Ever since the Supreme Judicial Court legalized gay marriage in Massachusetts in 2003, gay marriage opponents have been relentless in their drive to reverse the decision. The latest effort is a petition to put the issue on the ballot in 2008. If approved by the voters, the initiative would deal a serious blow to gay couples across the state. Not only would it deny the couples the right to marry, it would also ban gay civil unions, a compromise enabling gays to receive some of the benefits of married couples.
Now, thanks to a new online database listing the names and addresses of everyone who signed the petition, the public can easily find out just who wants to see gay marriage on the ballot. Most of the names will mean little to the average Boston University student, but there is one name that will certainly resonate with the BU community: Louis Lataif, dean of the School of Management.
Lataif has every right to his personal viewpoint on gay marriage. Millions of Americans oppose gay marriage because of firmly held religious beliefs. But by signing the petition, Dean Lataif has sent the wrong message to BU students and those outside the university.
As dean of SMG, one of the university’s most high-profile and prestigious colleges, Lataif has a responsibility to act in a manner that both befits his position and reflects well upon the university. His support of a measure to deny gays the right to marry is an insult to BU’s sizable gay population and a stain on BU’s reputation as an institution devoted to acceptance, equal opportunity and progressive policies.
It was only a few semesters ago that the Board of Trustees added “sexual orientation” to the university’s nondiscrimination clause. Lataif’s signature on this petition flies in the face of what the clause stands for.
Last semester, BU found itself ranked 54th among universities in the world by Britain’s The Times Higher Education supplement. With a new president in office and standards for admissions increasing every year, BU is a university on the rise — and its leaders must act accordingly. As BU moves forward in the 21st century, it must continually renew its commitment to a better and more just world.
If a gay student is considering applying to SMG and he learns that Dean Lataif has shown that he is opposed to equal rights for gays, will that student feel comfortable about coming to this university? Or will he or she feel unwelcome here knowing that one of the university’s leaders does not believe in this most fundamental right for gays?
For the right to marry is, indeed, fundamental, and denying it is a clear instance of injustice. Opponents to gay marriage frame the debate in terms of “protecting” the institution of marriage from the assaults of “activist judges,” such as the members of Massachusettsís Supreme Judicial Court. They argue that if gays are allowed to marry, society will take one more step down its path of declining moral values. But there is no evidence that gay marriage has had, or ever will have, any negative effects on the institutions of marriage or family. As far as this paper can tell, Massachusetts has not yet been engulfed in flames. On the other hand, it is all too clear that gay couples are being denied the legal benefits enjoyed by other couples, and that gays are desperate for the chance to live on an equal footing with their neighbors.
Women in this country once fought for the right to vote and blacks once fought for their civil rights. The fight for equal marriage rights by gays is just as important to the people doing the fighting. It is the civil rights movement of our generation.
Some gay marriage opponents have alleged that signatures on the petition might have been collected fraudulently, and we can only hope that Dean Lataif’s name was among them. But when contacted by The Daily Free Press — when he had the opportunity to disavow the presence of his signature on the petition — Lataif declined to comment. The only conclusion we can draw is a disappointing one, because of the message of prejudice it so clearly sends.