HOUSING SELECTION

Students prepare to register

For the first year, housing sign-ups entirely online

By Knottia Carrigan

As room selection for the 2008-2009 academic year grows closer many students are trying to decide where they want to live. Online room selection will take place from Tuesday, April 22 to Friday, May 2.

Students will be able to select an apartment or room as well as a roommate(s) for the academic year. Victor Culatta, the Director of Housing and Residential Life and Trisha Reopell, the Systems Manager, are confident students will be satisfied with room selection this year.

“It’s easier, less time consuming, and students can do it right from their bedroom,” said Reopell. However, students will notice a few new things when it comes to room selection.

First, there will be “theme based housing.” What this means is that Housing will offer the opportunity to live in different communities committed to certain themes or lifestyles.

The first theme will be 12 month housing. Students will be allowed to secure or lease a room for a 12 month period.

Quiet housing will be another theme. Residents who choose to live in areas designated as quite housing will maintain a quiet living atmosphere 24 hours a day.

There will also be areas that will cater to the needs of graduate students. This area will be exclusively for them.

In substance aware housing student will have the option to live in a substance (alcohol and elicit drug) aware environment.

Another change regarding room selection this year will be that commuters will be allowed to take part in the on-line process.

This year, students will fill out and sign their housing contracts on-line, unlike the past when they had to do this in person.

For students who need assistance with the room selection process, there will be tutorials provided both in person and over the Internet. There will be a web cast, and many students will be able to access it at the same time.

In terms of 21-plus housing, there will not be specific areas designated, as they were in the past. The Woodland Apartments and Cedar Dell South and Cedar Dell West (which will reopen this fall) will have a suite-by-suite 21-plus designation. Every person living in the suite or apartment will have to be 21 years of age for the entire suite or apartment to be designated as 21-plus. If one student in the apartment is under the age of 21, the entire suite or apartment will be considered under-21.

There will be a $200 non-refundable housing deposit required of anyone who wishes to live on campus next fall. It is very important that students make sure they bring their deposits in on time (Friday, March 14), and they must have a zero balance on their account to participate in room selection.

When students bring in their deposits, they will be asked questions about their room preferences by their RAs. Students’ names will then be entered into their records as being eligible to sign up for a room.

There have not been complaints from students before, except from the ones who weren’t “proactive,” according to OHRL staff members. They did not attempt to educate themselves, nor did they go to a tutorial. Students’ feelings toward the room selection process depend on the students. If they want their room selection process to be stress-free, they should simply follow the instructions.

“Most important, students should remember to get their deposit in on time,” said Culatta when asked if there was anything he wanted to say to students.

If there are further questions, feel free to contact the Office of Housing and Residential Life at housing@umassd.edu.

Improved meal plans increase snack options

By Stephanie Luz

Have you exhausted your snack money? The new meal plans for the upcoming 2008-2009 academic year will provide different options, flexibility, and “more bang for your buck” UMass Dartmouth students, according to Derek Costa, Assistant Director of Campus Services.

There will be four meal options available instead of the eight that are currently offered. The 19, 14, and 10 meal plans will be available to students living in the traditional resident halls — Chestnut, Elmwood, Maple Ridge, and Roberts — and the two sophomore buildings —Oak Glen and Pine Dale. These meals will cost the same and offer the same amount of meals as the current 19, 14, and 10 meal plans, however, $30 worth of Corsair Cash — snack money with school spirit — will be added to them.

“We really didn’t have a meal plan that reflected students who live in apartment-style living so that was one issue. The other issue was that students felt they wanted more flexibility, and for them flexibility meant being able to, instead of going to the Resident Dining Hall, have more choices at our retail outlets” said Jeffrey Augustine, Director of Campus Services.

Augustine hopes that the Apartment-Living Five meal plan will accommodate residents of the apartments (Aspen, Birch, Evergreen, Hickory, Ivy, and Willow) and Cedar Dell. Similar to the other meal plans, the price of this plan will cost no more than this year’s five-meal plan.

The Apartment-Living meal plan offers two major changes: an additional $200 of Corsair Cash and the ability to use the five weekly meals at the Birch grill. In other words, a student with this meal plan not only have the option to use meals at the Residential Dining Hall and Café a la Cart, but they will also be able to use a meal at Grill 155 to get a sandwich, a bag of chips and a beverage. This is just one option the meal plan offers at the Birch Grill. Other meal options include Stack’s sandwiches and Smart Market salads.

