VOL.101.NO.126
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
MONDAY, APRIL 6,1992
(USPS 650-640)
ADVERTISING:864-4358
NEWS:864-4810
Speech about battery kicks off GALA Week
Kansan staff writer
By Shelly Solon
Kerry Lobel has worked with battered women since 1972, but until May of last year it had not entered her personal life.
Lobel was seeing a woman and building a relationship. Mary, her partner, had been seeing another woman and decided to end their five-year relationship so she could be with Lobel.
When Mary tried to break off the other relationship, her partner beat her. It was not the first time.
Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week Highlights
**Monday:** Wear Black Clothing on Black Monday
Wommy's week. 7:30 p.m. Ecumenical Christian Ministries
Label said that Mary had been lucky because the police and her attorney were cooperative but that Mary experi- mentation within the lesbian community.
Lobel, who is from Little Rock, Ark, works with the Arkansas Women's Project and edited a book about battery among lesbians. She took Mary to a battered women's shelter and helped her through the situation.
"Her partner lost no status, but she lost all support," Lobel said. "All she had left from her community was the support of four gay men and one heterosexual woman. She was labeled a bad woman and told she caused the battering to happen."
Lobel said she learned a lesson from the experience.
Lobel spoke last night to about 50 people at 100 Smith Hall. Her speech was the first event for Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week, or GALA Week, 1992.
Speech by former Air Force captain, Greg Greeley, 7:30 p.m., Alderson Auditorium,
Kansas City, Mo.
Tuesday: Wear Blue Jeans If You're Gay Day
Jayhawk Boulevard Promenade, noon, starts at Kansas Union end at Wescoe Beach
Wednesday: Wear Your Military Uniform Day
Thursday: Wear Beach Clothing to the Kiss-In, noon, Wescoe Beach
Friday: National Day of Action Protest, noon, in front of Strong Hall,
nationwide campus protest against ROTC policy gays and lesbians
Saturday: Human Rights Parade, 2.30 p.m., Massachusetts Street.
GALA Week Dance 9.0 m., Frontier Room, Burge Union
Wednesday: Wear Your Military Uniform Day
"In some respects, I had objectified
violence because violence had not touched my life," she said. "In the gay and lesbian community, we don't believe violence can happen to us. We think of this gay and lesbian utopia and that we are more nonviolent and more nurturing than others, but that is false."
People cannot assume that battery is heterosexual. Lobel said.
"The same issues of power and control that work in heterosexual relationships are at work in gay and lesbian relationships," she said. "Men and women both learn about power and control. Studies say half of us see it in our homes, but we all can see it everywhere."
Michaela Hayes, member of Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, said that within a small, fragile community of gays and lesbians such as the Lawrence
community, it was difficult to name a batterer.
"People fear reaction within their own community," she said. "And the lines between who's the batterer are not as clear. Questions of mutual battering come out even though they shouldn't."
Arthur Satterfield, member of the GALA Week committee, said that violence in relationships and the gay and lesbian community were ignored and that people tried to deny the existence of both.
"It's really羞萌 denial upon denial," he said. "It's difficult to talk about problems within publicly. Many people worry about airing dirty laundry. It's a Catch-22. If you don't talk about it, it continues to happen, and if you air it, you'll probably get some backlash."
Gay and lesbian group grows during struggle for acceptance
By Shelly Solon
Sometime in 1969 or 1970, gay KU students organized for the first time.
It began when someone wrote an anonymous message in men's bathrooms on campus.
"Let's get out of the johns and into the streets," the slogan read. The name and phone number of a social welfare professor accompanied it without the professor's knowledge.
After receiving responses, the professor organized a meeting of a group he never intended to start. About 10 people came.
This week, GLSOK, which has about 200 members, celebrates Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week.
The group became the Lawrence Gay Liberation Front, which later was renamed Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas, one of the oldest, continuously active campus gay and lesbian groups in the country.
Henry Schwaller, member of KU Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association, said gays on campus stayed out of the public eye before the group formed.
"There was nowhere to go,
nowhere to meet, gays had to hide,
he said. "Everyone met in the bathrooms for casual sex."
Schwaller said that people argued about whether the group began in 1969 or in 1970 but not that the professor was the person who encouraged gays involved to go public.
"At the time, he was the only one who would get in front of the cameras or be quoted," he said. "Everyone else refused. He finally told the others, 'Stand behind me,' and got people excited about coming out."
When the Lawrence Gay Liberation Front sought Student Senate financing in 1970, its request was refused because the University would not recognize the group.
But the University did not share the excitement.
The refusal led to lawsuit against the University with a noted civil-rights attorney representing the group. In 1973, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the University's denial of recognition, and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
In the 1980-81 school year, Gay Services of Kansas, GSOK, was a registered organization eligible for Student Senate financing. In 1981, it became GLOSK, Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas.
But Schwaller said the '80s also brought open acceptance of gay- and lesbian-bashing at KU.
"It was a frightening time," he said. "If the group would have failed, it would have failed in the mid-80s. Around that time, one member had her brake lines cut, and another member had the wheels loosened on his car."
Troy Alldaffer, co-director of GLOSK, said more widespread recognition of the army as GLOSK protested the ROTC policies against gays and lesbians.
"It's like we have to have something very credible show discrimination against gays and lesbians for people to believe that there is discrimination," he said. "The ROTC issue and the protests changed the focus of the group."
Abortion bill goes to Finney's desk
Kansan staff writer
By Gayle Osterberg Kansas staff writer
TOPEKA - The fate of Kansas' abor-
tion laws rests in the hands of Gov. Joan
Finney.
