Gays question effects of Shepard’s death

Friday, November 13, 1998

Gays question effects of Shepard’s death

Students, faculty concerned whether support

will ever erase discrimination

By Andy Shah

Daily Bruin Contributor

The murder of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old Wyoming college
student beaten and killed because he was gay, generated an
outpouring of grief from people worldwide.

But the killing left members of the UCLA community wondering if
these expressions of sympathy toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) people were a step forward in erasing prejudice,
or just lip service.

"There was a lot of discussion (about LGBT discrimination) among
both gay and straight students, faculty and staff," said Ronnie
Sanlo, director of the LGBT Campus Resource Center. "But I doubt
some people who weren’t allies before are doing anything to improve
the situation now."

About a month after Shepard’s murder, members of the UCLA LGBT
community are questioning if the sympathy expressed after the
killing will translate into less discrimination against the
community.

"His murder brought more awareness and attention (to LGBT
discrimination), but I don’t know if that means there will be more
tolerance on campus," said Brandon Del Campo, a fifth-year history
student and an organizer of the Oct. 21 silent demonstration in
Royce Quad in memory of Shepard.

"For things to get better, people need to get rid of the
ignorant speech they use in their everyday lives," he
continued.

Dawn Philip, a third-year political science and women’s studies
student, said the brutality of the murder caused the great
outpouring of grief.

"It’s sad that someone had to die for people to have sympathy
for the cause," she said.

Sanlo said harassment toward members of the community is still
rampant. She said her office receives at least one call a day
complaining about discrimination.

"Students call me every day telling me they were harassed or
their professor used anti-gay language," she said.

But community members said the threat of danger on campus is
lessening.

"There are a lot more people working toward making UCLA a safer
campus," Sanlo said.

Philip said that while the campus is "relatively safe" and the
possibilities of physical threat aren’t that high, conditions could
be better.

Chris Reintges, a student from Holland, said he comes from a
"more liberated society."

"For me, UCLA is like a time machine: how gay life was like 15
years ago in Europe, closeted and in the background," he said.

Some LGBT faculty and staff members said that their colleagues
and the administration treat them equally.

"As an out gay faculty member, I have experienced only respect
and support from my colleagues at UCLA," said James Schultz,
director of the LGBT Studies program and a professor of German.

Schultz said UCLA is inclusive of LGBT issues.

"UCLA is genuinely supportive of LGBT Studies and LGBT faculty,"
he said. "On the other hand, it took years of organizing by LGBT
faculty and staff to get health coverage for our domestic partners,
and we still do not enjoy many of the other benefits that our
married colleagues do."

Dawn Bond, the resident director for the Hilgard Houses and an
LGBT "rap group" facilitator, said she has been treated "very
equally."

"There is an effort made within my department to focus on
inclusivity," she said.

Bond said that while "homophobia exists everywhere on campus,"
the residence halls have made attempts to address the issue.

"Residence halls do work to create safe communities," she said.
"There are a lot of resources here, like rap groups, diversity
training and dorm programs."

But students said that discrimination can seep into classrooms
and even professors’ curriculums.

Tamar Tokat, president of the Gay and Lesbian Association
(GALA), said she was offended by a paper topic in one of her
philosophy classes.

"The topic was to discuss the morality of drug use, prostitution
and homosexuality," she said. "I can’t believe the professor
equated homosexuality with the other two topics."

Tokat said she felt the topic tagged a "negative connotation" on
homosexuality and affected students in the class.

"If this kind of stuff is taught in a classroom, some students’
biases may get reaffirmed because this took place in an academic
setting," she said.

Other students said some areas of campus life still perpetuate
discrimination against LGBT students.

"The sports world is very homophobic," said Del Campo, who ran
track for UCLA for four years. "I wasn’t comfortable coming out my
first year on the team."

Del Campo came out during his second year, and said he got
varied reactions.

"Many people were supportive, but some were just stunned that
there was a gay guy on their team," he said.

The Undergraduate Students Associated Council (USAC) general
representatives’ office is currently trying to target homophobia on
campus by broadening the current campus hate crime policy.

"Right now, if you say, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ you can get
arrested, but not if you say, ‘I wish you were dead,"’ said Mike de
la Rocha, USAC general representative. "We want to include both
categories."

Currently, a bill pushing to include gender, sexual orientation
and disability as categories for hate crimes is stagnant in
Congress.

LGBT community members said that it is difficult to tell if
conditions on campus will improve.

Philip said homophobia can subside when some people become more
aware of their conduct.

"People need to take it a step further and feel just as bad when
someone says a degrading comment to a gay person, not only when
someone is killed," she said.NICOLE MILLER

Professor James Schultz, director of the LGBT studies program,
lectures before his introductory class on lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender studies.

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