The Blue & Gray Press

Page 1

THE

BLUE &GRAY

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON STUDENT NEWSPAPER

November 17, 2016

VOLUME 90 | ISSUE 10

PRESS

SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE

Silent Protest

1922

Corporate officials of InterVarsity change policies regarding LGBTQ+ staff members REBECCA MELSON Staff Writer

which LGBTQ+ individuals are provided psychological treatment to change their sexual orientation. “I think that this election is terrifying for many Americans, not only because of the future president of the United States, but his running mate, Mike Pence,” said senior Lauren Rainford. She voiced her concern over Pence’s past actions against the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ issues were at the forefront of sophomore Andrew Unger’s mind. “I can’t believe this has happened,” Unger said. “Everybody was under the impression that this would never happen in a million years. These people support conversion therapy, which makes people [more] likely to kill themselves. This is absurd.” Many members of the university have called for students to unite behind the president and to try to understand those on the other end of the political spectrum. But some students have said they have a hard time supporting the president-elect or empathizing with his supporters, whom they feel are willing to overlook the divisive racially and sexually charged rhetoric of his campaign. “He [Trump] represents everything that is wrong,” said senior Heather Banikas. “He represents misogynistic values, racist values. He doesn’t respect the LGBTQ+ community. And with that, I can’t agree with him in any of his policies.” Banikas’s thoughts strongly resonated with senior Clara Martin. “I cannot abide by people who would throw away the basic human

There is a wind of change that is blowing through our country and through the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as well. As Americans strive to make sense of a changing political term, questions of race, gender and religion have come to the surface. Within the InterVarsity Christian fellowship, an organization that is made up of 1,011 chapters on 667 campuses nationwide, there is an unsettled controversy over what some are calling the #InterVarsity Purge. The purge is based on the organization’s stance on samesex-marriage, and how it affects the employees of their corporate office in New York. InterVarsity strongly holds the stance of ‘traditional’ marriage, which it defines as an institution between a man and a woman. They believe that their staff should have a unanimous acceptance of the teachings of the Bible, therefore supporting another model is not acceptable. Within the organization’s handbook, Theological Summary of Human Sexuality, the basis of these principles is stated. “In the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh (Matthew 19: 4-6).” Greg Jao, InterVarsity vice president and director of campus engagement, believes in the organization’s procedures. He says, “When representatives of religious groups do not believe or behave in ways that the scriptures teach, that is objectionable and hypocrisy.” However, there is still concern over the InterVarsity’s regulation to uphold the Biblical teachings and view on marriage, and the release of employees that are accepting of the same-sex-marriage stance. “These procedures do not apply to student groups, it is focused on employee standards,” Jao said. “Marriage equality is not the issue. Over the past four years, we have been reiterating our historical position of human sexuality. It covers relationships, porn and sexual assault.” The organization works to address the outdated practices of oppression, while striving to embrace diversities. However, it is hard for some members and leaders to accept that they could lose employment over their personal beliefs.

•PROTEST | 2

•INTERVARSITY | 10

Virginia Bixby / The Blue & Gray Press

VIRGINIA BIXBY Staff Writer

The unprecedented election of Republican candidate, Donald Trump, has upset many Americans, including a large number of UMW students. But while every election causes some disappointment in voters, this one has been particularly controversial and divisive. Trump is the first president in the students’ lifetimes who has expressed overt racism, misogyny, Islamophobia and homophobia. He has also been accused of sexually assaulting women, and has suggested plans to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. In additional regard to immigration, he has proposed requiring Muslim-Americans to enter a registry. Senior Mariam Khan, stayed up the whole night of Nov. 8 to watch the voting results come in live and was excited to welcome who she thought would be the first female president-elect, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. However, she began to panic when Trump started receiving a steady stream of Electoral College votes. “I was getting visibly frustrated with people,” Khan said. “I went into the bathroom and cried.” She was shocked by the upset. “I thought Hillary had it,” she said. For Khan, this was about more than simply disliking Trump. As a child of two Muslim immigrants, “I couldn’t stop thinking about my parents. [They] are the embodiment of what Trump believes shouldn’t be in the country… I didn’t understand how a man harboring so much hate could win,” she said. Junior Sophia Hamdan, feared that the country could regress to a darker time in world history. “This man is

horrible because he wants to register all Muslims in this country, which is just like how they registered all the Jews in Nazi Germany.” She was also put off by his comments about women. Hamdan added that he “said numerous things about women that are degrading and he has been accused of sexual assault.”

“We’ve never really seen [Trump’s ideas] that outwardly spoken in a country that firmly disagrees with a lot of the things he says, and the fact that he has won to me is just evidence that we aren’t as far along as [I thought].”

IN THIS

ISSUE

- Lauren Rainford While Trump’s radical beliefs were the main concern, many students voiced fear of his running mate, Mike Pence, who has held controversial views surrounding LGBTQ+ rights. He has supported taking money away from health programs that fund AIDS research and using it to fund conversion therapy, in

ONE NOTE MURDER

SHOPPING SWAP

The One Note Stand kills latest concert theme

Should Black Friday be replaced with Cyber Monday?

A look at how volleyball advanced to Elite Eight

LIFE | 7

VIEWPOINTS | 5

SPORTS | 12

WRITING HISTORY


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