AFTER coming out to his parents this summer, one University student was faced with a potentially devastating situation. "My father didn't want me to go back to school," said the second-year student, who asked not to be identified. "He thought that college was one of the reasons that I was gay, and he wanted me to go to therapy five days a week, to hopefully turn me straight."
Luckily, the student's mother stood up for him, and he was able to come back to the University. But many gay students who are financially beholden to their parents are put in a dilemma: stay in the closet, or lose your ticket to college. The University needs to address this problem and provide aid specifically to students in this position.
Massachusetts' Bridgewater State University announced plans for a scholarship fund that would provide financial aid to gay students abandoned by their parents. This is a step in the right direction, and the University should follow its lead.
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According to Yvonne Hubbard, director of the University's Office of Financial Aid, if presented with this type of situation, "We would talk to the student, and other professionals, and see if we can make a professional judgement. And of course, we will use all the resources available to help the student."
But is this adequate? Even Hubbard admits that this may not provide for students in all situations, and that "sometimes, these resources are not enough." The University should be commended for its available resources. But in order to give these students a place where they feel wanted, the University should follow the lead of Bridgewater State and provide aid and scholarships specifically for these gay students.
Bridgewater's idea is not without its critics. Brian Camenker, president of the Parents' Rights Coalition, charged in an interview with the Associated Press that the school is "affirming a self-destructive and medically dangerous behavior, and essentially spitting in the face of parents who know it's a horrible thing for their children to be doing" ("Mass. college funding aimed at gays," The Associated Press, Sept. 8).
In other words, Camenker is using homophobic rants - that are contradicted by every major psychological study done on homosexuality - to justify the abhorrent act of abandoning one's child. If parents desert their child, they give up their rights as parents. Not only shouldn't they have a say in their child's education, but they've lost all control of their child's life.
The community not only has the right, but the responsibility, to help these students out.
Gay and lesbian adolescents are in a vulnerable position. At a time when many of these students finally are accepting their sexuality, they find themselves under pressure not to reveal this to their parents for fear of losing their only way to pay for college.
Rejection by one's parents is one of the most emotionally devastating things that can happen to a teenager. Gay youth, who suffer from an abnormally high rate of depression and suicide, can be scarred for life after being rejected by their parents.
It is understandable that, growing up in a different time and culture, parents may be less than tolerant toward gays. What is inexcusable, however, is abandoning sons and daughters simply because they came out to their parents.
While the media rarely reports on this problem, such occurrences are commonplace. According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 26 percent of gay teens are kicked out of their homes as a result of coming out to their parents. A study by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation shows that 42 percent of homeless adolescents identify themselves as gay or bisexual.
This is what justifies aid specifically for gay and lesbian students. Conservatives may charge that heterosexual students can be put in these situations, and therefore financial aid should be blind to sexual orientation. But these statistics show that this happens so often that the University needs to address this problem specifically.
The University has resources already available, but it can do more. By providing grants to those who have experienced the worst form of rejection, we finally can give these students a place where they belong.
(Brian Cook is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at bcook@cavalierdaily.com.)
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