Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 20:26:41 -0600 (CST) From: community Subject: PRESS PEICES on Middle Tennessee State University %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The following peice appears in XENOGENY and QUERY, two of Tennessee's gay and lesbian weekly newspapers. For more information contact MTSU Lambda Association at 615-780-2293 or www.mtsu.edu/~mtlambda/selgb.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pre-registration for And Liberty For All, the 6th Annual Southeastern Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual College Conference, begins today Dec. 2. The conference will be hosted by Middle Tennessee State University Lambda Association Feb. 14-16, 1997. More than 500 gay and lesbian student leaders from across the southeast are expected to attend the leadership and inspirational conference. The conference will bring powerful keynote speakers and workshop lecturers to MTSU's campus. David Mixner, Torie Osborn, Patricia Nell Warren, Lynn Shepodd, and Paul Yandura will all serve as remarkable role models in keynote addreses. A private fundraiser reception will allow patrons to meet the keynote speakers and workshop lecturers. The champagne reception will be held at the Garden Plaza Hotel in Murfreesboro on Staurday night Feb. 15. A dinner will follow with David Mixner addressing both patrons and student participants at MTSU's James Union Building. The private fundraiser reception is crucial in helping bring some very remarkable people from as far as LA and the White House to gay and lesbian student leaders in the southeast. Community support will also help foster a generation of active community members right here at home. The announcement of pre-registration for this empowering conference coincided with a press statement released by the MTSU Administration regarding equal rights for campus gays and lesbians. In the press release, MTSU President James Walker stated he does not feel the policy of non-discrimination should include "sexual orientation." In its place, President Walker will include a Statement of Community Standards of Civil Behavior in the Student Handbook. The statement encourages a "disdain for bigotry and hatred expressed in any form or medium and directed toward identifiable groups or individuals in the community." The Uniform Equality Committee, formed under MTSU Lambda Association to seek ways of ensuring equal protections without regard to sexual orientation, viewed the statement as a positive first step toward adopting a policy of equity for campus gays and lesbians. The UEC hopes And Liberty For All will encourage student leaders to take steps to increase activism and awareness efforts on campuses across the southeast. Last year's conference, held at the University of Alabama, drew considerable controversy when Alabama's State Attorney General Jeff Sessions moved to ban the conference. It finally took a federal court in Mobile to rule the state's law preventing campus gay and lesbian groups from meeting on campuses as unconstitutional before the conference could go on. Sending one of the largest student delegations, MTSU Lambda Association moved to secure the conference for MTSU 1997. After becoming involved with several national conferences, the current co-chairs are excited about bringing home the energized spirit of an empowering era for gay and lesbian Americans. For more information on this conference, visit www.mtsu.edu/~mtlambda/selgb.html If you are intersted in attending the private fundraiser reception or the conference itself, please call 615-780-2293.