There's No One Way to Be a Morehouse Man

Why can't a Morehouse man wear a fierce pair of Jimmy Choos to class?

MOREHOUSE COLLEGE WOMEN'S CLOTHING X390 (PHOTOS.COM FAIR USE) | ADVOCATE.COM

COMMENTARY:

Morehouse College has it all wrong again.

In what administrators call an effort to uphold the private, all-male university's legacy and reputation, they recently approved a new “Appropriate Attire Policy.” Among typical clothing standards, the policy goes on to state, “No wearing of clothing associated with women’s garb (dresses, tops, tunics, purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus or at College-sponsored events.”

Since its inception in 1867, Morehouse College has been a safe learning environment for African-American men, touting a long history of notable achievements and leaders. However, the campus has been plagued with ongoing reports of bias and bigotry when it comes to gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. In 2002, the college witnessed a brutal hate crime in which a Morehouse student sustained a fractured skull at the hands of a classmate. The attacker repeatedly beat his victim on the head with a baseball bat for allegedly glancing at him in the shower. As he was being beaten with the bat, the victim recalled his attacker yelling, "Faggot, you’re gay, gay … I hate these Morehouse faggots.”

For the record, I am all for a dress code when it is meant to create an even playing field among students who may not be able to afford new clothes or designer labels. But the college of Martin Luther King Jr. is not being guided by the principle of social justice and equality among students.

Windmeyer is the founder and executive director of Campus Pride, a nonprofit organization for LGBT and ally college student leaders and campus groups. This article is representative of the author's views and not Advocate.com.

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Reader Comments

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Name: ff
Date posted: 10/16/2011 11:27:10 PM
Hometown: aa

Comment:
ㅇㅇ
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Name: Lee
Date posted: 10/28/2009 9:55:20 AM
Hometown: Williamsport

Comment:
Just remember when trying to divine whether or not Dr. King was 'pro' or 'anti' gay rights, his close associate was Bayard Rustin, who was gay, and out, and who shared his knowledge of Ghandi's non-violent resisitance with Dr. King. It is thanks to Mr. Rustin that Dr. King used that strategy. Don't believe me? Look it up. There is a high school in West Chester, PA named for him.
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Name: Franz
Date posted: 10/25/2009 1:59:54 PM
Hometown: Seattle

Comment:
Yes, the King Center actually lists homophobia as a source of discrimination and a "triple evil, and of course, if Coretta King believes this but may not be sure and she was his wife I certainly cannot be certain myself, but there does seem to be a difference of opinion within the family. Bernice King has said that her father would have opposed gay marriage, and she herself has aligned closely with the conservative right to oppose gay marriage. I think in the end Coretta would have been hard pressed to justify any discrimination based on sexual orientation given King's message. Growing up in the South in the Pentecostal Church, gays and lesbians were constant sources of demonization and mockery, though they quote King ad nauseum
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Name: Sara
Date posted: 10/25/2009 12:06:04 PM
Hometown: Portland, Oregon

Comment:
Hi Franz, Martin Luther King was for gay rights, or so Coretta King said in an interview shortly before her death. I wish I knew exactly what he said, or that it had been recorded some how, but apparently he considered gay rights to be another step in the civil rights movement.
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Name: terry
Date posted: 10/24/2009 5:56:39 PM
Hometown: alameda

Comment:
I couldn't agree with you more. Many ethnic communities (Asian, Latino, etc) decry racism yet have their own prejudices they rarely acknowledge (internal sexism and homophobia for example). It's sad that in order for a group to get respect they have to dump on other people.
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Name: Franz
Date posted: 10/24/2009 1:34:35 PM
Hometown: Seattle

Comment:
Ok, I'm Black, but let's just be honest. The Black Community does not consider gay people worthy of civil rights and I doubt if Martin Luther King, Jr did either and the people in the civil rights didn't give a damn about gay people then and many of them don't now. Many minorities are very territorial about their rights. I understand what the author of this article is trying to say but that is only this author's opinion. The Black Community is still essentially is still Levitical concerning homosexuals. They would just as soon stone us to death while shouting about racism.
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Name: Thad
Date posted: 10/23/2009 8:50:11 PM
Hometown: Poughkeepsie

Comment:
I'm pretty sure Lawrence King was killed in a murder. Motivated by hate? Certainly. But using anti-gay hate crime or anti-black hate crime or anti-Semitic hate crime instead of murder is a little much. I thought special labels were alienating and that, as a community, we want to be included in the whole, not separate.

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