Display of intolerance has grave implications

Display of intolerance has grave implications

ATLANTA
November 20, 1998

TEAM Buzz, Saturday, November 14, 1998. There we were, gathered around the book-sorting bins at Goodwill Industries in Decatur. The work was fun, and the company enjoyable. Several fraternities had signed up as groups to work on the project and were having even more fun than the rest of us digging up equal parts treasure and trash.

I don't think he even stopped to consider the consequences of his actions. The book, "Gay Studies from the French Cultures," was pretty meaningless to me...at first. His friend found the book and laughed as it was presented to the group of ten. "Do you really think a queer in France is going to read this?" It was the same thing we'd all been doing that morning with strange texts we'd come across, though more spiteful.

But then he felt the need to make a statement. He silently grasped the book from his brother and proceeded to ceremoniously dump it in the trash bin, making a show for his friends. It was the first and only book to be trashed based solely on editorial disagreement.

My blood boiled instantly. At the time, I couldn't confront him, which I regret. I rescued the book and put it in the hardback & oversized paperback bin where it should have ended up in the first place. I couldn't look him in the face after that.

Perhaps he should have stopped to reconsider his display. Perhaps he should have realized that the alumni Project Coordinator on-hand was openly gay. For that matter, anyone there could have been gay. Regardless of orientation, his message of intolerance was clear to one and all, just as a young man strung up on a Wyoming fence post.

I hope your readers can see that words of intolerance towards homosexuals are just as effective as brutal murder at pushing us back into fear, back into our closets. Gay slurs can be especially dangerous since you don't even realize exactly who it is you're demoralizing.

I haven't lost my faith in Tech, or my enjoyment of TEAM Buzz, but I now realize Tech as a whole has a long way to go towards understanding the fear and loneliness of being gay. Colin Wright EE, 1994 cwright@inetnow.net

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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