Residence Halls Council (RHC) President, Nick Prizio commented on the proposed plan, he said, “I think offering a meal plan for apartment style living is very worth while. The adaptions campus services has made with the change of living at UMD is great. If I was not graduating I would have got a meal plan.”

Campus Services, Sodexho and the RHC Food Service Committee have worked together to devise new meal plans using information from dining surveys, meetings and analyzing information from other university meal plans. There were 1,177 students who replied to the surveys that were emailed out to students. Students can find the details of each meal plan on April 22 during online room selection.

As for Commuters and other off-campus students seeking a meal plan, the declining balance plan will still be offered.

Trying to resurrect the Study in Portugal Summer Program

By Katie Bresnahan

This summer, there is hope that the UMass Dartmouth Political Science Department, the Office of International and Exchange Study Programs and the Instituto Superior e Economia e Gestă, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (ISEG-UTL) will once again enable UMD students to travel to Lisbon, Portugal, for the month of June.

The Study in Portugal Summer Program ran every year from 2000 to 2005. “The students just rave about the program, they really love it,” said Michael Baum of the Political Science Department, who runs the program.

However, the program could not run during the summers of 2006 and 2007 because not enough students signed up. Baum said that there was a big drop in enrollment following September 11, 2001. An even bigger drop occurred when the Euro started picking up ground. Baum said, “When we started the program one Euro was $0.86, now it’s $1.52.” He also said that with inflation many students decide that they need the summer to work and make money rather than spending it.

In the past, Baum said that half the students who participated in the Portugal program came from UMD and half came from other institutions. He mentioned that there were students from California, Florida, Texas, Canada and other areas who traveled to Portugal through this program. This year all students in the program will come from UMass Dartmouth.

When it comes to considering studying in Portugal, Baum tells students to think long-term. It will look excellent on their resumes. They can apply their financial aid to this program. He also says that students can stay in Lisbon for another month on their own and take a Portuguese language course or participate in an internship, thus earning nine to twelve credits instead of just the six credits for the month of June. Technically, if they did this and took an extra class at some point they can graduate a semester early, saving a a semester’s worth of money.

There are currently eight students who plan to go to Lisbon this summer. According to Susan Atkins, for the program to run they need “minimally 10 [students], but I think we’d like to see 15.”

A frequent misconception about the this program is not for everyone. Any student who is in good academic standing (an overall GPA of 2.0 or above) and completes the application process by the deadline (Friday, March 14, 2008) can participate. It is open to both graduate and undergraduate students and there is no previous Portuguese language experience required. “We’ve had nursing majors go, we’ve had fine arts people go. The typical student is probably in the social sciences… But really anybody can go,” said Baum.

While the students are in Portugal they take two political science classes through the program. In the past the courses have been offered at the 300 level and at the graduate level. This year they will also be taught at the 200 level for students who do not need 300 level political science credits. All students will attend the same two classes, but the work for the class will vary depending on the level for which a student is enrolled.

The classes that students take are entitled The Politics of International Economic Integration and The Politics of European Integration. Baum teaches the former and Professor Antonio Couch Soares of ISEG teaches the later. Each is course worth three credits and meets three times per week for a few hours.

Both classes are taught in English. “We decided right away that if we tried to do this in Portuguese or required a certain level of Portuguese that we’d have a really small market of people who’d be available,” said Baum.

Baum says that his course has a format similar to any typical course. It has a midterm, a final, a couple quizes and a paper.

When students are not in class they go on different excursions around Portugal. They travel to farms, other universities, areas in and around Lisbon and areas away from Lisbon. Some of the fieldtrips last overnight. Some of the trips also include guest lectues that are somehow related to the courses. Baum describes the experience as “combining tourism with classroom learning.”

The students are housed in a hotel in downtown Lisbon, about a 15 to 20 minute bus ride away from ISEG. Baum said that Lisbon look a lot like San Francisco. “Lisbon has tremendous night life… It has kind of a Southern California-type climate. The beaches are fantastic. They’re probably the best beaches in all of Europe and they’re about 20 minutes from downtown Lisbon,” he said.

Atkins mentioned that the Office of International and Exchange Study Programs is trying to set up an exchange program with ISEG. So UMass Dartmouth might be seeing more students from Portugal in the future. “In our region we have so many students with Portuguese decent that we’d really like to see students go back and reconnect with their culture,” she said.

The deadline to sign up for the 2008 Study in Portugal Summer Program is Friday, March 14. To apply or to get more information contact Professor Michael Baum (mbaum@umassd.edu) or Susan Atkins (satkins@umassd.edu) of the Office of International and Exchange Programs.

