University of Virginia Library

Hurd Launches Legal Action
Against Gay Union Allocation

By SAM BARNES

Fourth-year man Bill Hurd
announced yesterday plans to
fight Student Council's recent
allocation of funds to the Gay
Student Union (GSU).

Accusing Council of
"trampling upon student
opinion, justice and moral
decency," Mr. Hurd said he
and students of similar views
will appeal the allocation to
the Student Activities
Committee (SAC) and possibly
to the courts.

Other students presently
working on the appeal are
fourth-year man Alex Simon
and third-year law student
Christian White.

"No one should ever be
forced to contribute to an
organization whose activities
violate his moral, religious, or
political beliefs, but that is
clearly what the Council has
done," Mr. Hurd said.

"The University has
compelled students to pay an
activity fee and the Council has
given a portion of that fee to
the homosexual club," he said.

Mr. Hurd said his group also
hopes to place the question of
funding the GSU on the ballot
in the upcoming Council
elections.

"The students of the
University do not want their
money given to groups which
encourage homosexual
activity," Mr. Hurd said.

"If given the chance, they
will vote to overturn Council's
decision," he said.

Mr. Hurd's group must
obtain signatures from five per
cent of the student body or a
two-thirds vote from Student
Council to place the question
on the ballot.

University Legal Advisor
Neill H. Alford, Jr. said Mr.
Hurd was "certainly entitled to
the appeal under the Board of
Visitor's guidelines."

"My position would be that
he should exhaust the
administrative channels of
appeal available to him before
he takes it to court, however,"
Mr. Alford said.

According to Mr. Alford,
appeals on a Council allocation
go first to the SAC and then
are subject to review by the
University president and Board
of Visitors.

The Legal Advisor's office
had advised Council not to
allocate funds to the GSU
because the group appeared to
be primarily political and social
in nature.

Political Funding Prohibited

Funding of political
organizations is prohibited by
the Board of Visitors.

The Legal Advisors office
also expressed concern over the
legality of funding a group
presumably promoting
homosexual acts illegal–in
Virginia. Council voted
Tuesday night 12-9 to allocate
$45 to the GSU ,however.

Mr. Hurd told Council at the
meeting that he was against the
allocation for "moral reasons."
"Our generation is not so
different that it will not reflect
the opinions of society at
large," Mr. Hurd said.

'Must Recognize Rights'

College representative Rod
Singleton said the vote was a
decision of whether to uphold
minority rights.

"Either Council sanctions
the selective discrimination of
minority groups by denying
this allocation or we give the
minority group what it justly
deserves," Mr. Singleton said.

Christian White told
Council he thought the
consequences of the funding
"could be very serious indeed."

"I think that this could do
more harm to the effectiveness
of the University and more