Hill topics
PAGE 8A WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1997
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The other sex
EVENTS • ENTERTAINMENT • ISSUES • MUSIC • ART
Group of concerned men to rally, speak during women's night
Both genders have outlet for emotion and support
By Rachelle Detweiler
Men will not be forgotten tomorrow night during the Womyn Take Back the Night activities.
A men's circle will take place while women form their own share circle. The circle will give men an opportunity to express their opinions about violence in a non-threatening setting.
Matthew Caldwell, Lawrence senior, will be leading the discussion in the men's circle. The job will be tricky, he said, because each person has different motives for coming, and it influences the complexity of the topics the group discusses.
Jason Daniels, Colby junior, said he had attended two men's circles in past years. This year, he will help lead the circle. He said organizers had discussed including men in the march this year, but the proposal was rejected.
Although Yershidup said he usually believed there was a more effective solution to most problems, he said that a march was a good method of breaking down gender barriers.
A group of sensitive and aware men tend to discuss sex roles and a life in which people's choices are not defined by masculine and feminine characteristics, Caldwell said. But when men are dragged to the circle by their girlfriends, discussions focus more on understanding sexual impulses.
Regardless of a person's motives for attending, Caldwell said that no one walked way from the circle believing violence against women happened infrequently.
Jack Yershidup, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore said some men still thought women were not their equals.
Men are not allowed to participate in the women's circle or in the march down Massachusetts Street. As the women march, the men will wait in South Park and listen to their chants.
"I call myself a feminist," Daniels said. "But we really wanted to make a point of the women being strong. They don't need men to help them out in the march."
Fact sheets about violence against women and the general mood of the night will break men's flippancy, he said.
Glen Collins, Dallas, Texas senior, said that a group of women marching with united voices could raise more awareness than one woman screaming and hollering in front of Wescoe Hall.
"The angry atmosphere makes men listen intently," Caldwell said. "It's the first time some men have been intimidated by women and that's a really healthy reaction."
The anger women may feel during the event is a positive emotion because sexism still is rampant in society, Caldwell said.
Awareness is the key to change and that change is what keeps society thriving, Collins said. Even though gender equality is improving, he said that often women were still expected to conform to a subordinate role, especially in work and relationship-related activities.
For both men and women, the night will be another step toward change, and it is this change that frightens some people, Caldwell said.
"It gives women — or even men — an opportunity to address problems they have bottled up," Collins said. "Why not have safety in numbers when they do it?"
"People are so offended by women's rights," Caldwell said. "If it was a bunch of men going around and protesting for men's rights, then they wouldn't be seen as leftist, freakish, militant people."
When the sun sets and the street lights flicker on, a dark fear can creep up from behind.
Fear in the sound of a stranger's footsteps or the creaking of a bedroom door. It makes some women afraid of shadows and others afraid of their families.
At the Womyn Take Back the Night rally, 7 p.m. tomorrow at the South Park gazebo, women can say what some may not want to hear.
The only similarity between these fears is the necessity to stop both, said Stacy Mann, president of the Women's Empowerment Action Coalition.
"I've been afraid of the dark in my home and in my schools," Mann said. "I feel being part of the march is helping me to find my voice. I don't cower in the dark anymore. I find power in it."
Most community members are supportive of the march and the attention it will draw in the park and on Massachusetts Street, said Loretta Pyles, volunteer at Women's Transitional Care Service. Growing support for the march caused organizers to switch the date from April to October last year. The move allowed women to work together the entire year without the interruption of summer vacation.
During the singing and storytelling, attendees can see the Clothesline Project, a T-shirt display bearing witness to violence against women and children. The three clotheslines will show many
Ceremonies open with local singer Allison Failing and stories from sexual assault survivors.
forms
of abuse, said Sarah Page, project coordinator.
or abuse, said Saran Page, project coordinator. The color of each shirt clasped to the line represents a kind violence: blue for child abuse, white for non-survivors.
Three of the shirts represent shirts stolen from
I've been afraid of the dark in my home and in my schools. I feel being part of the march is helping me to find my voice. I don't cower in the dark anymore. I found power in it."
