Ye, yes, but did you think what they did was from unreasoning fear of homosexuals? 
Posted on 05/10/2006 1:12:02 PM PDT by andrew2527
Four fraternity members accused of making pledges wear cowboy clothes and suffer homophobic insults in a "Brokeback Mountain"-themed initiation ritual face $1,000 fines under the state's anti-hazing law.
University of Vermont police said the civil penalties stemmed from a March 2 party at the Phi Gamma Delta house based on the movie about gay cowboys.
"What they did, which I felt was homophobic in nature, was inappropriate," UVM Police Chief Gary Margolis said.
Phi Gamma Delta's alumni advisers have denied accounts of anti- homosexual remarks and heavy drinking at the party.
Chittenden County Deputy State's Attorney Ed Sutton said his office did not plan to file criminal charges and believed the case "would be better dealt with in context of a university judicial review."
University police singled out four officers in the fraternity, Margolis said. Scott Curley II, 18, of Bridgewater, Mass.; Eric Freedman, 20, of West Simsbury, Conn.; Bill Holohan IV, 20, of Branford, Conn.; and Geoffrey Robinson, 20, of Middletown Springs were given tickets Friday, police said.
Vermont's anti-hazing law was passed after a 1999 hazing scandal at UVM in which members of the hockey team were accused of forcing freshman players to drink warm beer until they vomited and march in an "elephant walk" while holding each other's genitals. The allegations triggered the cancellation of the last 15 games of the hockey season
If they simply would have called it a "diversity sensitization workshop", they could have made the pledges fist each other, and nobody in Vermont would have raised an eyebrow.
LOL
The "incident" was fabricated. The student who made it up later admitted making it up but still got a big settlement.
LOL good one.
I strongly suspect that there was a lot more to it than cowboy costumes and off-color verbal insults and underage drinking. The "more" probably involved things which would classify the perpetrators as sex-crime felons and the victims as sexual assault victims. To avoid public embarrassment of the victims, bad PR for the college, and lifelong criminal records for sexual assault for the perpetrators, the administration and prosecutors probably arranged a plea deal, since it was possible to mete out a legal penalty based just on the information that we're getting here. These "students" are probably getting their real punishment at home, where parents are asking stern questions (perhaps after having been given plenty more info about what actually went on, than we're getting), and reevaluating whether they should be paying for live-away-from-home college education for their miscreant offspring.
The parties on the receiving end of these things are not generally informed of the details in advance, so they can hardly be said to have consented. In addition, the perpetrators use a combination of strong peer pressure, illegal serving of alcohol to underage pledges, and often physical force, to discourage anyone from backing out after they find out what's really going to happen. When these things get reported and prosecuted, it's usually either because one of the unwilling victims blows the whistle, or because something goes horribly wrong and somebody ends up in the hospital or dead.
Pledging always looked kind of gay.
How could you not watch this stupid movie and make homosexual jokes? Especially after a few beers
Agreed.
For the umpteenth time, the author should get it right, they aren't cowboys, they are sheep herders...
You have no idea how PC things are here. What they described is more than enough to get the stated punishment.
What happened with that? I didn't hear anything about them.
Could be. But it's certainly not out of the question that what occured was simply immature, testosterone overload as well. I saw alot of different activities at frat houses and while the majority of these tended to be overtly and patently stupid, most where done in good fun by willing participants.
As long as they aren't sheep HURTERS!
I became one in 1987, when they had shillelaghs (whips made from fire hose), garbage chutes, pillories, and also who can forget the royal babies.
Kids can and do act stupid at that age.
But the fact that the cops waste their time and resources on something like this is unforgivable. Why don't they go back to handing out jaywalking tickets!?
Yuck, that sucks. Thanks for letting me know.. i'm going to avoid it!
Ye, yes, but did you think what they did was from unreasoning fear of homosexuals?
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