Newsletter of the Rainbow Alliance at the University of Florida
December 2002
Next RA Dinner Meeting
Tuesday, December 17, 2002 –
6:30 pm at Ballyhoo Restaurant (Newberry Road at Royal Park)
First Words
The Rainbow Alliance Fund Needs You!
Contributing to the Rainbow Alliance Fund
Helping LGBT Adolescents
New York State to Consider Sexual Orientation Anti-Discrimination Law in Special Session
Deja Vu All Over Again: Notes for an LGBT History
Resources
How To Join Rainbow Alliance
Contributors
Status quo. Don't rock the boat. Don't make things worse. You don't want to offend the wrong people.
Minorities are in an interesting position. They carve out a niche in the Big Culture, and as long as they don't make a fuss, many of "them" will live "happy, rewarding" lives. The question is: At what point is this status quo unacceptable?
Minorities are often engaged in a kind of choreography with their corresponding majority. The two groups tend to leave each other alone, but every once in a while it's necessary for the majority to flex its muscles to remind itself and the minority who is in charge.
That's the Stonewall riot in a nutshell.
Customers at gay clubs were accustomed to a certain level of official harrassment. A status quo had developed between the establishment and the minority. Until that one evening -- June 28, 1969 -- when the Jets dropped their script and really fougt back against the Sharks.
How did this particular status quo develop? When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, New York established a State Liquor Authority to oversee the licensing and use of alcohol. The Authority instituted a ban on serving alcohol to homosexuals. Raids, which during Prohibition were targeted toward anyone serving alcohol, now had a specific focus -- gay bars.The occasional raid kept the minority community in its place and kept protection money and pay-offs flowing in the direction of the police. The police were then invested in seeing the bars make money. What made the status quo possible was the acceptability of discriminating against homosexuals.
The ban on serving liquor to homosexuals in New York was lifted in 1967, after activists tested the ban in court, and it was repealed. Without the ban, the rationale for the raids was gone, but the need for the raids continued. More importantly, the tradition of the raids continued -- a tradition accepted by both parties until that one night when it occurred to someone that the relationship between minority and majority needed to change.
That evening marked an important turning point in LGBT history. The fledgling "Gay Liberation Movement" took off.
Now, over thirty years later, a lot of progress has been made... and there is still plenty of status quo to go around. There are risks to confronting the status quo, but the alternative is accepting the limitation of our lives and opportunities. We have a lot of work to do because discrimination and homophobia are worked into the very fabric of American culture.
All of us find ways to adapt to our cultural and political environment, but we have to keep the vision before us of a society without discrimination and where the fullest expression of the human spirit in all its variety is nurtured and celebrated.
Why all this history?
In 2003, the University of Florida will celebrate it's 150th anniversary. As a vital and vibrant part of the University, it's only natural for the LGBT community to consider its history -- in general and on this campus. When it isn't a history of silence, it's a story of oppression. A question we ought to ask is how to recover that history -- not how to tell the story of oppression, but the stories of victories over oppression.
Also, in 2003, there will be turning point in the LGBT history of the University of Florida. The establishment of the Rainbow Alliance Fund, the LGBT alumni club, and the development of a Colloquium in LGBT Studies will mark a significant change in the interrelationships in the UF LGBT community and a significant change in the community'e relationship to the University.
Just as 2003 is natural opportunity to recover the past, it is also a necessary time to lay claim to our future, and that future promises to be bright... if we demand more than the status quo.
For more information:
The Rainbow Alliance Fund Needs You!
This is the third issue of RA-news, and each issue has featured the Rainbow Alliance Fund. Several individuals have made contributions to help establish that fund. Their generosity is much appreciated.
If you haven't already contributed, please do so. The Fund is important. It's the basis some great plans that will help substantially change the LGBT environment at the University of Florida.
What we're asking is for as many RA members as possible to make an initial contribution to start the Fund. Is there enough money to start the Fund? Yes. Some members have made a commitment that whatever contributions are received, there will be a Rainbow Alliance Fund.
What we have to decide together is whether that Fund will struggle or thrive. The Rainbow Alliance Fund is not the "answer", but it is important.
Contributing to the Fund is not a test of loyalty or commitment, but it is a test the will of the members of the LGBT community to act together. Some may feel that's unfair, but if we want to see change, we must overcome whatever barriers stand in the way of acting together.
Contributing to the Rainbow Alliance Fund
We will happily accept whatever you wish to give. Contributions will be gratefully accepted from anyone; non-UF individuals who contribute $50 or more will become honorary members of the Rainbow Alliance for one year.
We have established the following contribution levels:
Under $50 – Friend of the Rainbow
Alliance
$50 to $99 – Patron of the Rainbow Alliance
$100 to $199 – Benefactor of the Rainbow Alliance
$200 and above – President's Circle
Those contributing $200 or more before December 31, 2002 will be permanently designated "Founding Contributors of the Rainbow Alliance Fund" and identified as such on our Web site (at their discretion).
To contribute, send a personal check made out to the University of Florida Foundation to the following address:
Charles Brown
PO Box 110570
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida 32611-0570
The contributions will be acknowledged in writing, and these contributions are tax deductible.
Your contribution will fund the following:
- Competitive LGBT Research/Service Awards to be given in Spring semester 2003.
