Subject: "Liberty for All" in Tennessee
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 11:37:10 -0500 (EST)

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NEWS YOU DIDN'T SEE ON TV
Commentary by Patricia Nell Warren
2/20/97
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"AND LIBERTY FOR ALL" IN THE SOUTH

By Patricia Nell Warren

Despite controversy -- indeed, because of it --  the 6th Annual Southeastern
Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual college conference just stamped its fiery lambda on
Bible-belt sensibility.  Site this year: Middle Tennessee State University in
Murfreesboro. Big lesson of the weekend: anti-gay hate can spark a powerful
reaction among fair-minded straight youth and adults.

Over 300 students came from every state in the region, for the biggest
turnout yet.  Co-chairs Allie Sultan and Michael Grantham titled the
gathering  "And Liberty For All."   February 14-16 were  packed with
workshops, networking, resource fair, coffeehouse, on-line chats,
booksignings, fund-raising reception, banquet and dance, plus an open meeting
to discuss what campus will host the '98 edition.   A hardworking volunteer
corps from MTSU's Lambda Association supported the co-chairs throughout.

A pre-conference blast of  hate email, death threats, sulphurous sermons and
edged editorials had fizzled by opening day.  The student organizers simply
publicized threats to the media.  Thanks to their cool, and last-minute
efforts by moderate church groups in town, who called for a show of Christian
love over a show of rage, the conference went off without incident.  The
Baptist Student Union, stepping over elders' protests that their action was
condoning homosexuality, served a big Southern breakfast to the
conference-goers, complete with grits.  They still believe that traditional
marriage is the only permissible place for sex, the Baptist kids explained,
but they were uneasy about the frenzy of hate, and wanted to make a
Jesus-like gesture.

Focus of the frenzy was a screening of  "It's Elementary."   This popular
documentary, with its message that grade-school kids need positive info about
gay issues, had been protested elsewhere in the U.S.  Sultan and Grantham
told me that initially the MTSU administration shrugged off their  requests
for tightened security.  But after a look at the death threats, and a phone
call from civil-rights attorney Abby Rubenfeld (who got Tennessee's sodomy
law dismissed),  MTSU grew concerned about possible violence.  Filmgoers
walked into Tucker Theater past a metal detector and campus security.
 Outside, several squad cars patrolled.  But only a few shivering picketers
showed up.  The film finished to loud applause from the packed auditorium.

Keynote speeches came from Torie Osborne,  Lynn Shepodd, Paul Yandurra, and
myself.  David Mixner, also scheduled to speak, got caught in airline-strike
snarls, and was unable to reach Murfreesboro.

Mainstream media -- local press, CBS and NBC affiliates -- gave this historic
conference the notice it deserved.  The campus TV station provided positive
coverage.  Unfortunately, major gay news media were absent.  But regional
community publications, including Xenogeny, did support "Liberty" with
enthusiasm.

Allie Sultan told me: "I have received dozens of e-mail messages since
Sunday!  People have already started to become more active in the South...on
Saturday I'm going to Asheville, NC, to be at a joint meeting with three
college LGB groups from the area. [I've been] talking with some heterosexual
people in my classes...it gives me a new, different sense of happiness to be
accessible for heterosexual people as well as the gay community here at
MTSU!"

Michael Grantham's comment was: "The responses from across the country are
great! They really make us  feel like we've done what we've aimed to do.
 Allie and I hope that everyone feels empowered enough to initiate a much
needed social change throughout the Southeast and US."

Personally, I left Murfreesboro feeling more hopeful.  There are growing
signs that hate religion will be rejected by the fair-minded among Christian
students and adults across the U.S.  Indeed, the South is not the monolith of
redneck religion that some believe it to be.  The South birthed Thomas
Jefferson and religious freedom.  The South was where a black openly gay
Quaker activist named Bayard Rustin helped Rev. Martin Luther King develop
the civil-rights movement of the '60s.

Next year's Southeast conference may well be greeted with more howls of
protest.   But no doubt about it -- these empowering youth events are denting
the Bible belt.

Patricia Nell Warren is author of "The Front Runner" and other bestselling
books, as well as a widely published commentator.  Her publisher is Wildcat
Press. Copyright (c) 1996 by Patricia Nell Warren. All Rights Reserved.

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