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Editorial" Kii ?i i . Colun EDITOR'S NOTE: Last Wednesday, Editori wrote the following column c incident of seeing two gay i sexual act in a Russell Houst the column, is a samplin, since the column was printec As strange as it may sou Halloween. I suppose it v because I only made it half-1 floor Russell House bathroon I unexpectedly interrupte room, but I wasn't shocked ; After all, I had learned R common. AFTER almost four years those years spent working in ''gay awareness." I was au numbers and drawings (pe: cised gay artists) that apj; scratched on bathroom wa! with the good stuff when the i I was aware through past TO THE EDITOR: Your editorial ol Nnvpmhpr 11 th? Closet") only demonstrates further your ignorance ol significant issues and youi inability to deal with problems in any coherent way. In your effort to articulate an issue which should be of concern to the Carolina community, you somehow manage to defeat the purpose of your argument by obfuscating rather than clarifying the problem and alternative solutions to that problem. Your editorial not only underscores your homophobic tendencies bul demonstrates an inability tc argue logically or com municate ideas effectively. Your editorial essential!} contains two positions. First bathroom sex is "disgusting." This point shall not argue. Your secon< point ? homosexuals shoulc be forced back into the close ? is not only archaic bu does not solve the firs problem. It is the sign of < healthy society that in divfduals are no longei ashamed of their actions People who choose alter native lifestyles are equally free to express themselves under the Bill of Rights, i document with which I arr sure you are familiar. Anj effort to "drive homos bacl into the closet" would no only be a step backwards bu would probably increas< TO THE EDITOR: As a heterosexual readei of the Gamecock, I suppose that qualities me 10 responc to Mr. Weatherbee's editorial. However, insteac of answering his lettei directly, I would like to pose a counter question. What arc you going to do about all oi the heterosexual couples who make love in public? Nc one needs pornographic magazines when all one needs to do is take a stroll around the Horseshoe Gibbes Green area on a warm summer's nignt. wnai are you going to do about the heterosexual couples who stand in front of the dorms in Stirs I al Page Editor Don Weatherbee ibout homosexuals and a specific men engaging in a questionable ; third floor bathroom. Following g of the letters we've received f. nd I had a gay experience last wasn't a total gay experience way through the door of a third11 before I retraced my steps, d a loving couple in the men's and disgusted ? only disgusted, ussell House gays weren't unat USC, with one and one-half of the Russell House, 1 developed a ^are of mens' names, telephone rhaps made by the more exer- . >eared mysteriously written or lis and then disappeared along walls were later cleaned. reports by campus sources that traffic in the bathrooms. The f solution to the problem lies ; not in closing the closet door ? but rather in opening doors F which will lead to the elimination of the need for i such clandestine activity. C..^L ? t tl M -in - - - oucii a noerai person as yourself must surely see the i benefits of open com! munication and head-toi head confrontation with the issue at hand. Efforts made to encourage other types of ! forums through which ! homosexuals can meet will ! increase community awareness of this growing minority and also eliminate the need for further t "disgusting behavior." > FINALLY, I challenge the "eracity of several sections ' of your editorial. For ? example, do you mean to > suggest that the entire 1 Roman Empire took part in * homosexual activity? i Similarly, I am curious as to t the reference "someone" in t the context of the creation of t Adam and Steve if that * someone wasn't the same creator of Adam and Eve. r In conclusion, the editorial staff of the Gamecock should show better judgment in the ? "opinions" which they print 5 so freely in the pages of their * journal. Irresponsibility and 1 incoherencv do not an f award-winning newspaper t make. t t GREGG FATA 5 Columbia, S.C. and classroom buildings as mey passionately Kiss eacn ; other good-bye? If you I consider public bathrooms to ? be public places, consider I this. Frequent air travellers have a rather unofficial ? society called the Mile High ; Club. To gain membership in F this society a couple must ; make love in an airplane bathroom while in flight. * IS THIS enough for you, I Mr. Weatherbee? Either you take all sex out of public places and throw it into the closet, or you get off of everyone's back. ? VALERIE F. LESTER History Senior Pa ffrfor Russell House homos are