting at 2:30 pm. There was some discussion of planning subsequent meetings for the first Friday of each month, with the exception of November. The first Friday in November is Homecoming. Lamme suggested that the November meeting be held on the last day of October. Kessler will be out of town at that time. Brown will be out of town on October 3.

Minutes prepared by Charles Brown.