Daily Nebraskan
Friday, October 3, 1986
ort o
Jeff Koii)clik, Editor, 4721766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Gene Gentrup, Managing Editor
Tammy Kaup, Associate News Editor
Todd von Kampen, Editorial Page Assistant
( GOOD EVENINGMtoP.
ORE TO JOIN ME
I FORACUPOFTEA?
Nebraskan
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University of Ntbraska-llncoln
Page 4
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DN
First Amendment case decided
Two weeks ago the Daily
Nebraskan refused a classi
fied advertisement contain
ing the words virgin, satan and
sacrifice. Several hours later the
people submitting the adver
tisement called to complain that
their First Amendment rights
had been violated and wanted to
know how and why some ads do
not run.
The DN told them the deci
sion was left to the editor's
discretion.
A federal court decision handed
down by U.S. District Court Judge
Warren Urbom in June enforced
the position of the DN in refus
ing ads. College newspapers at
public universities have the same
First Amendment rights as pri
vate newspapers in refusing
advertising) according to the
decision.
The case involved two Univer
sity of Nebraska students who
filed suit against the DN in Sep
tember 1985 for refusing to bring
their advertisements that sought
a lesbian or gay roommate. Two
members of the Gay-Lesbian
Student Association, claimed
their constitutional rights of
freedom of expression and access
to a public forum were denied
because their advertisements
were refused.
The policy at the time did not
speeificially prohibit running ads
saying if a person was a gay or a
lesbian.
The DN asked the Publica
tions Board for an interpretation
and they rewrote the policy to
include sexual orientation as
one of the items to be protected
from discrimination in advertise
ments. The purpose of adopting
Soviets, 1, U.S., 0
Daniloff affair makes Reagan see 'red'
It's clear that last weekend's
chain of events leading to the
resolution of the Daniloff affair
turned out very well for those
being allowed to return to the
West. Whether things turned out
well for the United States' long
term interests is another matter.
The publicity from Washington
would lead you to believe that
final world peace is a giant step
closer. Nicholas Daniloff, of course,
has returned home, while prom
inent Soviet dissident Yuri Orlov
and his wife are now free to emi
grate to the West. Further, Pres
ident Reagan and Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev now
will meet next weekend in Iceland
to pave the way for a Gorbachev
summit trip to the United States
and far-reaching arms-control
agreements.
This isn't a time to pooh-pooh
freedom for Daniloff and the
Orlovs. But closer inspection of
the deg) gives the impression the
Reagan administration almost
prostrated itself begging the
Soviets for Danilolf s release and
an election-year summit. The
Soviets actually gained very much
for very little.
In addition, the Soviets got a
delay in the expulsion of 25
Soviets diplomats from the Uni
mplieM.
the revised policy was not to
punish or censor the expression
of homosexual orientation, but
to prevent discrimination in
advertising.
Urbom ruled that the Daily
Nebraskan was not a public forum.
He wrote, "Although the Daily
Nebraskan is a creature of the
state, the campus newspaper is
not an agency of the state for all
purposes. In its editorial decision
making the Daily Nebraskan
functions like a private news
paper. Thus, the exercise of edi
torial discrimination does not
constitute state action."
, Urbom noted that even if the
DN was an agent of the state, the
plaintiffs still would have lost
because "implicit in the concept
of a non-public forum is the right
to make distinctions in access
on the basis of subject matter
and speaker identity." The dis
tinctions are evaluated as to
whether they are reasonable in
the light of the purpose which
the forum at issue serves.
"It was unreasonable for
the Daily Nebraskan to find that
the plaintiffs' advertisements, in
effect, discriminated against
readers on the basis of sexual
orientation," Urbom wrote.
The key words are private and
public, leaving the editor and
the student advertising manager
with "the power" to refuse ques
tionable advertising. The editor
also has control over editorial
content as guaranteed by the
First Amendment.
The plaintiffs have appealed
the case to a higher court, but for
now the Urbom ruling stands and
the DN still uses discretion in
accepting advertisements.
ted States, including the Soviets'
KGB chief in this country and a
military intelligence chief.
Finally, the "snap" meeting in
Iceland to set up a summit has
the appearance of being a Soviet
"concession." In effect, the
Soviets were saying a Reagan
Gorbachev summit was conting
ent on their getting a satisfac
tory resolution to the Daniloff
affair. Although some in the Uni
ted States wanted the Reagan
administration to say the same
thing, it never did. The United
States jumped at the Iceland
meeting too quickly, which leaves
the unmistakable impression the
Soviets are doing us a favor
merely be agreeing to talk. Such
favors aren't granted without
some repayment.
In total, the Soviets "gave up"
an American journalist they stole
and a dissident they were glad to
get rid of in exchange for several
spies caught in the act and tre
mendous propaganda leverage at
the next summit. And journalists
trying to give the West even a
partial picture of Soviet life will
be reluctant even to enter the
Soviet Union lest they be harassed
like Daniloff.
All in all, the Soviets did
awfully well.
. rfi.l k. i.1 h S I J "sti f It V PI tl
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VNLwmmg to Jrasln disease
Health Center slumld alert campus of AIDS-related complex
They finally admitted it.
It's happened here. Not just once
but twice.
Maybe it was someone you know who
walked into the Health Center one day
last year. Feeling a little weak from a
cold that wouldn't go away. Or maybe
worried about some spots on his or her
skin.
That person probably forgot his or
her student ID. And, of course, he or
she had to go back home to get it,
because the nurse says, "I'm sorry, but
we can't let you use the health center
without an ID."
