University of Virginia Library

Colloquium

Change Of Mind: Too Late For GSU

By JEFFREY EDMUNDS

Early last December
13 students agreed to
appeal the allocation of $45
from the Student Activities
Fund to the Gay Student
Union; now that the Board of
Visitors has seen fit to uphold
the appeal I have realized, as
one of the original 13
students, that I am responsible
at least in part for causing an
outrageous injustice.

Over the two and one-half
months since the controversy
began I have learned to see the
truth in much that I at first
rejected out of hand. I now
firmly believe that I was in
error and that the Gay Student
Union is no more deserving of
special discrimination than,
say, the Chess Club.

Having long considered
myself a political and social
conservative, with a
long-standing suspicion of the
Student Activities Fund, I was
easily persuaded by those
persons drawing up the appeal
to add my signature. Since I
knew them to be honest and
sincere idealists with an
elevated vision of mankind, I
was attracted by the spirit of
crisis through which they
appealed to me. These zealots
argued that I was being
compelled to pay for the
propagation of opinions
abhorrent to me personally and
injurious to society. At that
time I believed these arguments
to be true; I do no longer. In
any event, their presentation
was impressive, and in a
moment of misdirected
enthusiasm, I signed.

The ensuing war of words
both surprised and disturbed
me; feeling a certain belated
moral obligation to understand
the entire scope of the conflict
I undertook an extensive study
of the problems of
homosexuality in general, and
of the University homosexual
community in particular.
Quickly exhausting the
facilities of Alderman Library,
I proceeded to interview
various members of the Gay
Student Union, and to observe
at one of their meetings.

Finally, I argued many of
the fine points of controversy
with my fellow appellants.
With the conclusion of my
examination I found myself
holding a set of opinions
completely at variance with my
preconceived ideas of last
December.

What did I learn between
November and February? My
reading has convinced me of
the groundless character, or
total unimportance, of most of
the moral and emotional
pronouncements which the
doctrinaire and ignorant offer
as dogma.

Illustrative of these vacuous
straw men are the following:
homosexuality is an infectious
disease which, unless
eradicated once and for all, will
spread like cancer until it
destroys society;
homosexuality threatens
family life and causes the
decline of civilization;
unnatural vice (?) is
indescribably worse than
natural vice; homosexuality so
weakens an individual that he
becomes a degenerate and
depraved monster praying on
children; etc...Allow me to
warn the curious that the
books on this topic which are
available in Alderman contain
as much superfluous rhetoric as
objective analysis. Sometimes,
it seems, emotion is a
soul-satisfying escape from fact
or reason.

My conversations with
members of the Gay Student
Union has convinced me not
only of the high and acceptable
moral standards by which they
live, but also of how totally
indistinguishable they are from
the "straight" University
community. They are neither
more degenerate or debauched,
nor less capable of contributing
something of value to this great
institution.

While I disagree with most
of their political and economic
opinions, I fail to see any valid
reason to insult or ostracize
them, or to deny them access
to lives as full and deserving
human beings. Indeed, I should
feel proud to count as friends
those to whom I have spoken.

Implicit in my new view of
this problem is the idea that,