SIFE holds forum on ethics in advertising

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. — Are the Lipitor, Cialis, Levitra, and Viagra ads pushing the envelope too far? Are these ads moral? Are they even ethical?

In an effort to have a spirited conversation about the morality and ethics of these commercials and others, the UMass Dartmouth SIFE team will hold an open forum to debate and discuss the issues surrounding this emerging trend in advertising. To start the night off several guest speakers will begin the conversation by viewing examples of controversial media and raising the important issues inherent in the commercials.

Later, there will be a question and answer period along with an open forum and debate. Among those on the panel will be Dr. Juli Parker, the Director of the Women’s Resource Center and Dr. Catherine Curran-Kelly, an associate professor of Marketing.

Date: Wednesday, March 12

Time: 4 to 5:30 p.m.

Location: Library Browsing Area

The UMass Dartmouth Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) was founded in November, 2003, and is a non-profit student organization that works with businesses and higher educational institutions to provide students the opportunity to make a difference in the world. The organization currently has 25 active members, consisting of various majors and age groups.

For additional information, please contact the UMass Dartmouth SIFE project coordinator, Kevin Jose at u_KJose@umassd.edu or the advisor, Dr. Godwin Ariguzo at gariguzo@umassd.edu.

‘Detained’: Film on immigration raid shown at UMD

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. — Last year, a Federal ICE raid on the Michael Bianco factory in New Bedford, which made vests for military use, saw the arrests of 361 undocumented workers, most of whom were Central American women with small children.

Ultimately, the lives of dozens of these immigrants and their families were interrupted in the worst way. Many were sent to detainment centers as far away as Texas and Florida, and some were deported while their families were left in the U.S.

Meanwhile, in New Bedford, a fragile but vibrant community was disrupted on many levels, which in turn affected the greater community at large. Factories, schools and aid services were taxed, and the state realized how much a part of society immigrants are.

Film director, community and union organizer Jenny Alexander was filming for a thesis project during the raid. Alexander had used film as an organizing and advocacy tool previously.

The student she was filming volunteered at the church in New Bedford central to the aid and volunteering and “it became clear that it was critical that the impact of the raid on the community needed to be documented.”

The 30-minute film “Detained” took about five months to shoot and three months to edit — from March through November 2007.

“Many families and individuals suffered trauma during and after the raid,” says Alexander, “Bearing witness to their experiences, and the angst of parents being separated from infant children, was very intense. It is disturbing to see that the de-humanizing tactics used during and after the raid were considered acceptable.”

The film “Detained” placed second at the 2008 Redstone Film Festival, and was featured at the 2007 Boston International Latin Film Festival.

Next Wednesday, March 12, at 7 p.m. in the Library Browsing Area, Alexander’s film will be shown here at UMD. Alexander will be here to discuss the making of the film afterwards.

A panel discussion with several members of the community of workers and volunteers will be there to discuss their experiences. The Greater New Bedford and Boston community, including members of the UMass Dartmouth community were deeply involved in the volunteer and aid efforts.

This event will be hosted by the Sociology, Anthropology, and Crime and Justice Studies departments, the Labor Education Center, The Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Mass (CEDC) and Organization Maya K’iche, the Social Change Society, and Amnesty International.

For more information contact Camilo Viveiros at cviveiros@umassd.edu or Mercy Bell, of the Social Change Society and Amnesty International, at (508) 264-0779.

TOPICS IN MENTAL HEALTH

Say ‘goodnight’ with tips for sound sleep

Do you have trouble falling or staying asleep? Does your mind race, your body twitch, or your dreams awaken you? Sleep problems are one of the primary reasons that people seek medical attention. They can interfere with both mental and physical health, leading to problems at work, in school, and in relationships. In this article I will first identify several kinds of sleep problems, and will then give some suggestions for how to get a better night’s sleep (so you can wake up feeling rested).

There are multiple varieties of sleep problems. The most common categories of sleep difficulty include having trouble falling asleep, and having trouble staying asleep. People have trouble falling asleep for a multitude of reasons including anxiety and stress, obsessive thinking, caffeine or sugar ingestion, restless leg syndrome, side effects of some medications (most commonly ADD medications, decongestants, etc.), and many others.

Difficulty staying asleep (waking frequently) or early wakening can be caused by such things as depression, anxiety, nightmares or hormonal imbalances. Below I will review some behavioral strategies for improving both of these sleep conditions, but certainly if you have had long-standing sleep problems it makes sense for you to see your doctor first to rule out any potential physical causes.