Finally the student returns and fills
out the medical history on a white
sheet of paper clipped to a board. She
or he uses one of those pens that are
irritatingly chained to the chart.
In the waiting room, people who
need shots for VD and for the flu are
listening to an acne patient tell a joke:
"Yeah, did you hear about the GAY guy
who goes home and tells his mom, 'I
have good news and bad news . . . The
bid news is I'm gay.' And his mom
gusps and says, 'What's the good news?"
And he says, get this, 'I'm dying,' "
Everybody laughs because it's a "sick
joke" and nearly everybody here is sick.
One way or another.
But our friend, sitting here a little
nervously, doesn't laugh. He or she just
smiles a sad smile. Then he or she
hears the summons and steps back into
the remodeled intersanctum of the
health center.
It's the usual check-up: white count,
blood count, blood pressure, reflex
test, strep test, urinalysis and another
test designed to detect the HTLV-III
virus. Just to make sure it's not, you
know, AIDS. That awful, incurable killer
of the young 68 percent of its vic
tims are less than 40 years old.
Two times last year the test came
out positive. Right here on the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. It
wasn't AIDS that the health center
doctors diagnosed. But it was AIDS
related complex (ARC), which in one of
three cases develops into full-blown
AIDS.
And persons with AIDS-related com
plex, a dormant form of the disease, are
capable of passing the AIDS virus to
partners the people they have sex
with, male or female.
A bad incident of summit fever:
Superpower meetings not a panacea
eware political enthusiasms. Any
time the House of Representa
tives votes 392 to 16 on anything,
check the water. Especially when it is a
vote to dip into an empty Treasury and
throw $3.7 billion at drugs, for a "war"
staged by panicked legislators as a pre
election demonstration of fealty to the
I VATICAN
vote Fired.
I VATICAN
When our friend found out, what do
you suppose he or she thought? What
did he or she tell a boyfriend, a girl
friend, parents, friends? Did he or she
scream or cry?
Maybe he or she was afraid to say
anything to anyone.
And for some reason the doctors at
the health center decided not to say
anything to the student population.
Not until this week when a doctor just
happened to mention the news to a
Daily Nebraskan reporter.
Even then, attempts were made to
keep it out of print.
But why?
Maybe the doctors were afraid the
announcement would unleash mass
hysteria. So far, I haven't even heard
anyone talking about it.
i Lise
lr Olsen
jA
And there's no reason to panic. But
there is reason to discuss and be open
about the disease. Here in Nebraska,
we've felt safe because the coasts have
been hit harder and longer. But the
state health department reports that
six cases of AIDS have been diagnosed
in Nebraska just this year. Officials
don't know how many more victims of
the disease are diagnosed out-of-state
and how many don't get tested at all.
Another fear about the news getting
out was that it might cause violence.
Rolling Stone says, "In a rational
world, the primary response of hetero
sexuals who are concerned about AIDS
would be to practice safe sex. Instead,
the most common response seems to be
increased harassment and assaults
against gay students."
In Campus Voice magazine, Nancy
Langer of the Lambda Legal Defense
and Education Fund, a national gay
rights organization explains, "On the
one hand, (AIDS has) raised awareness
of homosexuality and the discrimina
tion that homosexuals face. On the
other hand, the hysteria has done a
Zeitgeist.
If a political enthusiasm is a passing
Charles
Krauthammer
passion resistant to ordinary reason,
then Congress showed us another one
great deal to fuel homophobia."
Of course, not all AIDS victims are
male homosexuals, but that group
seems to be paying a heavy price for
being one of the high-rise groups for
the disease.
But we can't not talk about AIDS
because somebody might get hurt.
Somebody already has been hurt the
ARC sufferers. We need to talk about
them and develop policies to handle
future reports of AIDS.
But that's not easy, and maybe that's
why few campuses have been open
about reporting AIDS cases. Among the
few are: the University of California at
Berkeley, which has had at least three
cases and two deaths. New York Uni
versity has had five cases, and the Uni
versity of Virginia reports one student
died from AIDS and another suffers
from ARC.
It 'oesn't sound like much. But,
according to Rolling Stone, The Cen
ters for Disease Control in Atlanta
recently figured that 688 persons from
age 18 to 23 were reported to have AIDS
within the last five years.
The number may seem small, expe
cially with 12.2 million students enrolled
in college in 1986. But Dr. Richard
Keeling, chairman of the American Col
lege Health Association AIDS task
force believes that since college stu
dents are more likely to try out bisexu
ality or experiment with drugs "they
are at relatively higher risk."
If that's true, if many of us on cam
puses are at relatively high risk, we
need to know about the disease. We
need to know it's here, and we need to
know how to protect ourselves. Most of
that information already is available here
on campus in the health center and in
the Nebraska Union, thanks to the Gay
Lesbian Student Association.
But I haven't seen too many people
going up to use their resource center.
Realistically, we're all more worried
about who's going to be at the Zoo Bar
this weekend.
4 The Paladins will be. But maybe
AIDS-related complex will be there,
too. And what's more important is that
if it is there, it will bring a prisoner.
That person might just be a scared UNL
student.
t
Olsenisa senior news-editorial major.
far less cynical, though just as mind
less exactly a week later. The occa
sion was a brilliant, heart-tugging
address to Congress by Philippine Pres
ident Corazon Aquino. Within five hours,
the House had voted her an extra $200
See KRAUTHAMMER on 5
