Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 18:37:21 -0500 (CDT) From: "....DREALM...." Subject: Demonstrations at U of M Michael Grantham (Memphis, TN) - On Wednesday April 24 more than 125 people took part in a powerful demonstration on the campus of the University of Memphis. The event was covered by three television news crews and 2 city papers. The demonstration came after University of Memphis President Rawlins refused to meet with gay and lesbian student leaders until the end of the semester. The meeting was requested and denied following an April 16 meeting of the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) Student Affairs Subcouncil in which an official decision to enhance campus nondiscrimination policies was passed on to each institution. Bisexual, Gay, and Lesbian Alliance (BGALA) President T.K. Buchanan organized the demonstration follwing the decision after exhausting every avenue of democratic processes to have the University President address the campus issue. BGALA has been waiting four years for President Rawlins to proactively respond to his own committee's suggestions to enhance the campus nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation. "I have absolutely no objection, personally, to adding sexual orientation to the University's nondiscrimination policy," President Rawlins admitted to the press while speaking to a group of 25 sit-in demonstrators who managed to move into the President's office during the demonstration. The sit-in group read model policies until the President was found and brought to the office. Rawlins suggested the University would come to closure on the issue within two weeks if it is within his power to change the policy. Although TBR is the governing body over the University of Memphis and other schools, Rawlins questions their authority and the validity of the subcommittee decision. University of Memphis Student Affairs Vice President Don Carson was also a member of the subcommittee. The official response from the University of Memphis Media Relations office reported by Memphis area channel 5 news, however, stated the University will not change its policy until the federal government did so. States already recognize their right to go beyond the minimum standards of the federal government on this and other issues. More than 300 other universities across the nation have such a policy. Those who spoke on stage at the demonstration talked about the need for such a public policy at the University. Speakers represented graduate, undergraduate, ministry and community leaders alike professing the necessity of equal rights regardless of sexual orientation. "At first I was afraid of what we were getting into," Buchanan noted. "I wanted no part in civil disobedience. But today was so powerful." Currently the University of Memphis has a "value statement" suggesting the University will issue harsher sanction against those imposing threat or harm against a list of categories inclusive of sexual orientation. The subjective statement does not carry the force of policy requested by BGALA. Buchanan vowed to continue BGALA's efforts in this vein until the University produces an acceptable policy. She and others will be meeting with administrative officials within the week to bring the matter to closure. On month ago, the Uniform Equality Committee (UEC), a student based group of Middle Tennessee State University, issued its official request to University President James Walker to enhance the campus nondiscrimination policy to address sexual orientation bias. A statewide campaign to address gay and lesbian issues also began uniting more than six campus groups in solidarity on issues of equality. This move has illicited several responses including death threats at one university. The use of civil disobedience is an option decided upon for campuses whose administrators have ignored diplomatic gestures on behalf of gay and lesbian student leaders. The University of Memphis model action on wednesday was shared with other campuses across the state through the Tennessee Campus Index (TCI), an internet based communication issued from MTSU's UEC. Information on this and other activity is retrieved at http://www.mtsu.edu/~mtlambda/uec.html The website provides data for campus based activism within the state of Tennessee and archives the chronology of events for current and future student leaders. Buchanan and other gay and lesbian student leaders across the state will soon be working together to host the 6th Annual Southeastern Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual College Conference at Vanderbilt Univeristy in Nashville, TN. The conference, tentatively planned for February 1997, sparked controversy in Alabama this year when a federal court issued a ruling protecting the conference from the attacks of Alabama State Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The conference will be one of many colaborative efforts in a statwide campaign to address gay and lesbian issues. ### Michael Grantham Middle Tennessee State University [grantham@knuth.mtsu.edu]