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SMU student senate votes against seat for gay representative

01:40 PM CST on Wednesday, December 2, 2009

By MATT PETERSON / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

A divided SMU student senate on Tuesday night voted against legislation for a seat to represent the school’s gay community.

The measure would have put a March referendum on the Sexual Orientation and Gender Equity seat before the full student body.

Senators heard from several speakers supporting the measure and two opposing it before debating the legislation into the evening.

The legislation failed in a 19-19 tie, needing a three-fourths majority to pass.

Student body President Patrick Kobler said he was disappointed by the vote.

“I really want to see the student body vote on this issue,” the senior said.

Kobler says the matter may still go before students, if a petition drive by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is successful.

Tom Elliott, a fifth-year senior who led the effort calling for the seat, said he’s confident he can collect the 3 percent of student signatures required for a referendum.

“It’s disappointing,” Elliott said of Tuesday’s vote, “but I certainly don’t think it’s over.”

There are four special-interest seats in the 47-seat student senate, one representing each of the following student groups: African-American, Hispanic, Asian and international.

Good for them!!!

After all, it is a "Christian", Methodist university isn't it?

Why would, in the first place, have all these stupid ethnic, racial, religious groups?! Are we all Americans?

MULTI-CULTURALISM WILL BE THE DEATH OF THIS COUNTRY YET!!!

Okay, I'll say it. If you have the "special-interest seats" for ethnic minorities, it stands to reason that the GLBT community should have a "special-interest seat" as well.

The question then becomes whether or not the "special-interest seats" should exist in the first place.

I was on Senate while at SMU and think that special interest seats are horsesh*t. Earn your seat by being elected by your peers from the school department to which you belong.

i have special-interests. nuns and guns baby! now where's my lonestar light?!

LGBT is not a race. If you have a black LGBT senator, you have an over-represented minority. If you have a Mexican LGBT senator, you have an over-represented minority, etc etc etc.. I can't stand special interest groups, because of the ridiculous implications they bring.

I'm saving you a 500-word rant with this comment.

I always thought these special interest seats were insulting. Is the assumption that minorities are not capable of running a good enough campaign to get elected?

I know the assumption is not that the general student body won't vote for minorities, because minorities have been elected into regular seats all the time.

Perhaps they can have a redneck seat to balance it out. Or a biker seat. Justice for all. By the way, I'm in mourning. Meredith Baxter Birney came out of the closet. At least if she's going to be a lesbian, she ought to have pictures to go along with this revelation. Years of fantasy out the window.

http://www.smudailycampus.com/news/brea ... t-majority

I guess after years of trying they have finally gotten the vote from student senate and it now goes to the student body. I don't know how about that last section of the story while talking about gender-neutral bathrooms and such. It just reminds me of the liberal colleges up in the northeast where both genders used the same facilities. I guess we shall see were the students take this.

Does one leave the toilet seat up or down...............And, does the toilet paper go over or under.......so many important academic questions.......where is BO when we need him most ? Oh, I know....
explaining to Francis, why The Little Sisters Of The Poor need birth control under under his "care" act.

"Gender neutral bathrooms"

WTF?

Future of America

East Coast Mustang wrote:"Gender neutral bathrooms"

WTF?

So, generally,I've learned (yay living in D.C.!), there are two camps to this:

1.) The "reasonable camp." If you have any "transgender" kids at a school, then it's reasonable to accommodate them by making one set of bathrooms unisex for anyone to use.

2.) The "militant camp." All bathrooms are discriminatory because they segregate based on gender and could negatively affect people w/ gender identification issues. They need to all be eradicated so we can become a more inclusive, diverse, welcoming society.

The more you know!

Just so long as I do not find a woman sitting in my urinal.

mrydel wrote:Just so long as I do not find a woman sitting in my urinal.

They consider standing to pee as an element of male oppression so urinals will be eliminated.