--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Gillam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- markmeredith2002 wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "anonyff" wrote: > > > > > > I had some a friend who was about half way through his Masters degree > > > at MIU who got kicked off the program and off campus when someone made > > > it a point to let the administration know he was gay. This was in the > > > late 70s. > > > > Late 70s? That's surprising. I hadn't heard of any gay purges > > pre-bevan rule. > > I was too clueless to pick up any gay presence at MIU, > so it came as a shock one morning when some anonymous > contingent of gay students taped posters to the doors of > all the dormitories. (My memory is extremely hazy about > all this, so I welcome corrections.) > > Anyway, the 8-1/2" x 11" handwritten, photocopied papers > said, basically, "We're tired of being in the closet and > demand recognition." > > I can tell you, the whole thing made me extremely > uncomfortable at the time, and I wasn't alone. (I had > the usual hetero "ick factor" response that's come up > in this forum.) But to make matters worse, the posters > appeared on the day the North Central Accreditation > Review Board was coming to campus. (Maybe this was > the spring of 1980, because the school got accredited > just before I graduated.) It was as if the gays were crying > out to the wider world, "We're in prison here. Help!" I could > not understand it in the least. > > I seem to recall, after the whole affair blew over, Bevan > said something to the effect that that these people were > trying to undermine our accreditation efforts and sabotage > the image of the school before the wider world.
Actually, I tend to agree with that asessment regardless of any anti- gay bias at MUM. You don't make friends with people by attemptingto embaress them, and often your attempt backfires if you're trying to "out them" as bigots or whatever since while people might find the attitudes revealed repugnant, unless the attitude is WAAAAY outside the mainstream (which wasn't the case in 1980 in most places inthe USA), there will be a backlash of sympathy for the "victim" of the attack. > > You have to understand, we were *all about* proselytizing, > hence the coats and ties. Anything that distracted from > that clean-cut, mainstream image was strictly off the > program. So this gay rights plea on the day the school > was to be inspected by the outside academic world seemed > like an averted catastrophe. (The posters were taken down > right away, of course.) > > I don't know what the status of gays is in the TMO today. > At MUM? Not terribly fun, I'm guessing. For the recerts? Bevan is outside the loop since he doesn't wear a crown. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
