[15649] in APO-L
Gender Integration
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Oz, the Great and Terrible,)
Sat Nov 16 23:05:58 1996
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1996 23:02:27 -0500
Reply-To: "Oz, the Great and Terrible," <gt6978b@PRISM.GATECH.EDU>
From: "Oz, the Great and Terrible," <gt6978b@PRISM.GATECH.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
Bravely and without thought to personal injury, Robert Dean said:
> > regarding the potential members we are losing by having all male
> > chapters.....I don't understand why any chapter would want to deprive
> > anyone the opportunity to pledge APO.
>
> That's not the main issue at work here. The question of whether it is
> acceptable for chapters to exclude women has less to do with gender
> discrimination and more to do with:
I apoligize for appearing to be so one-dimensional, bu the question has
everything to do with gender discrimination. It is a fact that single sex
chapters at co-ed schools practice gender discrimination. The only
question is, "Is there a compelling reason for this discrimination to
continue?"
Tradition, neither morally nor legally, constitutes a compelling reason;
and I honestly cannot imagine any other acceptable Fraternity practice
that would constitute compelling reason.
> a) Do the chapters have the right to determine their own membership?
Within the boundries of law and morality, of course. I am aware of no
person that would dispute this.
> b) The chapters that wanted to remain all-male voted for the changes
> allowing chapters to determine their own membership. If we now force the
> chapter into a change they don't want, not only are we violating the trust
> those chapters put in the National Fraternity: we are also violating the
> spirit under which that change passed.
While this is a concern, it comes in a far second to the question of
whether it is acceptable to discriminate against a class of persons
without compelling reason.
> On a technical note, I do not believe the resolutions on the table are
> sufficient to force the chapters to go co-ed. There was a 3/4 vote to allow
> women in through a change to the National Bylaws, so there should be a 3/4
> vote to force them in.
In my personal opinion as Parlimentarian of Gamma Zeta (which carries no
weight in Nationals), I would disagree. If the "grandfather clause" was
passed as a resolution (i.e. 50% + 1), then a resolution can rescind it.
YiLFS,
Charlie Smith
Pledge Trainer and Parlimentarian
Gamma Zeta
Georgia Institute of Technology
--
"[The] whole struggle in this country to give equal rights and equal
privileges to all citizens of the United States has been an unpopular one;
that we have been forced to struggle against passions and prejudices
engendered by generations of wrong and oppression."
Sen. Henry Wilson (R) c.1868
