Subject: LGBT Hunger Strike at Notre Dame
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 00:27:13 EST

PRESS RELEASE

Progressive Student Alliance of the University of Notre Dame
314 La Fortune Center, University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556

For more information contact: Aaron Kreider, Media Coordinator
Phone: (219) 634-4346
E-mail: [email-masked]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Notre Dame Students Go On Hunger Strike for Gay Rights

Notre Dame, Indiana -- February 1-5, 1999

Over a hundred students at the University of Notre Dame will be going on a
three-day hunger strike in support of gay rights at the catholic
university.  The fast will last from Wednesday, February 3, until Friday,
February 5.  This is part of a week of activities on campus which aim to
show student support for including sexual-orientation as a protected
category in the university's non-discrimination clauses.  The week of
action also features a "Speak-Out" Tuesday with former talk show host Phil
Donahue.

The week's activities are prompted by the meeting on Thursday and Friday,
Feb. 4 and 5, of the Board of Trustees, where President Malloy will
recommend that the Board act on the proposal which was approved in November
by the Academic Council - Notre Dame's highest representative governing
body.  President Malloy is on record as strongly opposed to the measure.
The measure has received strong support from student and faculty
Government.  "It's very frustrating.  All this work, and finally it comes
down to a showdown between this small, unresponsive, cabal of
administrators versus a large majority of faculty and students," said David
Hartwig, a member of the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA).

The proposal under consideration by the board would prohibit discrimination
based on sexual orientation in faculty and staff hiring and promotions, in
student admissions and in access to activities and facilities.  Currently
OUTreach ND, the student-run gay and lesbian organization on campus is not
allowed to meet on campus, poster advertisements on campus or buy
advertising space in the Observer, the campus newspaper despite having been
in existence for over 28 years.  GALA-ND/SMC, Notre Dame's gay and lesbian
alumni association, is also prohibited from running advertisements in the
Observer.  Since October 1998 a number of incidents of overt discrimination
against prospective gay or lesbian faculty members have come to light.

Notre Dame has an official policy of inclusion for gay and lesbian
students, but as Phil Donahue declaimed at a rally on campus in November,
"What sort of inclusion is it if they say that if you are gay you are a
member of the Notre Dame family, but they won't even give you a room to
meet in."  One effect of the proposal would be to force the university to
open up access to facilities and services to gay and lesbian student groups.

"The purpose of the week of action is to rally a generally apathetic
student body behind an issue with which most students are quietly
sympathetic," said Madolyn Orr a PSA member:  "We want to make the Trustees
and the administration aware that the students and faculty are strongly
opposed to the administration's attitude toward gay and lesbian students
and faculty here.  They need to stop discriminating against gays and
lesbians."

"The general feeling on campus is that the situation isn't that bad here,"
said Aaron Kreider, co-chair of the PSA: "Well, we want the campus, the
administration, and the Trustees to ask themselves, 'If everything is ok at
Notre Dame, if there's no discrimination, then why are over 100 students
going on a hunger strike?  This is the fourth demonstration we've organized
in ten months."

Students on the hunger strike will be gathering at dinner time (6:00) in
the North Dining Hall on Wednesday and Friday, and in the South Dining Hall
on Thursday, where they will sit together with empty plates and drink water.  

The "Speak-Out" out with Mr. Donahue will take place at 7:00pm., Tuesday
Feb. 2, in Washington Hall.

Additional events during the week include handing out rainbow ribbons,
rainbow sno-cones and handbills that read "Thank you for wearing shoes to
support gay rights (or you have no sole).", a gay and lesbian film festival
at 9:00 to 11:00 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, in the Montgomery Theater
in the La Fortune student center.  There will also be a table set up in the
student center throughout the week where information regarding
the non-discrimination proposal, and the history of anti-gay and
anti-lesbian discrimination at Notre Dame.

The weeks activities were organized by the Progressive Student Alliance
(PSA).  The PSA was founded two years ago to work for social justice both
on the campus of the University of Notre Dame and throughout the world.  So
far the group has concentrated on opposing US military action against Iraq,
and supporting equal rights for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals at Notre
Dame.  The PSA opposes all forms of oppression and is working for social
justice by raising awareness to social issues, cooperating with existing
student groups, empowering students, and encouraging action.

The week of action is supported by OUTreach ND, the student run gay and
lesbian student group on the Notre Dame campus, by GALA ND/SMC: Gay and
Lesbian Alumni of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's, and by the College Democrats
of Notre Dame.

Prepared by: Tim Byrne
January 28, 1999