Thursday, November 20, 1997
Bruins must urge regents to extend benefits
BENEFITS: Students must demand consistent policy
of non-discrimination
"The University of California does not discriminate in any of
its policies, procedures or practices on the basis of race, color,
national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation … or marital
status."
The University of California has a non-discrimination policy
that is designed to ensure equal treatment for all students,
faculty and staff. This policy was written, in spite of the
guarantees of equality outlined in our national Constitution,
because the oppression of certain people based on sexual
orientation, race, gender or any other difference was a reality
that hindered the positive development of the UCs.
However, non-discrimination policies were not enacted simply
because administrators felt it was the right thing to do.
Non-discrimination policies are a direct result of the actions
taken by oppressed groups and their allies to force those in power
to recognize and combat inequities in our society. Unfortunately,
policies are empty words without enforcement.
Although the University of California claims not to discriminate
on the basis of sexual orientation and marital status, the reality
of the diverse partnerships that constitute modern UC student,
faculty and staff families is one wrought with discriminatory
policies.
Today, the UC Regents will vote at Covel Commons on the issue of
domestic partnership. Domestic partners are generally defined as
"two people who share a primary residence, are financially and
emotionally interdependent, and have an intimate relationship –
including a commitment to caring for each other’s needs." It would
seem that our university, by its own non-discrimination policy,
would have no problem extending housing, health care and retirement
benefits to domestic partners.
However, the university has completely failed to fully implement
equality in our campuses. Lesbian and gay couples are routinely
denied access to campus family housing that is provided for
heterosexual couples despite the 15 years of struggle that UC
students, faculty and staff have waged to win equal rights for all
members of our campus communities. Students are meeting at Westwood
Plaza at 11 a.m. to go to Covel Commons to ensure that the voices
of Lesbian/ Gay/Bisexual/Transsexual (LGBT) students and their
allies are heard.
Our society is deeply entrenched in ideologies of racial,
cultural, gender and class superiority. The struggles of oppressed
peoples in this country have dramatically altered the face of our
society, always pushing toward greater inclusion, progressing
toward the ideals of freedom we profess allegiance to. Deeper,
though, than the beliefs that fueled racial hatred and gender
subjugation is a current of homophobia that crosses race, gender
and class lines. It is a hatred that many so-called progressive
students and certainly political conservatives have been allowed to
keep. It is the deafening silence that has met the cries for
justice for our queer brothers and sisters. There is a fundamental
message we must accept in order to move our society forward – we
cannot reach for freedom with one hand and oppress with the
other.
There is a broader issue of inequality that will be condemned or
affirmed by our regents today. The people who possess absolute
authority over our university will say today whether the University
of California discriminates based on whom a person chooses to spend
his or her life with. This is not just a policy decision that will
have no impact on the lives of UC students. Like the decision to
eliminate affirmative action, the regents will formulate a policy
that will influence the very core of our educational system – are
we a racist, sexist, elitist and homophobic university? Or are we
free? The regents have attempted to answer the former – students
are not free, faculty input is not valued, even chancellors are
driven out for attempting to express dissent in defense of
equality. It is up to us to decide the latter – will we be free?
And if we value freedom for all individuals, we must commit to it
and defend it vigorously.
The amazing fact about domestic partnership and the UC system is
how little – in the face of the majority of public support – our
university has moved on it. Sixty-seven percent of Californians
favor the legal recognition of family rights for domestic partners,
including rights like hospital visitation. Fifty-nine percent of
Californians favor domestic partners’ receiving financial
dependence status, meaning the right to family leave, pensions and
health insurance included in the employee benefits given to
heterosexual married couples. Four hundred companies and public
organizations extend domestic partner benefits to non-heterosexual
couples, including IBM, Disney, The Gap and Microsoft. And the cost
of implementing domestic partner benefits in the UC system is less
than $1,000 of the almost $4 billion spent system-wide on faculty
and staff. Students have collected over 4,000 postcards expressing
student support for domestic partnership – all of which leads to
one question: What’s the holdup?
Our "get tough" governor, who appoints all regents, used his
political prowess to influence the regents into eliminating
affirmative action two years ago. Pete Wilson has repeatedly called
on the regents of the University of California to set the stage for
his next political maneuver, turning the education of thousands of
California students into a public spectacle, defaming and
delegitimizing the autonomy of our educational system in full view
of the nation. This year, he is readying himself to ride the waves
of moral conservatism into Washington, D.C. Yet again, he has made
defeating an inclusionary policy at our university part of his
political platform – and is busy pulling the strings that have
earned him the popular title of "Pete the Puppeteer." But the issue
at stake is far more serious than the comedic efforts of our
regents to impersonate educators. Domestic partnership is a policy
that will provide equal opportunities for all UC families to live
in affordable housing, to access health care and to care for
injured or ill members of their families – opportunities that
married heterosexual couples access so easily that many are not
even aware of the blatant discrimination endured by fellow
students, employees and faculty.
Our governor is here today to defeat another promise of
equality. Our regents are here to affirm or deny equal rights.
Twenty-six individuals will decide the future of domestic
partnership in the UC system. Students from across the UC system
are meeting at 11 at Westwood Plaza and proceeding to Covel Commons
to ensure our voices are included in this crucial debate. Martin
Luther King Jr. once spoke of the long night of oppression endured
by America’s subjugated people – we will not allow the regents to
again lead our nation backward into that darkness.