Some general strategies for improving sleep habits might include:

1. Making sure that your bedroom is conducive to sleep.

This basically means setting up your bedroom environment to maximize the possibility of sleep: making sure your bed is clean and comfortable, your room is quiet and dark and the temperature in your room is comfortable. This might sound basic, but for a lot of college students’ problems in the physical environment can be one of the primary causes of sleep disturbance. Maybe your hall is noisy, your roommate is up late studying with the lights on, or your room is too hot. Doing the best you can to negotiate these environmental conditions with your roommate, RA, or anyone else who can assist you in altering your physical environment will most likely help you to get a better night’s sleep.

Another practical issue that can contribute to sleep problems for students is using your bed for multiple functions. Ideally, your bed should be used for sleep and sex only. If you frequently study in bed your body can become conditioned to remaining alert while in bed. This can lead to sleep problems down the road. Try studying at your desk, in a common area or in the library to reduce these problems.

2. Getting into a sleep routine.

Having a bedtime routine that you do the same way (and preferably, at the same time) each night helps prepare your mind and your body for the fact that it’s time to relax and sleep. Bedtime routines might include taking a hot shower or bath, listening to relaxing music, reading (something light — not schoolwork!) or deep breathing. Anything that allows your body to physically relax and does not require much mental concentration can work in a sleep routine.

Although many people include TV-watching as part of their routines, there is some research that suggests this might not be helpful. TV can actually stimulate brain activity rather than quiet it, and many television programs contain some level of disturbing material that can make its way into your dreams, leading to disrupted sleep.

Once you’ve established a routine, whatever that includes, it is important to do it the same way and at roughly the same time every night. The routine helps condition your body and mind to relax, and also helps to reset your circadian rhythm (that controls your sleep cycles). Once this conditioning is established it will take less and less time for you to reach this state, allowing you to drop into sleep more easily and quickly.

3. Learning some strategies for getting back to sleep if you waken in the night.

There are some very specific dos and don’ts here. First of all, if you wake up in the night because of a nightmare, it helps to move your body, mentally remind yourself that it was just a dream, and maybe have a sip of water or a small snack. While you won’t want to stay awake for any length of time after a nightmare, falling back to sleep too quickly can lead you right back into your bad dream. Moving your body or ingesting some water or food can help ground you to “real life” rather than your dream life. (As an aside here, foods like turkey, milk, and peanuts contain an amino acid called tryptophan which is a precursor to serotonin, a neurotransmitter in your brain that helps you relax. Eating small amounts of these kinds of foods can chemically promote relaxation.)

If you find yourself waking up for other reasons during the night and have trouble getting back to sleep afterwards, you might try a brief relaxation exercise. Using deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or visualization can be helpful in this regard (To learn more about these things, feel free to contact someone in the Counseling Center for help.).

One of the big “don’ts” of waking up in the night is simply lying in bed not sleeping. If you wake up and have trouble going back to sleep for 30 minutes or more, get up and do something else. Read, listen to music, meditate, or do something else relaxing until you feel sleepy. Lying in bed worrying about falling back asleep can lead to increased anxiety, which actually wakes you up.

4. Making sure that you do things during the day that will help you sleep at night.

There are things that you can do during your waking hours that will help (or hinder) your nighttime sleep patterns. Some of the things that help people get a good night’s sleep are exercising regularly, eating well and doing relaxing activities just before bed. In terms of exercise, there is some evidence that exercising in the morning and getting morning sunlight help people feel more awake and alert for the rest of the day. It can also tire the body out enough that you really feel ready for sleep by bedtime. Eating well (especially getting enough iron) can also improve sleep patterns.

There are also some specific things that people do that can hinder good sleep at night. These include napping during the day, ingesting too much caffeine or sugar (especially late in the day), not including enough physical activity in the day, and not managing stress effectively. Sometimes these negative patterns are so ingrained that they’re difficult to change. For example, if you are in the habit of napping in the afternoon and then drinking Mountain Dew around 4 p.m. to wake you up enough to study in the evening, your body will have trouble sleeping later that night. Sometimes the only way to reset your body’s natural sleep rhythm is to stay awake for a full 24-hours, and then go to bed early the following night (no naps!). While this is undesirable to most of us, it can help to change your sleep patterns and get you back on track to go to bed early and get up early enough in the morning to attend to all of your responsibilities without needing a nap or excessive caffeine.

