Over 40 students and faculty gathered outside the Bonnie Hurlburt Student Center plaza at noon on Thursday, March 18 to participate in a “Show of Solidarity” hosted by the Gay-Straight Alliance and a Facebook group.

“Generally I’m concerned about oppressed groups in society, and when I see it happening in the state of Virginia…with the government setting up statutes, there is cause for concern; I am here to express my concern,” said faculty advisor Dr. Paul Thomas.

The group gathered in response to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s letter to public universities and colleges in Virginia, where he advises them to “prohibit…from including a ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender expression,’ or like classification, as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy.” While Gov. Bob McDonnell issued an executive directive order telling schools not to discriminate in general, his Executive Order Six doesn’t protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“McDonnell’s Executive Directive One is a nice gesture, but the bottom line is that it is NOT a legally-binding document like his Executive Order Six is,” said GSA president sophomore Tom St. Clair. “We appreciate that he took the time to put out that directive, but we want to see more; this is our first way of showing so, and of showing that there are a lot of Highlanders out there that do not discriminate!”

RU professor Theresa Burriss helped organize the demonstration and urged for equality for all Virginians.

“Our LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) neighbors, friends, family members and colleagues have recently been targeted by some Virginia officials; we owe it to them to stand in alliance with them to demand fair treatment,” Burriss said. “If someone can be fired or not hired simply due to his or her sexual orientation, then conscientious citizens should stand in solidarity to protest such blatant bigotry and oppression.”

St. Clair agrees, believing everyone deserves fair treatment.

“This is not just about McDonnell, not just about Cuccinelli, and it’s not just about Radford University,” St. Clair said. “This is about Virginia as a whole, including students, parents, alumni, staff, faculty–everyone.”

What began as frustration with state policies turned into frustration with those of the university. Several demonstrators expressed their concern over university demonstration areas, which they called “free speech zones.”

“There are only certain places on campus we can be,” said graduate student Zetta Nicely. “It seems like ‘free’ should be anywhere in a state college.”

As seen on the Student Activities Web site, the designated demonstration areas are at Heth plaza and the Bonnie plaza. Exceptions can be discussed with the Director of Student Activities if a group wishes to meet in other areas of campus. Though exceptions can be made, some still aren’t happy with the policy.

“We’re talking about free speech, but then we have to talk to the administration to get it,” Thomas said. “If the administration is giving you permission to speak freely it’s sort of a contradiction.”

Dr. Moira Baker drew the demonstration to a close by reviewing some RU history. According to Baker, in 1986 RU was the first university in Virginia to include sexual orientation in their anti-discrimination protection policies, “and for now ours will stay the same.”

Cover and story photo by Thomas Bowman

Tags: Bob McDonnell, demonstration areas, free speech zones, GSA, Ken Cuccinelli, solidarity, Spectrum, Whim

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.