This is a point that the school may make that they may actually believe is valid. For example, a guy that I know was trying to start a new fraternity at an HBCU back in the early 90's. There were a number of people involved in the group. And the group was organized to the point that the group still recognizes the guys involved as their frat. There was even another "chapter" on the campus of another HBCU. Yet, the school refused to give them a charter.
Similarly, here, there may be a plethora of reasons that a school does not give a student group recognition. It may not necessarily be a singling out of that group b/c they are tied to the interests of gay or lesbian or bi-sexual peoples. However, I know that it will be hard to obtain space on campus to meet, etc. without formal recognition and those meetings may be the place that the student needs to go to get support from other students.
It's a difficult problem and HBCUs are stricter generally than majority schools. Shoot, when I went to an HBCU, we couldn't even have male company in our rooms - period, no visiting hours, nothing. And ... if you didn't get inside those doors by midnight, you were locked out. B/c *as a lady* you didn't hang out all night long and you didn't have male company. This is what the school believed. Now when I attended a majority institution - anything went. It was all good. They didn't care who came into your room, who spent the night over. There was not even a "mother" of the dorm to *see you* if you came in late.
All that I can say is that if someone is looking for an administration that is going to be on the cutting edge and not conservative, then an HBCU is probably not for you. And how can we expect HBCUs to be any different than the AA population as a whole - as a whole, AAs are conservative when it comes to issues like homosexuality. Accordingly, it's not surprising that Historically *Black* College and Universities may be taking a conservative stance when it comes to these issues.
To some extent, the level of conservativeness, if it gets to the point of wanting to push it underground is not good b/c this is largely the same problem that we are facing in the AA community with pushing the downlow and all the related issues that are significantly impacting us underground. It is not good as any of us who are paying attention to our HIV numbers, our numbers of male suicide, etc. - all going up. We have to begin to address these issues and differences. Addressing the issues may not mean encouraging someone in their behavior as we all make choices in our behavior, no matter what it is, and we cannot require anyone to encourage us or necessarily be on our side just b/c *we* want to do something, but we can at least not try to act like differences don't exist.
SC
Quote:
Originally Posted by TotallyWicked
At Hampton, where rules govern everything from overnight guests to student dress, officials insist they don't discriminate against gays. They say they're simply enforcing the regulations on student groups, and there just isn't space for another one.
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