Another daytime or evening activity that negatively impacts sleep is drinking alcohol. Consuming alcohol may help you fall asleep initially, but will almost always lead to frequent waking, dehydration (feeling hot and thirsty) and unrestful sleep. If you are someone who tends to have trouble sleeping well, you may choose to avoid all alcohol consumption for a period of time and see if that makes a difference for you.

Getting a good night’s sleep can help you to feel happier, less stressed, and better able to concentrate. Lack of sleep or poor quality sleep can lead to heightened emotional reactivity (which can disrupt relationships dramatically), irritability, poor mental focus, memory problems and many other distressing symptoms. Incorporating some of these strategies to improve your sleep may make a big difference in your quality of life. Again, it is important to remember that if you have tried these (or other) strategies and continue to struggle with insomnia, you may need to consult your primary care physician to rule out any underlying medical issues.

If you or someone you know would like individualized assistance with managing sleep patterns, please contact the Counseling Center at x8650. If you have questions or comments about the information presented in this article, please direct emails to rachel.lively@umassd.edu.

Rachel Lively, Psy.D.
Counseling Center

GREENING THE CAMPUS

The call to the adventure

“The most remarkable feature of this historical moment is not that we are on the way to destroying our world - we’ve actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are starting to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, ourselves, and each other. This is the great and necessary adventure of our time.” - Joanna Macy

Over fifty years ago, the anthropologist Joseph Campbell wrote “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” a book of comparative mythology that describes a hero’s journey taken by important historical and fictional characters worldwide. Jesus, Buddha, Prometheus, Odysseus, Lancelot, and, in our own time, Luke Skywalker, all took classic hero’s journeys. The journey consists of a ‘call to the adventure’ and continues with a road of trials, the achievement of a goal, and a return to the real world with an important message or ‘boon’ for humanity. This structure of crisis and redemption-through-action is common to all of us — individually and collectively — across cultures and genders.

The ‘call’ often consists of a calamity, in which the hero must respond by slaying metaphorical dragons within and without — dragons of fear and resignation as well as of hunger and physical threat. Historically we see people and nations going through a hero’s journey as they confront huge problems that seem insurmountable but are somehow overcome with supernatural and human help as well as with an expansion of the heroes themselves, as they grow into larger versions of themselves. Moses in the desert and Franklin Roosevelt in the White House during the Great Depression not only became classic heroes, but built new nations with new ideas of what was possible through collective and moral action.

We can likewise look at the multi-level crisis brewing in the external world and welcome it with open and conscious arms as our generational ‘call to adventure’ and a chance to redefine who we are as individuals, as a nation, and as the human race.

Our road of trials includes dealing with climate change, fossil fuel depletion, topsoil loss, water scarcity, species extinction, and persistent toxins. It also involves waking up to the cause of these problems, which is our own unwillingness to live within natural limits and to see ourselves as part of, rather than separate from, this world which is our home.

Should we accept rather than refuse this call to the adventure, we will find, as in all heroes’ stories, that we will receive supernatural as well as human help, and will discover new reservoirs of strength and ingenuity on our journey. We may also become the heroes we are seeking, sometime vainly, on the national and political stage.

Already we see this happening, as millions of people worldwide are rethinking structures of power and governance, as new wind and solar technologies expand, as communities take charge of their own future by beginning to care for their land and other resources, as colleges and universities resume their moral leadership by signing climate commitments and taking steps toward sustainability.

Here at UMD, our journey is just beginning. In our sustainability classes and internships, we are working together across disciplines and traditional silos of academics and operations as we examine university policies in water, power and resource use. In biology, materials, and engineering labs we are examining greener ways to create textiles and cement. In design studios and CITS labs, we are creating media that both advertise and demonstrate sustainability principles. Through the process, we are also stretching our ideas of what we are capable of, individually and collectively.

The journey to sustainability, like the hero’s journey, is long and arduous. But, like all heroes, our rewards are multiple: they include our expanded selves and a collective gift of a healed world.

Susan Jennings
Interim Director
Center for Campus and Community Sustainability

CAREER CORNER

What’s the Buzz?

The e-Recruiting on-campus employer recruiting program is open. Register NOW! It is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Go to http://umassd.erecruiting.com. Type in your username (Your UMD E-mail address). Type in your password (Your UMass Pass ID number). Follow the steps to complete your profile.

The process is as follows: Once your profile has been completed, you are prompted to post your resume, which must be approved by the CRC within five business days of the employers resume deadline.