Stacey Mann Women's Empowerment Action Coalition President
last year's Clothesline Project. Pictures of the shirts were taken and enlarged so they can be reproduced for this year's display.
women can walk to the Train Park for a private women's circle. The circle will give violence survivors a chance to break their silence, speak against their abusers and confront their fears.
play.
After the opening ceremonies.
"You'll say things that people don't want you to say," Mann said. "It's empowering because everyone there believes you and to a certain degree understands what's going on."
Mann said she understood the fear that accom-
When she first attended the march, she talked about child abuse. Even though speaking was terrifying, she said she was able to speak out.
"We're empowered through being able to say out loud to 300 women that this happened to me," Mann said. "It's having women scream in the dark 'I believe you.' Then you can walk through the dark, knowing you're a powerful woman."
The speech allowed her to realize how her past shaped her life. Now she helps other survivors.
Mann also helps raise money for the march. Besides a handful of willing sponsors, coordinators donate time and money to the march.
"I've never attributed the work I do in the community to money," Mann said. "The work is so much more important to me than knowing I'll have a fabulous car. It's more important that I know I'll be safe walking to my craydy car."
The Women's Empowerment Action Coalition also donates all of the money it receives from the Student Senate along with some funds from Women's Transitional Care Service and Rape Victim Survivors Service.
The final event of the night is a march down Massachusetts Street. The women will harness their emotions to shout for social change.
"You'd have to be there to truly experience it," Pyles said. "There are so many levels where it can be so intense. So many people are getting together and the potential for change is intellectually amazing."
GAYS AND LESBIANS
Citizens come together and search for solutions
Kerry Label speaks to the crowd while Rob MacRae-Mckie, Lawrence grad student, and Kathen Greenly watch during "Coming Out to Stop the Violence" last night at the Lawrence Public Library. Photo by Geoff Krieger/KANSAN
By Corrie Moore
"Coming Out to Stop the Violence" was sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Freedom Coalition, Lawrence National Organization for Women, KU Queers and Allies, Delta Force and the Topeka Unity and Pride Alliance.
The meeting lasted from 7:30 to 9 p.m. and more than 60 people filled the auditorium, forcing some people to stand in the back. The meeting discussed national and local hate-crime issues and strategies that could be developed to stop hate crimes. Members of the audience responded with questions and personal stories about hate crimes.
Audience members were asked to fill out a petition to President Clinton to urge him to speak out more against hate crimes and support legislative proposals and urge local law enforcement to respond against such crimes. The petition also had room to tell personal experiences of hate crimes.
lawrence residents and KU students filled the city's Public Library auditorium last night to listen and talk about sexually-oriented hate crimes.
Tracey Conaty, field organizer for the task force, said that the turnout was beyond the expectations of the organizations and the attendees.
"They got to tell their stories, but they also got educated, motivated and mobilized." she said.
Lobel said the task force wanted to come to the Midwest because of the lack of hate-crime laws based on sexual orientation.
Kansas is one of eight states that do not have laws pertaining to hate crime. Twenty-one states do not define crimes based on sexual orientation as hate crimes. Twenty states do define them as hate crimes.
Joe Cuevas, Topeka senior, attended the meeting.
Kerry Lobel, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Kathleen Greenly, local Freedom Coalition representative, and Rob MacRae, former director of KU Queers and Allies, spoke to the audience.
"I always think it's important for people to see that they're not alone." she said.
"I thought it was very important and well needed to bring out some of the issues that are kind of invisible in this community," he said.
Lobel said that the task force, which was started 21 years ago, had made some progress.
"We've moved ahead in a tremendous way culturally" she said.
Greenly said the Lawrence Freedom Coalition, which has been around for six years, had tremendous success with local officials about hate crimes.
"What we have done is to try and figure out what we can do institutionally," she said.
MacRae spoke to the audience from a student's perspective. He said Lawrence was decades ahead in regards to hate crimes with good support from the KU police department.
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"I do have hope for the future." he said.