unl gay action group
Gay group asks
meeting with Regents
An open letter to the Citizens of Nebraska:
As members of the University gay
community, we deplore the Regents total lack
of concern for our dignity as human beings. It
was difficult to sit in silence at Saturday's
"open meeting" to hear ourselves termed
'deviant" and "aberrant."
Although we commend the Regents
decision to uphold the University community's
rights of free speech and assembly, we strongly
disagree with the consensus of the Board that
the Time-Out Conference will be unbalanced in
its view of human sexuality and academically
improper. We believe that anti-gay prejudices
have distorted the Board's perspective of the
conference as a whole, considering that they
left the rest of the program unexamined,
concentrating on only three out of sixteen
major events.
Widespread ignorance and lack of exposure
to openly gay people leads to prejudice. Up to
now, education about homosexuality has been
limited to the confines of medicine and
psychiatry, and has always been presented by
non-gay people. This kind of second-hand
information can only propagate myths, fears,
and stereotypes.
This year's Time-Out Conference offers an
excellent opportunity to expose a side of the
issue never before presented in Nebraska-gay
people talking about their own sexuality and
lifestyle. If the Regents are truly concerned
about seeing both sides of an issue, as they have
stated, then they owe it to themselves and their
constituents to attend the conference and
expose themselves to points of view that until
now they have ignored.
One Regent has termed the Time-Out
Conference as "degrading" to the state. In
saying this, he hasignored the fact that a large
number of voters, taxpayers, and students in
this state live a gay life style, although
oppression forces most of them to so secretly.
The Kinsey Report, the most authoritative
study on sexual behavior to date, states that at
least 10 per cent of the males studied and 5 per
cent of the females prefer same -sex sexual
relationships for a substantial portion of their
adult lives, and over three times that number
engage in such relationships on a less exclusive
basis.
Regent Moylan's contention that discussion
of homosexuality condones criminal behavior is
a misrepresentatation of the law. There is no
law in the State of Nebraska prohibiting
homosexuality per se.
The "criminal behavior" Moylan probably
speaks of refers to specific sexual acts which are
common in both heterosexual and homosexual
relationships. It has been estimated that if this
law were to be strictly enforced, 90 per cent of
all sexually active adults would be in prison for
up to twenty years. The fact that only gay
people are prosecuted under this law is an
example of the legal oppression we face.
Another contention of Moylan is that the
University administration broke a silent
agreement that homosexuality would not be
formally discussed on campus following the
controversy surrounding the Homophile Studies
course last year. This is in direct opposition to
former UNL President Soshnik's statement that
"The fundamental change in the course is that
instead of dealing with homosexuality as a
separate course, it wild be studied as part of the
broader subject of human sexuality (Lincoln
Journal, 21671). Even Moylan's supposition
that such an agreement existed is a threat to
academic integrity.
The Time-Out Conference is sponsored by
ASUN and funded by student fee money. The
Regents made no attempt to communicate their
concern to ASUN or those planning the
conference. In fact, they made a special effort
to avoid communication with students by
holding a special secret meeting last Thursday
evening.
As objectionable as the secret meeting was,
even more objectionable was the "open
meeting" on Saturday morning where there was
still permitted no exchange with ASUN or
those planning the conference. Prokop's
resolution to determine how the conference
was planned will serve only to intimidate
students rather than facilitate communication
with the campus.
Members of the University of Nebraska Gay
Action Group offer to meet with the Regents at
their convenience in the near future. We feel
that meeting with gay people is the only way
that the Regents will come to understand the
place of gay people in the University
community.
hob russell
Delbert Duright, Part II
When 1 knocked off last
week, Delbert Ouright had just
found his slot at the University
of Nebraska at Lincoln. His
expectations were not too
high, for he had a brother who
attended the University for the
previous four years. But that
wa all right, for Delbert already
had much practice in turning the
worst to his advantage.
Delbert was signed up for
five or so classes. Some of
these were large herd lecture
classes, introductory courses. It
took him several weeks to
figure out the rationale behind
these courses, but then it came
to bim: the courses were so
designed so as to discourage
anyone to go into that
particular field. But this
worked to everyone's mutual
disadvantage. Since everyone
had these courses, the students
didn't want to go into
anything.
To turn the worst to bis
advantage, Delbert and his
roommate worked out a
system. They alternated going to
the classes they bad in
common. Soon they found
that if they read Time
Magazine once a month and
learned the jargon in the book,
they could keep up in Poli Sci
10andSocS3.
Going to lectures once in a
while was a necessity, in order,
to figure out the idiosyncracies
of the professor. This would
help tell the nature of his
idiosyncratic multiple guess
test. Delbert and his roommate
prepared for these tests by
thinking of life as one giant
multiple test exam that God
; had set up. One couldn't pull
an answer about life out of the
clear blue sky; it was either
A,B, C, or none of the above.
A couple of Delbert's classes
did require attendance. This
demanded special preparation.
Delbert tried various pieces
of equipment and various
methods to appear to be awake
while actually sleeping. The
final method he came up with
required two pieces of
equipment, a pair of those
mirror shades that are sold in
gas stations and several heavy
books. One of these books
included his textbook, for he
felt he ought to use it for
something. Delbert wore the
sunglasses to conceal his closed
eyes and leaned against the
books so he wouldn't fall out
of his chair while asleep, or
bob his head around as so
many inexperienced class
sleepers did.
Once Delbert had his
academics on that firm footing,
he wanted to get settled.
Delbert lived in one of those
dorms on the UNL campus
that looks like a converted high
rise parking garage, big box
carved into smaller boxes.
Delbert got a charge out of
all of the silly things about the
dorm. The experience taught
him many things about life.
The first was that learning or
whatever he was doing on the
campus was completely
separate from his living in the
dorm and whatever else he was
doing. He could study in the
dorm, but nobody ever talked
about anything they were
"studying.
In the dorm Delbert found
that he was still incompetent
to run his own life. He couldn't
drink or have girls in his room.
The not having girls in his
room really stumped him. He
thought about it and decided
that if he could have girls in his
room there might even be
times he wouldn't even touch
the girl.
The only thing he could
figure out was this: whoever
decided that girls could not be
in men's rooms, or vice versa
thought a) all students are
sexually depraved, b) sex
education should take place in
a dingy motel room or the
back seat of a 1955 Buick, c)
self-restraint was a good
quality, or d) none of the
above.
Delbert could not get over
the fact that Nebraska
taxpayers had put up millions
of dollars to put together this
institution of glorified
memorization-regurgitation
manipulation learning.
But Delbert decided to
stick it out. His other choices
were rather limited. If be quit
school, be could have a) joined
the Army, b) worked for his
father as a stock boy in a
warehouse, c) worked at some
other mind-numbing job, or d)
once again, none of the above.
So be stayed.
Delbert had many other
interesting experiences while in
Lincoln. One of the mysteries
he discovered was sex. This will
be related next Monday in
""Confessions of Delbert
Duright, part Three."
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