In 1998, 22-year-old Matthew Sheppard, an openly gay college student at the University of Wyoming, was kidnapped, severely beaten, burned, and left to die lashed to a fence in Laramie, Wyoming. A passing bicyclist who found him had mistaken his nearly lifeless body for a scarecrow. He died a few days after the incident, a victim of a hate crime.
This tragic incident in Wyoming received national attention and prompted calls for a hate-crime legislation and for the establishment of safe school programs to teach young people tolerance and respect for others. The Wyoming Legislature proposed hate crime legislation in the months following the murder. It failed to pass. Today, Wyoming is one of five states in the nation without any hate crime laws.
In contrast to Wyoming, Massachusetts’ efforts to promote tolerance and understanding of others, particularly in educational environments, has been among the best in the nation. In 1993, Governor Bill Weld signed legislation making Massachusetts the only state in the country to have a Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian youth. In addition, the Safe Schools Program has provided free resources, information and conferences to schools, students and their parents for almost 10 years. Other programs exist within the state and within its cities and towns.
Even with all the resources and laws that Massachusetts has made available to promote a safe environment for all its residents, violence against the gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender (GBLT) community continues. In 2001 a total of 143 incidents of anti-gay violence were reported. A recent Mass-achusetts Department of Education survey of GLBT students found that these students are four times more likely to attempt suicide, three times more likely to miss school and three times more likely to be injured or threatened with a weapon.
Now, Boston University Chancellor and Acting President John Silber is disbanding one of the very programs that help protect young people from violence, suicide and prejudice. His reasons for doing so are quixotic, stemming from a strange fascination with imposing his conservative values on others. In an interview with the Boston Globe he defended his actions: “We’re not running a program in sex education. If they want that kind of program, they can go to Newton High School. They can go to public school and learn how to put a condom over a banana.”
Yet, the Gay/Straight Alliance at the BU Academy that Silber has decided to shut down is not an organization that teaches sex education; rather, it teaches tolerance, anti-violence and works toward a greater humanity.
The actions of Silber are perplexing. Why would the president of a major institution like Boston University fail to recognize the effectiveness of groups that serve to promote tolerance and understanding? And how can we as alumni, students and trustees sit idly by as Silber continues to tarnish the good name of Boston University?
As a community, we have a responsibility to stand up for each other’s fundamental rights and freedoms, not seek ways of circumventing them. President John Silber should not only reinstate the Gay/Straight Alliance at BU Academy but he should participate in their program to see just how valuable this resource is for our larger community.
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