September 23, 2007
Protecting Homosexuals at Columbia from Discrimination Posted by John Steele Gordon at 10:20 PM EST Alexander Burns quotes me as follows: “ROTC is banned from Columbia because that institution disagrees with the official policy of the United States government, a policy that discriminates against homosexuals in the military by requiring them to keep silent as to their orientation. But Columbia welcomes the president of Iran, although the official policy of the government of Iran that he heads—not just his personal opinion—is to execute homosexuals by hanging them.” He then writes that, “This is a nicely symmetrical but oversimplified description of Columbia’s moral dilemma.” He adds, “ROTC is singled out for special treatment because the process of military recruitment, as it would take place on campus, might violate the university’s nondiscrimination policies. If recruiters came to Columbia, they would be engaging in an activity that treats some students in a degrading and discriminatory way. Banning them from campus has a whiff of political protest to it, but at heart it is a pragmatic move designed to shield students from immediate and active discrimination. President Ahmadinejad’s visit is different. It is an absolute abomination that his government executes homosexuals. But he’s not going to be executing them at Columbia, and he’s not going to be recruiting for the Revolutionary Guard, either.” I’m sorry. I have the greatest, genuine respect for Alexander Burns, even—perhaps especially—when we disagree, but this is utter nonsense. If discriminating against homosexuals is bad, hanging them is far, far worse. If gay students at Columbia need be “shielded” from having to face the presence on their campus of an organization that requires homosexuals to keep quiet about their sexual orientation, they surely should not have to face the presence on their campus of someone who hangs people for being gay, even if that person will not be hanging any homosexuals on Morningside Heights. I might point out that Mr. Burns does not seem to understand what ROTC is. Columbia does not ban ROTC recruiters from the campus. It bans ROTC, which stands for Reserve Officers Training Corps. It is a program that students can join, should they so choose, before coming to Columbia. In return for considerable help in paying college tuition, students who join ROTC contract to spend a certain number of years in the military as military officers after graduation. Students going to Columbia can still participate in ROTC, but they must go to the campus of Fordham University in the Bronx in order to take the required classes and training. That is a considerable inconvenience at the least. The ban at Columbia, which dates to 1969 (the same year as the Stonewall riots, ironically), had nothing initially to do with discrimination against homosexuals. It was rather a protest against the Vietnam War. Discrimination against gays is simply the latest excuse for what is, at its heart, anti-military posturing. It has more than a whiff of political protest to it, it has a foul and pervasive odor of political protest to it.
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