not s although the image fits. Gays tides in the past, complete sporadic violence, and probabl; I was aware when a former told me he occasionally, while bathrooms. And one night, afl fice, I found trash cans hold .Russell House bathrooms. I w; cans came to be there, althougl of a lazy page, AND I was aware, with all th to avoid any peculiar confronts I will share with myself part of two men last Halloween. I ar because I neglected to avoid been trying to avoid an una' realized that gays are tumbling dirty laundry. Although the Bible says G somewhere along the line sor Steve, because homosexuality Remember the infamous Roma Thus, it would probably Letters To T TO THE EDITOR: I have to agree with Mr. Weatherbee that the faggots that han0 arnnnH tho O VV...V. V..V bathrooms of the Russell House and the Thomas Cooper Library are a problem. I'm sick of using a urinal in the library only to see a lone eyeball glaring at me through one of those "homo holes" bored into the side of a stall. If I knew it wouldn't excite them so much, I'd turn to my side and pee directly into the hole. As for a solution to the problem, I think I have an idea. THE SCHOOL will hire a special force to watch the ? l ...l?? : ~i- A places wiieic lags picK. u> have their fun. When they're caught, they're fit with one of two types of chastity belts. One would be sort of like a catcher's cup, only it would TO THE EDITOR : Move over, Anita Bryant. As much as I hate to kick a girl when she's lost her orange juice contract, you've been replaced by one of USC's own. His name is Don Weatherbee and he is ready to put gay people "back in the closet with dirty laundry." Mr. Weatherbee's conversion to the cause of supression of anyone who doesn't walk the straight and narrow occured on Halloween night when he stumbled accross two guys carrying-on in the stall of a third-floor Hussell House bathroom.. So traumatized by the incident, Mr. weatnerbee has joined Anita's cause and devoted half a page of last Wednesday's Gamecock to espousing various methods of "closing the closet." MR. WEATIIERREF T am a student at this school. And I happen to be gay. It hurts me to read an article that compares my gay brothers and sisters to "dirty laundry" and labels Opinioi imply Halloween phenomena, were the subject of news arwith witnessess' accounts of y will be in the future. Russell House page recently on the job, had to liberate the ter leaving the Gamecock ofling open the doors of some asn i sure ai ine ume now uie i now I suspect it was the work is knowledge, that I was going itions in the Russell House. So, the disgust I felt toward those n disgusted with myself, not two homos, but because I've voidable issue. I never fully I out of the closet like so much od created Adam and Eve, neone created an Adam and has been around a lone time. in empire. be futile to try to stop he Editor be worn backwards. The other would be a muzzle, like the kind that's put on a vicious dog. Both of these belts would be fitted with a time lock and these locks would be adjusted for the severity of the crime. Let's say about 30 days for being caught in the bathroom to 60 days for being caught, say, by the reflection pool in front of the library. Of course, the first step of this project would be to get Dr. Holderman to approve the necessary funds to hire such a special force, not to mention what it would cost to design and build these timelock chastity belts. But maybe, if he were to try to take a leak in a bathroom where some fruitcake watched him through a little hole, some sort of real solution to this problem might result. NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST us by the vulgar slang term "homos." Those were cheap shots, Mr. Weatherbee. Neither I nor any other self-respecting gay student would try to defend those two guys in the bathroom. They should have gone elsewhere to enjoy themselves. But, narrow-minded, name-calling bigots like yourself, Mr. Weatherbee, are precisely the reason gay people must live their lives "in the closet" and sneak around to have sex behind bushes, in cars, and, yes in empty bathrooms. You must realize, Mr. Weatherbee, that gay people deserve your full respect and chntllH Kxi op MiavuiM MX/ UUU1 WOV/U CIO honest-to-God human beings with honest-to-God feelings. Yes gay people are different. But this doesn't make them any better or any worse than anybody else. Here's hoping that you will continue to grow and learn at mis scnooi. /\na may you develop the confidence that will enable you to accept those different from yourself without intimidation. NAME WITHHELD B\ KEQUES1 M A IftABlJ VI #WVV I homosexuality, besides it heterosexual dating. But bein I am, I'm content with the re put the gays back in the clos< least getting them out of the ui AT FIRST I