Gay rights
advocates are asking Washington University administrators to
reconsider honoring antigay activist Phyllis Schlafly with
an honorary doctorate at the school's commencement
ceremony. Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians
and Gays, along with many students and faculty, is
urging the school not to honor Schlafly at the May 16
ceremony in St. Louis.
Gay rights
advocates are asking Washington University administrators to
reconsider honoring antigay activist Phyllis Schlafly with
an honorary doctorate at the school's commencement
ceremony. Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians
and Gays, along with many students and faculty, is
urging the school not to honor Schlafly at the May 16
ceremony in St. Louis.
"Phyllis Schlafly
has spent much of her life on a crusade to roll back
opportunities for millions of people, including many of the
students at Washington University," Dean L. Rosen,
president of PFLAG's St. Louis chapter, said in a
statement on Thursday. "She has consistently opposed
full equality for women and for gays and lesbians and has
pushed her anti-equality agenda in our schools and our
state houses. As parents and allies of GLBT young
people, we are alarmed that Washington University
would honor someone who has such a long track record of
attacking our children."
Despite having a
gay son, Schlafly, founder of the "pro-family" Eagle
Forum, has been a longtime opponent of LGBT rights and
feminism. The Washington University alumna has also
attacked public schools for allowing affirmative
portrayals of LGBT people in curricula.
Students and
faculty have not asked university officials to disinvite
Schlafly from speaking at the ceremony; they simply disagree
with her receiving an honorary degree. As of Thursday,
more than 2,000 members had joined a Facebook.com
group opposing Schlafly's doctorate.
Mary Ann Dzuback,
director of the women's and gender studies department
at WU, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch it
would be "grossly inappropriate" for Washington
University to honor Schlafly with a degree.
The school said
in a statement on Tuesday that Schlafly was chosen
because it honors people "who have become a part of the
broad public discourse on vital issues of the times --
whether or not the majority of those within its
community agree with the views expressed by those
individuals." The statement continues to list past honorees,
"including civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Julian
Bond; political leaders as diverse as Madeleine
Albright, John Major, Patricia Schroeder, John C.
Danforth, Paul Simon, and Richard Gephardt;
educational leaders such as Ruth Simmons and Henry Louis
Gates; and members of the media including Tom
Friedman, George Will, Tim Russert, and this year's
commencement speaker, Chris Matthews." (The Advocate)
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