Jim Andris, Facebook

Gay Lib members find hostility during dialog

Lynn Taylor, Alestle Staff Writer

5/1/74

“Gay people are people first. We are human beings, not monsters,” Larry Whitsell, president of the Students for Gay Liberation (SGL) declared during Monday’s Gay Awareness Week dialog in the Goshen Lounge.

Whitsell challenged the mostly heterosexual crowd gathered in the lounge to utilize this week's activities to consider why the administration and students discriminate so bitterly against gay people, to examine non-gay fear of gay people and to relate to the plight of gay people.

Many of the listeners began to take part in the dailogue. The crowd grew larger by the minute.

Some of the participants in the dialogue complained about being propositioned by gays; some aired their disgust with gay couples.

One participant in the dialogue told the SGL members that he was offended by such deviant sex and asked them what they got from it and if they thought they could ever cause reproduction in this manner. Yet another told the gays he thought they were sick.

One student told them that after he had a sexual experience "at least my ass doesn't hurt."

Each of these arguments brought a response of applause and laughter from the audience. Whitsell and John Stock, also on the executive committee of SGL, remained calm and tried to refute the evidence offered to them.

The students arguing with the gays called them fags, queers, homos and other such names. But Whitsell and Stock did not visibly take offense.

The SGL members said there was a genuine problem in society.

"About one per cent of the population is gay and these people need to come out into the open," they explained. Gays do not want to hurt anyone or even offend people, Whitsell told the students assembled, but they also did not want to get attacked simply because they are different.

Homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness by American psychiatrists but public opinion did not seem to follow that belief, Whitsell said.

As the debate progressed, only a few students offered any sympathy for the plight of the gays.

When the debate ended after an hour and a half, Whitsell and Stock were tired from the stress of the situation.

As the students started drifting away, Whitsell and Stock sat in their chairs for a few moments of relaxation. Then again they were confronted. But this time it was by a barrage of students, who offered their congratulations.

"I think what has happened here is good," explained Whitsell afterwards. "People have misgivings about gays which must be put into the open."