Emotions run high as decision on gay marriage looms

The campus center teemed with activity last Thursday as the TTLGBC held their annual "Freedom to Marry Day." This year's event comes as the Massachusetts legislature tries to find a solution to an issue that does not seem to have one.

The coordinators of the Tufts Transgender, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Collective (TTLGBC) run the event annually to promote awareness of gay issues at Tufts.

TTLGBC members set up a table with a wedding cake featuring two male figurines on one side and two female figurines on the other. Large posters showed the views of President Bush and of the democratic presidential candidates on marriage rights.

"The majority of the campus is uninformed about these issues," TTLGBC Co-Coordinator Kit Stanton said,. "I'd say even many of our members are uninformed too."

Stanton was optimistic about the general Tufts interest in gay rights. "It's really exciting that so many people are coming by."

After the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled for the right of same-sex marriage, the legislature is already debating a new constitutional change to address the court's decision. Without an amendment, Massachusetts must allow all couples to marry by mid-May.

Students at Tufts are deeply divided on the gay marriage issue.

Brandon Balkind, editor-in-chief of the conservative publication ThePrimary Source said he is most concerned that gay marriage may uproot the traditional family structure.

"I don't believe the courts' interpretation of the Constitution was consistent with thousands of years defining marriage," Balkind said.

While he supports equal economic benefits for heterosexual and homosexual couples, he opposes equal adoption rights until more research is completed on the effects of gay parenting.

"It sounds unfair, but the fact is that [children] are too precious a resource to change the family unit when we don't really know the effects are down the road," Balkind said.

President of the Tufts Republicans Philip Tsipman was against having a political demonstration by a Tufts-funded organization for a divisive issue like gay marriage. "Student groups are free to advocate for whatever they want" Tsipman said, but felt that the University acted inappropriately in backing such a controversial issue so openly.

Balkind and Tsipman are in agreement that the University does not give conservative views the same attention as more traditional liberal ones. "This is a place for learning, not indoctrination" Tsipman said.

Balkind said that he would like to think that if conservatives on campus petitioned a politically controversial event that they would be met with the same support that the LGBT Center was.

An equally vocal portion of the campus supports the efforts to legalize same-sex marriages. "Every person knows someone who is gay," junior Anne Stevenson said. "How could anyone turn around and not support them in this?"

"I think it's gross and out-of-date to be opposed," junior Sarah Sahn said. She said that drawing a distinction such as that between civil unions and marriages impedes the progress of human rights.

"It will create the same separate but equal attitude that reigned in the South during the days of Jim Crow," Sahn said, if the ultimate court opinion results in the division of homosexual and heterosexual marriage.

The division on campus mirrors the debate in the Massachusetts legislature. After a largely unproductive session in the Statehouse last week, proceedings will resume on March 11. The legislature was unsuccessful in passing an amendment that would allow civil unions for gays while making marriage illegal.