University Daily Kansan / Thursday, April 9, 1992
CAMPUS / AREA
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'Out' airman tells of discrimination
By Shelly Solon
Kansan staff writer
Capt. Greg Greeley
Oneday before Air Force Capt. Greg Greeley was to be honorably discharged from active duty, he marched in a Gay and Lesbian Pride Day Parade in Washington, D.C.
But the morning of his scheduled discharge, he found himself the main source in a front-page story in the Washington Post.
Greeley, one of the leaders of the parade, had planned for a year and a half to leave the military. He was tired of living about being gay.
honorable discharge from the military as originally planned, it took 40 members of Congress and some telephone calls to get it.
Although Greeley still received an
Greeley said he was lucky compared to the thousands of gay men who were dishonorably discharged from the military each year.
Greeley described his experience to about 80 people last night in a Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week program at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
"I had to look at my life and decided it was more important to be open than to have a career in the military," he said.
Greeley described how he was interrogated by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations June 24, 1991, the day his name appeared in the newspaper. His discharge was put on hold.
After 40 members of Congress requested that Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney give the honorable discharge, Cheney demanded that Greeley be discharged.
Greeley said that for gays in the military, there was a way to win.
"They will lie, intimidate and scare people to get them to admit that they are gay." he said. "They lie and say that they are gay." He also says who is gay and that they have all this
information on you, but they don't. If you give in to them, there is no chance. They can discharge you simply for saying it. But you can do something if you can get people into it and don't give in. In my case, the military blinked."
It is not a question of how the military's police would change but a question of why it does not.
"Campus pressure is good," he said. "If a campus like KU has sexual orientation in its statement of equal educational opportunity, they need to be reminded to make that a reality for all aspects of the campus."
Greeley said lesbians were discharged at an even higher rate than
gay men.
Jamie Howard, Lawrence senior, said the military tried to discriminate against women based on sexual orientation because it could not discriminate on the basis of gender.
"They seek out lesbians much more vigorously," said Howard, a GLOSK member. "They have large witchhunts on the basis of sexual orientation because they can discharge without proving anything."
Jim Danoff-Burg, co-coordinator of GALA Week, said he hoped Greely's speech would encourage people to revive the issue at the National Day of Action Protest tomorrow.
Peggy Woods/KANSAN
During the first week students can buy graduation regalia, Daniela Bravo, Puebla, Mexico, senior. (right) helps her friend Michelle Francis, Concordia senior, decide upon a graduation cap. KU concessions employee Jeannette Denton, who worked the sale last year, said. "The last week is stressful for us. Last year the line stretched out the door on the final day." Sales began Monday and will continue from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through April 24 at gates 22 and 23 in Memorial Stadium.
Lookin' good!
Roaming lion caught after run in neighborhood
By Andy Taylor and Gayle Osterberg
Kansas staff writers
The female lion was loose in the 3000 block of Steven Drive in west Lawrence Tuesday afternoon before an employee of Lawrence police's Animal Control Division caught the animal, according to a Lawrence police report.
A mountain lion that roamed a west Lawrence neighborhood Tuesday has left neighbors asking why nondomesticated animals can be kept as pets.
The division found the animal and took it to the Humane Society, according to the report. The owner of the lion, Randall Jackson, retrieved the pet and showed proof from the Kansas Parks and Wildlife agency that he could keep the animal at his residence, police said.
Jackson could not be reached for comment.
Jackson, Co. is bereaved for Cornell.
Brenda Cleary, a representative in the department, said the lion was found about 50 feet from the owner's yard when it was picked up by the department.
"It was the first time I've encountered a wild animal as a pet." she said.
Curtis Anderson, who lives across the street from where the mountain lion is reporting, kept, said he was fond of the animals and wanted to be involved.
"Personally I have never seen it, but my wife has," he said. "This neighborhood is a major thoroughfare for Sunset Hill Elementary School and West Junior High. I am worried if this is ever out again when the kids are coming or going to school."
