Date: Mon, 02 Dec 1996 20:24:19 -0500 From: Maggie Heineman Subject: Chadrom College Campaign Against Homophobia Please repost to campus lists and newsgroups ------------------------------------------------------------ Earlier today an Internet alert went out concerning Chadrom State College in northwest Nebraska. Matt McNeil was driven from school because of the failure of the college to provide a safe place for an out gay student. There is a campus glb group at Chadrom which serves primarily as a social and support group for students who are not visible in the way that Matt was. Matt is now living in South Dakota. A website will be established tonight for the Chadrom College Campaign Against Homophobia http://www.critpath.org/action-project/chadrom.html When you send email to the college, please send copies to eaglenew@CSCU.csc.edu, for possible publication in The Eagle, the campus newspaper, and to maggie@critpath.org, for possible publication on the website -- joining the three letters below, the 11/21/96 Eagle news story, and an alert from Focus on the Family against gay studies and campus gay student groups. Letters should explain the need for the college to take action to provide a safe environment. Make suggestions as to what they might do-- work with PFLAG to organize a Conference on homophobia comes to mind. Other ideas? Name them. Speak from your personal experience-- why is something that is happening in northwest Nebraska important to you? E-mail -- college officials: inquire@csc1.csc.edu, cwright@csc1.csc.edu, breynolds@csc1.csc.edu, bcaselli@csc1.csc.edu Copies: The Eagle, eaglenew@CSCU.csc.edu Webmaster, maggie@critpath.org call: 1-800-CHADRON (1 800 242 -3766) Chadron College is on line URL: http://www.csc.edu/info/default.html you can leave a message on the alum gueszt book at URL: http://www.csc.edu/guestbook.html --------- Letters to The Eagle ----------- This letter published Nov. 14 - the headline read Student quits school in face of hostility Dear editor, This is an open letter to CSC students. The college lost a student last Friday when he withdrew from classes and went home. People quit school all the time, but in this case there are circumstances to which I would like to draw your attention. The student's name is Matt McNeil, and he is openly gay. He didn't leave because he couldn't make the grade in class; he left because people on this campus made it clear that he was not welcome here. >From the first day of school, Matt faced a lot of intolerance and downright hostility from people in his dorms and from others around campus. In addition to antagonizing name-calling and outright avoidance of him, his car was keyed and his life was threatened (by a high school student). Chadron is a small town, but that does not justify such narrow-minded behavior. How many of you actually took the time to get to know Matt? Those who did know he is a good friend, a wonderful person, and has a very courageous spirit. I admire hime for having the strength to be himself, without hiding or apologizing for who he is. I am embarrassed and ashamed that he was made to feel unwelcome at this school by his fellow students. The definition of homophobia is fear. Matt was not someone to be afraid of. An atmosphere which creates enough tension that someone would decide to abandon his/her education IS something to be afraid of. Matt did receive a lot of support from his R.A., R.D., other faculty and staff, and from his friends. Those people are very appreciated. But for the rest of you, please think about the consequences of your attitudes toward other people. We lost a valued friend and student when we lost Matt McNeil. In the future, let's work to make new friends feel accepted, welcome and a part of this campus. Sincerely, Margo Browall, senior These next two letters ran in the same issue that the story ran on Nov, 21. The letters were under the headline that read - Readers discuss student's departure Dear editor, Last week's Eagle included an article about students and community members banding together "to find a little lost boy." Placed right next to this article was another piece. A letter to the editor told how a young male CSC student had quit school, driven out by harassment and threats of violence because he was gay. I didn't know either of these two lost boys, yet their stories touched me deeply and moved me to ask some questions: Would those same people who searched so long and hard for "the little lost boy" have done so if they had known he would grow up to be gay? Would a community congratulate itself so heartily if it knew that at the same time it was saving one child and bringing him back to the warmth of his home, it was hounding another child farther and farther out into the cold. Sincerely, Maggie Griffith English Instructor Dear Editor, I was sorry to hear that CSC lost one of its students because of discrimination. However, I want to make the point that although this student may have felt the need to leave Chadron State College, he was not forced by anyone to abandon his education. That was his own choice. I will not deny the fact that homosexuals are discriminated against in this small community and nationwide but what people have to keep in mind is the fact that even though there are a handful of ignorant, prejudiced people out in the world, not everyone is against homosexuals. The majority of the people don't care whether a person is straight or gay. I'm personally not concerned about a person's sexual orientation. In fact, it is none of my business. All I'm concerned about it that he/she is an honest, respectable, law-abiding citizen. These are the qualities I look for in a person, just like the majority of the citizens do. Therefore, I would not like to be held responsible for driving a student, whom I didn't even know, out of Chadron. In a less than Utopian world Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Dream" of equality, peace, and harmony among people will never be achieved. Unfortunately, the ignorant voices of prejudice are the loudest instead of the voices that count. For this reason, a person must choose to either overcome the prejudices which face him/her or die in discrimination's way. However, this choice can only be made by the individual! Sincerely, Carol Walters, senior ---------posted on 12/2/96 to QueerPolitics and Gaynet by Maggie Heineman http://www.critpath.org/~maggie/ PFLAG-Talk/TGS-PFLAG http://www.critpath.org/pflag-talk/ The Rhea Murray Website http://www.critpath.org/rhea/ The Chrysler Campaign http://www.critpath.org/chrysler-campaign/ The DePauw Campaign http://www.critpath.org/action-project/depauw.html