thought may* maintenance installed har bathroom doors, but then I re doors easily. A friend of mine suggeste made as small as possible, functioning movement, the g meeting places. But this pla time consuming. He then suggested placing v in the bathrooms that would s one man occupied small are suggestion fails for the same r SO I AM still open to heterosexual readers who 1 proDiem. until an enrorceaou is designed and put into heterosexuals will continue to TO THE EDITOR: Probably you will receive a large volume of mail in the next week or so regarding the "editorial" by Don Weatherbee in Nov. 11 Gamecock entitled "Close the Closet." Allow me to be one of the first respondents. I will not bother to refute Mr. Weatherbee's "arguments" individually so let me preface my statements with the remark that this editorial was a remarkably bad piece of journalism: satire should be funny, not dumb! Mr. Weatherbee's work reflects poorly not only on himself, hi 11 nn (ha Mub vii vuvs vjurrictu^K, uic University and on heterosexuals. MY NEXT remark is by way of clearing the air, so that biased morons will not need to call me a queer. I am bisexual by nature (as are all people ? take Intro, to Pcvnh ^ anrl nrn^nminonlln _ via./ utiu pi vuuiniiiaiii.ij' homosexual by preference. I believe homosexuality and heterosexuality are choices (learned behaviors) and the animosity which Mr. Weatherbee feels occurs as a result of role confusion, I GAMl | I University o< South C IFouik Newsroom: 777-7181 Business Office: 777-3888 Maii Platte Beth Sundrla Copy Desk Chief David Corvette News Editor Tom Coyne Asst. News Editor Don Weatherbee . . . Editorial Pa^e Editor Mike Roma towski . . . Entertainment Editor I ami. tni. taMor Mark Ithridge |r Adviser Sole reproduction rights granted to thi tamed herein may not be reproduced witl Opinion* expressed in the Gamecock t signed, o< the editor. The Gamecock welcomes letters and typewritten, triple-spaced on a 65 space li letters should be no longer than 300 w newsworthy subject no longer than four signed with the writer's correct name, standing or faculty position and major. Ps mjw ko ?? ? ' ? ** ? ? ? ? - , ... n.nonriu uii iriiri, upon r? Wf reserve iiir ngni 10 edit column* <n the right to re|e< t any column for any rea* Addren lelter* and columns to: fditori Columbia, 5.C. 29208. The "G?n*codi" ? a l?>cen*ed ttuden Carolina and receive* funding from *tu<i f- fiivur lessens the competition for g the liberal sort of person that asonable objective of trying to it with the dirty laundry, or at A liversity's bathrooms. >e gays would be dissuaded if d-to-turn doorknobs on the alized two gays would open the H that If thft hdfhtvmmc tuoro so as to allow only minimal (ays would look elsewhere for n would be too expensive and weight-triggered alarm systems ound the alert when more than ? as in the bathrooms. But this eason his first one did. suggestions/ preferably from lave to cope with the same i plan to liberate the bathrooms effect, ' I and many other be intimidated. insecurity and dissatisfaction with self. This is the prime cause of 0 "homophobia." Homophobia ? fear of gays ? is a disease whose end result is the ignorant passion found in Hitler's dictatorship and Jerry Falwell's misnamed Moral Majority (for it is neither ? and just as poorly reasoned and dangerous as Mr. Weatherbee's article.) Homophobia is cured only be education and maturity ? grow up, Mr. Weatherbee! Secondly, I would like to address Mr. Weatherbee's statement: 4 4. .homosexuality has been around a long time. Remember the infamous Roman Empire." Homosexuality was indeed prevalent and accepted in the ancient Egyptian, Roman and especially Greek a cultures (read Plato's ^ Symposium.) Isn't it interesting to note that these three cultures were incredibly advanced artistically, governmentally, culturally and technologically. The only See "Letters" Page 14 1C0CK -arotiru, Columbia, S.C. led 1908 Advertising: 777-4249 Production: 777-2833 M Editor S ; Tracy Helms Sports Editor H |im Corbett Asst. Sports Editor I Qk Mike fisher Graphics Editor! Jeiry Brewer General Manager I Linda Haines Advertising Manager I MarV McEwan Production Manager I lean Hate hell Business Manager fl e Associated Press. All other material con tout the permission of the editor. | i ire those, H signed, ot the writer and, H un- 11 column*. All letters and columns must be |i ne. / i ords, and columns should be limited to one I typed pages. Letters and columns must be I telephone number, mailing address, class- I eudonyms are unacceptable, but the writer's luest, m the circumsL*n?es wj?jbi it iS iriini lor vpnc and style, and we re?erve Mil Page (ditor, Gamecock, Drawer A, USC, I t organisation o< the Univertity of South ent atlivily fee* . I ?wwnimi i?11 MBiiM>ai'ganw>ai