Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 18:19:35 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevyn Jacobs To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" Subject: UDK: LETTERS ABOUT ERIC MOORE FROM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN LETTERS TO THE EDITOR APRIL 14, 1995 ================================ ONE PERSON'S CRIME SHOULDN'T HURT 'EQUAL' Thursday, the Kansan printed an article disclosing that Eric Moore, former president of LesBiGayS OK, was convicted of criminal solicitation of a minor. This news came directly on the heels of a local election that left three of the five city commissioners supporting Simply Equal's motion to add "sexual orientation¯ to Lawrence's human rights ordinance. I have heard many people on campus, both in the gay and straight communities, wonder whether the news about Moore will change these commissioners' decisions. It should not. If Moore was guilty of these charges, I find his acts morally and socially unacceptable. But Moore did not commit his crime as a gay man, any more than the man who molested me when I was 3 years old committed his crime as a straight man. It would be ridiculous for me to suggest that all straight men be denied the right to teach in public schools, father or adopt children or interact with youth in any other way just because I was scarred by the criminal acts of one straight man. Similarly, it would be ridiculous for the city commission to refuse to offer equal protection to hundreds of innocent gay men, lesbians and bisexuals in this city because of the crime confessed by one. Individuals of all sexual orientations are innocent until proven guilty. Individuals of all sexual orientations deserve equal rights and protections under the law. The city commission should not be swayed by the sensationalism of one 5-year-old crime committed by one person. It should approve Simply Equal's proposal now. -DEBRA L. STANG, Lawrence graduate student CENSORSHIP NOT A PART OF MULTICULTURALISM Political correctness is defeating its own cause. I am writing today regarding the politically correct ("PC") movement because of the recent events on this campus: Both the Eric Moore story that appeared in the Kansan last Thursday and the protest of that story which took place last Friday. My greatest hope for society is that we become truly multicul- tural. I'm glad that I live in a world with people of different races, religions and sexual orientations. What makes this exciting is that people get to be who they are, and they get to share who they are with others. Multiculturalism is just that: A world of multiple cultures. Not a society dictated by the whims of various angry subsections of society. PC should not mean that every colloquial or every news story should be censored if it offends any one person or group. I am a bleeding heart. If I wasn't born this way, it came from every acre of rainforest I have seen burned in Central America, every step I took in the peace marches after the L.A. riots or every AIDS related funeral I've attended. As a bleeding heart with lofty goals you may find yourself not liking people because they don't fit into a certain mold. But this discrimination is what you are fighting against. The people who participated in Friday's demonstration regarding Thursday's article wanted to be guilty of the other most common error of the activist censorship. Publication of the truth is the most valuable thing a believer in any cause can have. Despite the best of intention, don't take actions that amount to censorship and discrimination. Last Thursday the Kansan was right in running its top story. If that story had been about the president of the Young Republicans and not LesBiGay OK, no one would have said a thing. The fuss was made because of the strength of the misguided PC movement. Further, Moore should have been immediately removed as a resident assistant. This University has a lot to lose by allowing a convicted pedophile to serve as an RA. This has nothing to do with his sexual orientation or his daring announcement of being HIV positive. -LUKE NORMAN, Lawrence graduate student STEALING NEWSPAPERS NOT A PROTECTED RIGHT After reading the April 6 story about Eric Moore, then reading about the protests that took place that same day, I was disappointed and angry. I was disappointed in the display of ignorance by those who could only express their opinions by stealing stacks of Kansans from the distribution bins and angered by the fact it was done under the blanket of First Amendment rights. I read the reasons that these "protesters" used for their justification of the theft of the Kansans, and I could not believe it. The Kansan staff was only doing what is their journalistic obligation as one of the top collegiate newspapers in the nation. That obligation is to report the facts. Nothing that was printed in that story was untrue. If you do not believe that, check the public records yourself One protester was quoted as saying, "This story is destroying one person's life," but Moore destroyed his own life when he chose to commit sex crimes with a child. I wonder what the condition of that child's life is. The Kansan only printed the facts. As a voting student at KU, I want to know as much as possible about candidates for my student government whether they step down for health reasons or not. If a candidate cannot take the heat of media scrutiny then I would not recommend future political endeavors. The thing that angers me about the whole protest is that it was done under the battle cry of First Amendment rights. Show me where in the First Amendment it says anything about it being OK to steal newspapers that the student body has paid for if you do not like the content. The First Amendment does, however, include freedom of the press. Perhaps the protesters forgot that part. I think it is also ironic that the protesters that were wasting papers, that student fees pay for, were candidates for Student Senate positions. Are these the types of people that should be representing the student body? -MATT DORSETT, Topeka sophomore