Both schools are two blocks from Steven Drive.
"There are more lions around than you might think," he said. "People get them and keep them in their basement or garage."
Glen Hurst, an officer at the Kansas Parks and Wildlife agency, said residents could buy exotic animals at auctions that traveled from state to state.
Last year, the agency began requiring owners of exotic antic
land to permit so the state could keep track of where the animals were.
Hurst said wolves were the most common, but many people also requested permits for lions, bobcats and bears.
'Wayne' hurls Queen song onto charts
'Rhapsody' classic finds new audience
By Andy Taylor Kansan staff writer
Thanks to Wayne and Garth, the song "Bohemian Rhapsody," released by Queen when most KU students were toddlers, has become one of the most popular and schwinging rock 'n' roll songs this year.
The two hormone-induced metalheads in the movie "Wayne's World," expose moviegoers to the song when they cruise the main street of Aurora, Ill., mimicking the words in operatic gestures.
Because of the popularity of the two, the soundtrack to "Wayne's World" has been near the top spot in Billboard magazine's weekly top 10 album list. And it also is one of many songs that is attracting a new generation of rock music fans.
Noway? Way!
Chris Locke, Topeka junior, was only four years old when Queen released the song. He said the scene in the movie, in which Wayne and Garth cruise in their 1970s-era Pacer and sing the song, brought back memories of high school.
"It represents what high school people did during the weekend in small towns," Locke said.
Mike Anthony, music director of KLZR-FM radio in Lawrence, said the song was played an average of eight times a day at the station.
"It's one of our most requested songs," he said. "Personally, I'm getting tired of it."
"A lot of the top 40 radio music is adventuresome and people aren't ready for it," he said. "This is also a memory thing. People like to cling to old hits."
Anthony also said music listeners preferred songs from the past.
years ago had become famous theme songs in contemporary movies. Two other older songs, the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" in the movie "Ghost" and the Beatles' "Twist and Shout" in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," became top 10 tunes when the movies were released.
Anthony said songs written more than 20
Kris Gillespie, a clerk at Kief's Discount Records & Stereo Store, 2429 Iowa St., said the store sold out of the "Wayne's World" soundtrack three times.
Bruce Harrah-Conforth, curator of educational services at the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, said older songs were popular because they reached a new crowd of music buffs.
"This is the first time that 'Bohemian Rhapsody' is released on CD in the country," he said.
"What's happening is this music is reaching a whole new audience," he said. "Chances are that many people who like 'Bohemian Rhapydo' are too young to know the song or
about the rock group Queen."
Queen released the song in 1975 after recording it from the group Bad News.
Harrah-Conforth said the popularity of the 17-year-old song was not the basis for a musical trend.
"I don't see a trend," he said. "Naturally the song is popular today because of the movies and the predominance of MTV. There is no hiding music videos."
Harrah-Conforth also agreed with Anthony that movies created a sense of nostalgia from older songs.
"When 'The Blues Brothers' came out years ago, it caused a rebirth of 1960s blues and rock," he said. "Many of those songs are still popular today."
This was not the first time that Queen had the main theme in a movie, Harrah-Conforth said the group wrote the soundtrack for "Flash Gordon," a movie that bombed at the box office in 1979.
The sky is falling the sky is falling!
The Associated Press
EMPORIA — A foot-long chunk of metal fell from the sky and started a small grass fire near the Cassoday interchange of the Kansas Turnpike, authorities said.
Although nobody knows for sure, Kansas Highway Patrol Turnpike Capt. Ted Thompson speculated yesterday that the metal may be from a satellite.
The object will be analyzed today by experts at the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Thompson said.
"We're just going to have to take it over to the space people and see what it is," he said.
A turnipke employee found the metal about noon on Tuesday. The employee did not see it fall from the sky, but it was still hot when he found it, Thompson said.
A turnpike employee said that the metal was charred and twisted but red letters could be seen on it.