As promised, here is the text of the article that appeared in the city 
newspaper, the Mankato Free Press, regarding the event of yesterday.

The school newspaper didn't run anything, but it is my understanding that 
on Tuesday they will have a huge writeup about the whole affair and its 
implications on the school (school paper comes out twice weekly).

This was a FRONT PAGE article, that took up 1/4 of the front page, and 
then continues on to the back page.

----
PICTURE:  	3x5 b&w showing the two tables
CAPTION:	Mankato State University's College Republicans (table at left)
		initiated MSU's first-ever Heterosexual Coming Out Day on
		Wednesday in the Centennial Student Union.  Students with the
		university's Alternative lifestyles Office, the Women's 
		Center and the Violence Prevention Center set up their own
		booth (at right) to offer an alternative.


'HETEROSEXUL COMING OUT DAY' PROVIDES PLENTY OF DEBATE AT MSU
By:  Bob McClintick
Free Press Staff Writer
--

MANKATO - At one table, Mankato State University students and staff could 
sign a confession of their heterosexuality and walk away with a free sucker.

At a neighboring table in the Centennial Student Union, they could pop a 
pin on their lapel and jot their name in support of alternative lifestyles.

Two viewpoints.  Two choices.  Plenty of philosophical conflict.

Mark Klassen, president of MSU's college republicans, said his party 
unanimously agreed to sponsor MSU's first-ever Heterosexual Coming Out 
Day on Wednesday to advocate traditional American values.  Klassen said 
family values are quickly losing ground to a wave of political 
correctness in support of gay and lesbian lifestyles.

"The point we want to make is that we're proud of our traditional 
American values," said Joe Nelson, vice president for MSU's College 
Republicans.  "We're not here to bash homosexual.  We're just exercising 
out right to criticize and critique opposing views."

Nelson said his party members knew they'd here some negative comments, 
even an angry outburst now and then.  What they didn't expect was 
immediate opposition.

Not long after the College Republicans set up their table, students 
associated with MSU's Violence Prevention Center, Women's Center and 
Alternative Lifestyle Office scurriessd to set up an even bigger table to 
gather their own signature.  Their message:  tolerance of other 
lifestyles and support of individual human rights.

"When we read [the College Republican] posters, we felt that we had to be 
here because they were making a mockery of the homosexual lifestyle," 
said Jon Valla, a work-study student with the Violence Prevention 
Center.  "We felt that their poster encouraged intolerance and 
persecution rather than acceptance."

Valla and his cohorts were handing out buttons that said, "Hatred is not 
a family value," or "I'm straight but not narrow."

"Our message here is, tather than intollerance, why not accept ways of 
others," said Signe Hartmann of the Alternative Lifestyle Office.  "We're 
not asking you to agree with our lifestyle.  We're not asking you to 
agree with who we are.  What we're asking is that you respect us as human 
beings and support human rights for everyone."

Both groups broke down their tables around mid-afternoon Wednesday 
feeling triumphant.  The College Republicans had 152 signatures from 
people confessing their heterosexuality while, in a shorter period of 
time, 97 people signed the alternative list in support of tolerance and 
human rights.

"They were promoting their viewpoint and their agenda, and we were here 
promoting ours," said Nelson of the College Republicans.  "That's what 
America is all about."

-----

The preceeding text is transscribed without permission.  All spelling 
mistakes are my own.


____         Robert A. Hayden          <=> hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu
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