Co-written by Margo Thomas and Martin Goodnough

In this day and age, it is appalling to witness discrimination and closed-mindedness still leeching onto the underbelly of American society. Hindsight bias allows us to condemn the hateful trends in the generations before us but it is hard to accept that these trends have not changed. We have prided ourselves as “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” yet these acts of hate and violence towards those different from the “social norm” are defeating this honorable designation. Across America, bigotry has not only haunted cities and towns but has slithered its way onto numerous college campuses. And we’re sad to say it has appeared more than once here at VI.
As students at a liberal arts school, passing judgment on others is against the principles our college was built upon, including the goal of creating well rounded, educated individuals. Minds that ignore equality and acceptance of everyone, especially on VI’s campus, are intolerable, and allowing the spread of hate is defeating the purpose of going to a freethinking college. Therefore, it is in our best interest to ensure the value of our education by stopping the spread of unnecessary hate.
Condemning others is not the right answer. Hating those who hate is also inappropriate. By spreading hate, the enemy is no longer the Muslims, Christians, homosexuals, or Mexicans who are victims of prejudice; the infectious disease that is plaguing America is those who hate and condone hostility towards people that are different. The Declaration of Independence reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Women fought for their self-evident right to vote, African-Americans fought tooth and nail for their self-evident right to be equal to any and every man of every color, and the gay and lesbian community has paid its dues as well. Every human being is endowed by God, Allah, Buddha – or whomever they worship – with the unalienable rights guaranteed above in the document that secured our freedom over two hundred years ago.
Thus, we should all agree that differences are inevitable among the student body on our beloved campus; the only answer to prejudice among us is to rise above the stench of intolerance and share VI as a community beyond hate.

By Avery Volpus

Slurs scrawled across doors.
“Man, don’t do that, that’s gay.”
Students who feel the need to change the way they dress to avoid harassment. Students who
quietly ask for an escort across campus at night to feel safe from those whose fear of differences goes as
far as violence.
These are just a few of the problems that Virginia Intermont’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA)
plans to remediate throughout the 2010-2011 school year and beyond. With the largest club
membership listed on campus, VI’s GSA is a college branch of Gay-Straight Alliance Network
International, an expansive and well-established organization dedicated to helping students and
individuals begin alliance groups in their area. The goal: to demonstrate that all students can help to
increase acceptance on campus, even if they aren’t members of the club. Within the club, members
strive to increase education about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and intersex
populations; students who identify as heterosexual but support the rights of these groups are referred to
as “allies” (hence the acronym LGBTQIA).
What happens at a GSA meeting? With the guidance of club administration, faculty sponsors,
guest speakers, and the participation of club members, the group covers discussion topics both heavy
(bullying, suicide, language discrimination) and light (progress in gay rights, big happenings in the
queer community, increasing positive LGBTQIA presence in the media). A number of movie nights are
planned throughout the year to open up the campus to the LGBTQIA film genre, and like all GSA
events, these movie nights are open to everyone. GSAVIC has already begun a 50/50 raffle with an
upcoming drawing for a cash giveaway; the group has also begun the process of establishing a Safe
Room program on campus, where students volunteer to designate their dorm rooms as discrimination-
free refuge spaces for students who need somewhere to go. Recently, the GSA celebrated the
continuing process of repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy with a costume party in the Student
Center. A trip to a Pride event is a long-term goal for the group, and in the next month, the
administration plans to re-open the doors of the GSA office on second-floor East, providing office
hours with an on-call administrator for students who want to stop by and talk in the office.
GSA meets Thursday nights twice a month at 9 PM in the library, and visitors are always
welcome to drop in to see what we’re all about. Interested but not sure? Facebook “GSAVIC” to join
the online group and receive updates, event invites, and news updates about the gay community.