- Purchase of materials for the collection of LGBT resources currently housed in the Dean of Students office.
- Rainbow Alliance makes a contribution annually to LGBT student groups to support specific programs.
- Lay the financial foundation for the University of Florida LGBT Resource Center.
If you have any questions about the Fund or for more information > Charles Brown: cbrown@agen.ufl.edu
It's come to this: actual school districts are actually considering protecting actual gay and lesbian students. That's an indication of progress, and it's an encouraging development. It isn't easy because many parents, educators, and politicians are apprehensive about any public education about sexuality. Nevertheless, protecting children from harrassmemnt, injury or death (whether homicide or suicide). Here are som resources that may be of interest.
The following resource are available from the American Psychological Association. They are helpful with sexual orientation and adolescents.
1. "Developing Adolescents: A Reference for Professionals" synthesizes the latest research-based information on basic, healthy adolescent development. The 42-page booklet includes information on physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioral development, and emphasizes opportunities for risk prevention and health promotion. This publication does include helpful information regarding adolescents, sexual orientation, and related health topics. Request this free publication by sending e-mail to publicinterest@apa.org.
2. The publication "Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation and Youth" is from the American Psychological Association's Center for Psychology in Schools and Education. Print copies may be obtained in limited amounts by contacting Renee Lyles at rlyles@apa.org. Or download it at <http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/justthefacts.html> .
Contents of this publication cover important issues:
3. The Healthy Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Students Project will be presenting nine full-day workshops for school counselors, nurses, psychologists and social workers related to preventing health risks of LGBQ adolescents between January 31st and April 8, 2003. For more information, visit the website's list of upcoming events at <http://www.apa.org/ed/hlgb/workshops.html> .
RA-news has reported in a previous issue about the local chapter of GLSEN (Gay and Lesbian Student Education Network), an organization which promotes safe school environments for gay and lebian students. Visiting the GLSEN Web site is a good way to keep up with local battles over LGBT issues in schools. They also have a new area devoted specifically to educational resources called BookLink. Well worth a visit.
For more information:
New York State to Consider Sexual Orientation Anti-Discrimination Law in Special Session
A special session of the New York State Legislature has been called for December 17 to consider the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA). This bill has been around for many years, in an out of committees. However, in the last election, the Empire State Pride Agenda supported Governor George Pataki in his re-election bid. Gov. Pataki apparently promised to get behind SONDA, which is supported in New York's Democrat-controlled House but disliked in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The law prohibits discrimination against "heterosexualtiy, homosexuality, bisexuality, and asexuality." New political wrinkles that may get the bill scrapped once again are efforts by the trangender community to be specifically included in the language of the bill, or efforts by conservatives to amend the bill with a ban on same-sex marriage.
For more information:
Deja Vu All Over Again: Notes for an LGBT History
In 1992, the people of Colorado passed an amendment to the Colorado constitution that prohibited any governmental body in the state from making homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual orientation the basis of any kind of legal protection. The amendment was passed by only a slim majority, and it was soon challenged in court.
The case was brought to the U.S. Supreme Court as Romer v. Evans in October, 1995. On May 20, 1996, the Court handed down a decision finding the amendment to be unconstitutional on the basis that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S Constitution. Justices Kennedy, Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer joined in this decision.
Justices Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas dissented. Scalia delivered the dissenting opinion: "The Court has mistaken a Kulturkampf for a fit of spite. The constitutional amendment before us here is not the manifestation of a "bare . . . desire to harm" homosexuals ... but is rather a modest attempt by seemingly tolerant Coloradans to preserve traditional sexual mores against the efforts of a politically powerful minority to revise those mores through use of the laws. That objective, and the means chosen to achieve it, are not only unimpeachable under any constitutional doctrine hitherto pronounced ... they have been specifically approved by the Congress of the United States and by this Court." [My emphasis. Ed.]
The dissenting opinion stated that the Court's majority opinion contradicted an earlier case, Bower v. Hardwick., in which the Court had upheld the state of Georgia's right to prohibit sodomy (of which some same-sex relations are a subset). The Georgia law which was upheld in Bower v. Hardwick was subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court.
The Court has recently accepted a challenge to the Texas law prohibiting same-sex sexual relations.
For more information:
RAonline > coming soon!
Pride Community Center of Gainesville > http://www.pridecommunitycenter.org/
Gainesville Community Alliance (GCA) > http://www.gcaonline.org/
Pride Student Union > http://sg.ufl.edu/pride/
Gator Gay Straight Alliance > http://www.gatorgsa.org
Many more links > http://sg.ufl.edu/pride/links2.html
Membership in Rainbow Alliance is available to all staff and faculty at the University of Florida. Graduate students will be considered for membership. Health Science Center staff and faculty are also welcome to join Rainbow Alliance. Individuals not associated with the University may become honorary members of Rainbow Alliance through an annual contribution to the Rainbow Alliance Fund of $50 or more.
To become a member, send an email to Charles Brown > cbrown@agen.ufl.edu
Charles Brown, editor
Greg Allen
Linda Lamme
Berta Hernandez
Corrections, comments, copy > Charles Brown: cbrown@agen.ufl.edu
RAnews, newsletter of the Rainbow Alliance at the University of Florida, copyright 2002