FREE EXCHANGE OF IDEAS: HOMOSEXUALITY DEBATED ON CAMPUS

Some professors at Southeast Missouri State University don't think a columnist for the campus newspaper has done his homework on the subject of homosexuality.

The columnist, Michael Session, a proud-to-be-politically-incorrect graduate student, has responded by calling them "homosexual apologists."

Meanwhile, a group of university students has decided to form a club for heterosexuals. The Heterosexual Society was given approval to organize by Student Government Oct. 5.

So goes the free exchange of ideas on the university campus.

The parties involved embrace the debate, believing it to be a function of adademic life. "It's better than a pep rally," observed Hamner Hill, chairman of the school's philosophy and religion department.

Session roused the professors' challenge to his scholarship last month when he wrote a column debating nature-versus-nurture questions about homosexuality.

Session concluded that since evidence of a genetic basis for homosexuality is inconclusive, "genetics is not a cause of homosexuality."

The column ended by saying, "homosexuals must come to reason and admit their behavior is wrong."

Biology professors Allen Gathman and Carl Train wrote to the newspaper the following week, lauding Session for opening a serious discussion on the topic, while accusing him of failing to accurately portray the biological research and of reaching illogical conclusions.

Hill also weighed in, criticizing Session's logic and calling "simply false" his contention that "homosexual behavior is consistently condemned by all religions."

Session fired back the next week, accusing Gathman and Train of "a hubristic, paternalistic, ad hominem attack that dodges the core issues."

The professors view the discussion, which to this point has occurred only in the pages of the campus newspaper and among student groups at Southeast, as healthy.

At many institutions, the impulse is to hush an intolerant voice, Train said, adding, "You don't learn anything if you stifle stuff."

"I think we should have rational debate," Hill said. "Only on this issue, I don't think Session plays by the canon of rationalism."

Ironically, Session, whose column sparked the exchange, doesn't agree that it's been worthwhile. He doesn't want to give homosexuality a political platform.

"I don't think it's really worth debating," he says.

He recognizes that "my stance is not politically correct."

Session thinks homosexuals choose their sexual orientation because they have low self-esteem and are lonely people. "It's all about belonging," he said. "It's a group thing. A feeling of belonging."

He said homosexuality "is just a social function."

Homosexuals would rather debate the issues around homosexuality than talk about changing their behavior because changing is so painful, Session said.

"It's like the deficit. Nobody wants to talk about the deficit because it's painful."

Many students have congratulated him on his homosexuality columns, Session said. One campus group gave him a standing ovation when he was introduced to them.

One person who thinks the debate has been polarizing is the Rev. Craig Nessan, pastor of St. Mark Lutheran Church and an instructor of religion at the university.

"That's the way of political discourse in our society these days right or wrong," he said. "My conviction is that the truth is more nuanced than that."

Nessam says Session is overstating his case to say that all religions have condemned homosexuality. His own church currently is studying the issues involved.

Whether choice or heredity are determinants, "I don't think anybody has the answer," he said.

"As a pastor," he said, "it's a question of who Jesus Christ is, and whether Jesus was loving or accepting of all people or whether Jesus excluded anybody from his community."

The Rev. Andy Pratt, campus minister at the Baptist Student Center, has been keeping a close watch on the debate as well. He also thinks Session exaggerated the case on religious condemnation of homosexuality.

"It's an issue almost all American Christian churches are struggling with today," Pratt said.

The Southern Baptist Convention, because of its Biblical orientation, "has to deal with the parts of the Bible where homosexuality is condemned," Pratt said.

"... But these are people who live and breathe and have lives. It's a struggle for the church."

Within the SBC, each church decides for itself how it will approach the issue, he said. "But I would be naive not to think that probably the vast majority of Southern Baptist churches would be negative toward homosexuality."

For Pratt, the public debate over homosexuality has its pros and cons. "It always helps to talk about issues," he said. "Just make sure what you base it on is good information, and that it helps the community understand and doesn't polarize ...."

What's transpiring at the university "is a reflection of the debate going on in the broader society," he said.

Referring to graffiti that has appeared on campus at times, he added, "It's much more productive to have a debate in The Capaha Arrow than on the sidewalks and walls of our buildings."

Others also have written to the Arrow on both sides of the issue. Among them was Joseph Dunlap, president of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Association.

The argument has gotten people reading the campus newspaper, he says, and his organization is receiving many supportive letters and phone calls.

He complained that critics "won't come to find out what our group is about. They just sit back and criticize it."

Session said his column was prompted by a letter to the editor complaining about university funding for the GLBA.

Gathman, faculty advisor for the GLBA and former president of the Faculty Senate, said Session is far from a lone voice on the university campus. "I think there's a lot of homophobia, a lot of intolerance," he said.

Noting that the Faculty Senate earlier this year rejected a proposal to protect homosexuals under the university's anti-discrimination policy, he said, "There's intolerance in those educated people, too."

Intolerance was not behind the creation of the Heterosexual Society, says its secretary, Stacey Vinson. She said a small group of Myers Hall residents hatched the idea last semester.

"At first we looked at it as a sort of joke," she said. "Then we saw we could make it serious.

"We knew we were going to get a lot of flak."

Vinson said many people were examining the GLBA. "You have to admit, that's a strange club. It has nothing to do with school or careers."

Vinson said they were aware, however, that the GLBA was involved in some projects that would be worthwhile to heterosexuals.

"A big segment of students wouldn't feel comfortable going to their programs," she said, "but they have a lot of good programs."

The club wants to sponsor educational programs on AIDS and sexuality, for instance.

The Heterosexual Society was not formed in opposition to the GLBA, Vinson said. "They complement each other."

Heterosexual clubs reportedly already exist on a number of other college campuses.

Joseph Dunlap said the GLBA has offered to co-sponsor a forum with the Heterosexual Society later this month to celebrate the GLBA's sixth anniversary. Vinson said the extent of the club's involvement hasn't been decided, but that it would certainly send representatives.

On Monday, Student Government approved $20 of the organization's request for funding. A spokesman for SG declined to disclose the total amount of the request, but said the denied part was for food. The $20 approved was for printing costs.