On Friday, the House voted 71-3 to approve an abortion bill passed by the Senate 24 hours earlier, sending the final bill to the governor for her signature or veto.
Finney, an outspoken anti-abortion advocate, has promised to veto any bill that guarantees women the right to an abortion. She also said she would sign any law that restricted abortions in Kansas
The Legislature is sending her a bill that would do both.
The Senate, which had doded debate on a House abortion bill March 18, reintroduced the issue Thursday by adding an abortion-related amendment to a bill that would make minor changes in the state's perjury law.
"It does represent a considerable compromise on the part of both (anti-abortion and pro-choice) groups," said State Wint. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, who answered questions and defended the amendment during several hours of Senate debate Thursday.
Some provisions of the bill would make abortions legal, with some limitations on late term abortions. It also would prohibit blocking access to and from health care clinics that perform abortions.
Some of the more restrictive measures require minors younger than 18 to notify at least one parent 24 hours
before an abortion and require the minor to receive counseling before having an abortion.
The bill also includes an informed-consent provision. The provision requires a physician to provide information about abortion alternatives to a woman at least 8 hours before an abortion is performed.
Because the abortion measure is an amendment to a bill that originated in the House, House members can either accept or reject the amendment, but cannot change it.
State Rep. Kathleen Sebelius, D-Topeka, who sponsored the House abortion bill, 2778, voted against the Senate measure. All three Lawrence representatives, who supported the House bill, also voted against the Senate bill.
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence, said she had wanted the bill to go to a conference committee. A conference committee has representatives from the House and Senate and works toward a compromise when one house disagrees with changes the other has made to a bill. The bill did not got a conference committee because the House passed the bill.
"It was a case of the Senate killing the House bill and ramming the Senate bill down our throats," she said.
State Sen. Norman Daniels, D-Valley Center, who fought against the Senate's passage of the bill, said she would urge the governor to veto the bill.
Pro-choice advocates rally at U.S. capital
But most anti-abortion activists do not like the bill either.
Finney was out of the state Friday and unavailable for comment.
WASHINGTON — Thousands of prochoice demonstrators marched on the nation's capital yesterday to show political muscle that they hoped would sway politicians and a conservative Supreme Court.
"We're going to turn out of office people who don't support us," Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organizing for Women, said at a morning rally.
The Associated Press
It was the first pro-choice march on the capital in three years.
Although Police gave an early estimate of 30,000 people, reporters on the scene said the crowd was several times that large. NOW had said it expected between 300,000 and 700,000 people to take part.
"We do count and there are an awful lot of us and they should watch out," said Isabel Glass of New York.
Democratic presidential candidate Jerry Brown sat quietly for about an
Bill Clinton, who like Brown took time out from campaigning for the New York Democratic primary to attend, marched in the rally surrounded by supporters who chanted, "pro-choice, pro-Clinton."
Both sides in the abortion issue see this year as a possible turning point for legalized abortion in the United States. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments April 22 on a Pennsylvania case that imposes restrictions on abortions.
hour, but left without speaking to the main crowd. He did stand on a folding chair on the back of the main stage to address a small crowd with a bullhorn.
A NOW representative, who refused to be identified by name, said the group decided not to allow any presidential candidate to speak.
People on both sides of the issue think the court will use that case to undermine or even overturn Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal.
Heave ho!
Derek Nolen / KANSAN
Struggling to win the tug of war, Meghan Wright, bottom left, Overland Park junior, Cole Pepper, right, Prairie Village freshman, and Kristy March, center, Topeka freshman, pull the rope. The tug of war was one of several events conducted Saturday afternoon in connection with the Greek Week Olympics. The games in front of Allen Field House involved all greek houses.
By Ranjit Arab Kansan staff writer
Computer science head quits
The head of the department of computer science last week submitted his letter of resignation from the post and said turmull in the department made it impossible for him to do his job.
William Bulgren, professor of computer science, submitted the letter Thursday to James Muyskens, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Bulgren will step down as soon as the position can be filled and will continue as a professor in the department.
In the letter, Bulgen stated that his decision was a result of tension within the church.
The current turmoil and acrimony make it unwise to carry on business as usual.
Bulgren had been acting head of the department since 1983 and chairperson since 1985. In 1988, faculty members elected him to a five-year term.
Stepping down was in the best interest of the department. Bulgren stated.
"It appears to me now that the prospects of quickly resolving the problem of dissension within the department will be improved by my stepping aside as soon as new leadership can be found," he wrote.
The dissension Bulgen wrote about in the letter was the tension between him and Zamir Bavel, professor of computer science.
In a confidential report dated Jan. 10, two outside consultants suggested that both Bulgen and Bavel be removed from the staff because of their history of personal conflict.
The report also called for the elimination of the department of computer science because of, among other factors, lack of grant activity and poor management.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Bulgren said he planned to remain in the department as a professor.
However, he said he thought it would be one to two years before the department recovered from the problems cited in the confidential report.
Muyksens accepted Bulgren's resignation Friday.
In a letter addressed to Bulgren, Muyksens stated that during the next few weeks he would work closely with Bulgren and other department of computer science faculty members to find a replacement.
Muyksens said the resignation was in the best interest of the department.
"In recent weeks, I have been encouraged by the good will and cooperative spirit expressed by the faculty, staff and students in the department," he stated in the letter. "That augurs well for the department's future. A special thanks to you for keeping the interests of the department in the forefront."
Muyskens said yesterday that he had spoken with Bulren before he submitted the resignation letter.