🚀 go-pugleaf

mm> Mike Mills
gs> Gary Strand

gs> If I feel I'm not welcome, I don't push the issue - why do others?

mm> Suppose someone said you couldn't go to whichever University you went to
    because of your race, gender, or sexual orientation.  Wouldn't you fight
    back?

  No, I'd take my business elsewhere - why would I want to be in an environ-
  ment that's hostile? What about the freedom of association?

mm> The courts have consistently ruled that private groups and events (such as
    Boston's St. Patrick's Day Parade, or the KKK) can exclude whomever they
    want. But a publicly funded entity, such as a student group, must not
    discriminate irrationally.

  Aye, there's the rub - "irrational" discrimination vs. "rational" discrimin-
  ation. What's the line between them? Seems to me "irrational" is defined as
  "persons of the group in power (ie, male, straight, white, &c) keeping those
  of the out-groups (ie, female and/or gay and/or non-white) from belonging",
  whereas "rational" is defined as "persons of the out-groups maintaining their
  space and empowering themselves against their oppressors via exclusion".

  Given that CU student groups have violated this provision in the past, why
  is it only now that some folks are upset? Is it because it's the CRs versus
  gays, rather than IWW versus men?

  As always, there's a double standard.
-- 
Gary Strand
gstrand@indra.com                                http://www.indra.com/~gstrand