Your resume is either accepted or declined. However, for faster flow of processing, all resumes will be accepted conditionally by the CRC. An e-mail directing you to make necessary changes to your resume will follow. Once your resume has been updated, please feel free to repost it.

The benefits of registering with e-Recruiting are the opportunities to post your resume, cover letter and other documents, so that the Career Resource Center and employers can access them. CRC facilitates the connection between UMass Dartmouth students and employers offering internship and job opportunities. A corrected resume uploaded to e-Recruiting is necessary for us to make the connection.

If you have any question regarding this process, do not hesitate to contact us www.umassd.edu/crc. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

STATE OF THE QUEER NATION

Contrada warns of ‘trans apocalypse’

“Contrada Warns of Trans Apocalypse,” an article by Ethan Jacobs from EdgeBoston.com is not a good indication of the actual state of the queer nation. Actually, it’s not a good indication of the state of any nation. Jacobs’ article focuses on the writings of anti-gay MassResistance blogger, Amy Contrada and her pending 75-page report on the “dangers” of “House Bill 1722, the transgender rights bill.”

Here is the first of three of what he calls “choice excerpts” from her report: “There are unpredictable dangers lurking in the proposed terminology, ’gender expression.’ Just as it’s up to the individual to define his or her ’gender identity,’ he or she will be able to claim that any behavior is his/her “expression” of that self-determined ’identity’ and is protected in the law. It could apply to anything, whether a private or public ’expression.’ Besides cross-dressing, this could logically open the door to public sex acts on the street and public displays of BDSM including whips and chains, sadomasochism -- both of which recently took place in San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair. Or polyamory (multiple partners), and eventual demands for legalized polygamy. Or sex for pay (legalized prostitution) and ’sex slave’ arrangements. Or public displays of nudity or semi-nudity (as already seen in ’gay pride’ parades).”

There are predictable dangers in allowing this nonsense to continue. Excerpt two: “This bill is about a woman who decides to have her breasts removed and parade as a ’male’ in the street, with her scarred chest bared. Now, such things happen only in ’gay’ neighborhoods or ’pride’ events. Soon, you could see a de-breasted woman walking around a suburban neighborhood or family beach, just as men now do, without a shirt - and you will not be able to complain because it’s ’gender expression.’ Since she identifies as a male, she is a male, and she’s no longer a female bearing her breasts - which are no longer there in any case. And you will have to ’celebrate diversity’ and tell your little daughter that she, too, might grow up some day and not have breasts.”

Really? Because Matuschka was nominated for the Pultizer Prize for her photograph, “Beauty Out Of Damage,” a 1993 self-portrait in which she bared her mastectomy scar, a photo used as the cover of a New York Times Magazine – apparently these images are not only in “‘gay’ neighborhoods or ‘pride’ events.”

Excerpt three: “A hotel or convention site will not be allowed to turn down a transgender/cross-dresser or BDSM (whips & chains, sadomasochism) convention. A restaurant will not be able to turn away a special party for she-male prostitutes and their clients, or cross-dressers. A museum or library will not be allowed to turn away a GLBT activist seminar promoting BDSM, public nudity, public sex, or legalized prostitution. A function facility will not be allowed to refuse a seminar on breast removal and hormone treatments for women ’transitioning’ to men. A Catholic church could even be forced to hold a forum on homosexual or transsexual ’marriage’ or polygamy. These behaviors and activities could all be considered ’gender expression’ and these venues are could all be considered ’public accommodations.’”

Since when has transgender been interchangeable with BDSM? Why would a function facility want to turn away a seminar on medical procedures or hormone treatments for anyone? These “reasons” for turning away a bill that is made to simply stop discrimination are absurd.

“Gender expression” is not a synonym for indecent exposure; neither is “gender identity.” What does the freedom to express yourself as you are have to do with “’sex-slave’ arrangements?”

Hopefully people out there will teach their daughters to celebrate diversity and not grow up having to hear things like this Contrada Apocalypse. “Since she identifies as a male, she is a male, and she’s no longer a female bearing her breasts - which are no longer there in any case.” Darn right! If he’s a male then he’s a male. If there are no breasts then no one is bearing them. The Catholic Church cannot be forced to do anything it doesn’t want to do, the same way no religion is forced to do anything—that’s the freedom of America. That’s what this Bill stands for. Discrimination and 75 pages of absurdities are not going to change it.

Melanie Correia
Secretary
Pride Alliance