STRAIGHT appeals USG decision

Students Reinforcing Adherence In General Heterosexual Tradition will get another chance to become an official University organization next week, said Barbara Copland, advisor of the Student Organization Appeals Board.

Darin Loccarini, president of STRAIGHT, filed the appeal Wednesday, and SOAB will probably convene next week to consider it, Copland said.

Loccarini is protesting the Undergraduate Student Government Supreme Court's decision to deny his organization, STRAIGHT, an official University charter. The five voting court justices voted unanimously on Sunday to deny the request.

Loccarini will take issue with the court's decision in five areas:

• In the USG Supreme Court's disposition, the court claimed it would not charter an organization that defined itself "as being against another group, culture or lifestyle." The court believed STRAIGHT was not pro-heterosexual, but anti-homosexual.
  

  Loccarini said that a pro-life group and a pro-choice group both exist on campus, although they are "against" each other.
  

• The court also said that they had to "provide educational programs and activities to create an environment in which diversity and understanding . . . are valued." The court believed approving STRAIGHT was not fulfilling their duties in this area.
  

  "Diversity and understanding applies to everyone but us," Loccarini said in response.
  

• Creating "much bitterness and tension in the Penn State community, as well as exacerbating anxiety and fears among the lesbian, gay and bisexual community and their supporters" was another reason for the court's denial.
  

  "That's a double standard," Loccarini said. "It doesn't matter (to them) if two organizations represent one viewpoint, and we have none."
  

• The court also ruled that STRAIGHT would not have a positive effect on the University community.
  

  The U.S. Constitution, Loccarini said, guarantees STRAIGHT the right to be an official organization. The court, he said, should not be allowed to decide what is "beneficial."
  

  In response to the court's decision that becoming an organization is a privilege and not a right, Loccarini said the court could not decide that.
  

  "This is not a private institution," Loccarini said. "Taxation without equal representation is tyranny."
  

• The court's disposition said, "that to put the power and prestige of the University behind STRAIGHT . . . would have put the University in a bad light."
  

  "They took the easy way out," Loccarini responded. "What's obvious is the light the University is in now -- a bright one."
  

  The U.S. Constitution is what matters, Loccarini said; none of these arguments do. What sets STRAIGHT apart, he said, is that STRAIGHT does not hide what it is.
  

  "The difference between them and us is that they're lying and we're not," Loccarini said. "Organizations that are for something are all against something."
  

  Loccarini cited the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Student Alliance as an example.
  

  "LGBSA is against people who oppose homosexuality," he said.
  

  If STRAIGHT is not chartered, Loccarini said, he does not know what the next step is.
  

  "I'll have to cross the bridge that's in front of us first," he said.
  

  SOAB is comprised of three University faculty members, three University administrators and six University students. The three faculty representatives are chosen by the University Faculty Senate Committee on Committees and Rules. The Vice President for Student Affairs appoints the three administrators. Of the six students on the board, four are appointed by USG and two are appointed by the Graduate Student Association. The group must be convened by the Director of Judicial Affairs, Donald Suit.