Posted on 09/09/2001 1:54:40 PM PDT by Hildy
Fund seen as safety net for those who want to come out
BOSTON -- The decision to tell his family he was gay didn't go well for one Bridgewater State student. His father threatened to cut him off financially and left the junior feeling "like a piece of trash."
"There's no way I could support myself," said the 22-year-old, who asked that his name not be used. "I was very, very scared."
A new scholarship offered by the school could make it easier for gay and lesbian students to break such news. The financial aid would definitely help gay students whose families refuse to support them.
The school says it's the only program of its kind.
The 22-year-old student's parents kept paying for school after his mother insisted, but not everyone gets that break, said communications professor Susan Holton, co-chairwoman of the school's Safe Colleges Task Force, an advocacy group for gays.
Bob Haynor, Bridgewater's outreach education coordinator, started raising funds for the scholarship in April 2000 after meeting students who were cut off after they came out. About $8,200 has been donated so far. Haynor hopes the first awards will be given next year.
The college's Frank-Tremblay Safe Colleges Scholarship is named for lesbian folk singer Lucie Bley Tremblay, who's raised money for the scholarship, and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is gay and represents the Bridgewater area.
Frank has not raised money for the scholarship but said he was flattered to be associated with it.
"The potential for rejection or the fact of rejection is a crushing blow," he said. "Add to that an inability to continue your education. . . . Obviously we wish this situation didn't happen, but it's important to have this resource available."
Other schools have boosted financial aid for gay students cut off by parents, said Robert Schoenberg, president of the National Consortium of Directors of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resources in Higher Education. Yet he was uncertain how many others, if any, aim funds specifically at students who are financially estranged from parents.
Brian Camenker, president of the Parents' Rights Coalition, a Newton-based group that opposes government interference in parental duties, said the scholarship is a "complete outrage" that undermines parental authority.
"You have a state institution affirming a self-destructive and medically dangerous behavior and essentially spitting in the face of parents who know it's a horrible thing for their children to be doing," he said.
In addition to private donations, school officials also expect to receive some money when the state matches private funds raised for the Bridgewater State College Foundation, of which the scholarship is part.
The fact that public money could be included is galling to Camenker.
"It's like taking your tax dollars and rubbing it in your face," he said.
But Vincent McCarthy, chairman of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, said that if parents "divorce" themselves financially from their children they lose their say in the children's education.
"The bottom line is 'Tough,' " he said.
Grant sizes haven't been determined. Haynor said tuition and fees at Bridgewater are about $2,800, so even a small grant can help.
In all likliehood, he actually said he was, "fwhaterred."
Gosh.
Use your natural talents. Get a job as a product tester in a baloon factory.
Hey, Junior, yer 22 - GROW UP! Howz about getting up off yer faggot ass and getting a job?
I agree with the previous poster, PURE PROPAGANDA!
The musician one is already there (in multiple manifestations). Any one of the others could be next, if you choose to donate the money.
More liberal propaganda. Hate men? Marry the state. Don't want to live a moral life like your parents taught you to? No sweat, the state will put you through four years of college. And tuck you in, and feed you, and powder your little butt.
If this keeps up, I'll be rooting for the barbarians to get here.
What burden will the student bear to 1] prove he or she is gay, and 2] prove that the parents are withholding money because of it?
This is a horrible practice on the part of the school. I guess any student who wants some free money can claim that his parents won't support him because he's gay.
Ya gotta get in bed with the program leader.
*BARF*
The what? This is one of those things where the name's so long, when you get to the end you've forgotten the beginning.
I wonder what kinda 'Resources' they use. Whoops, ain't gonna go there. Nice Mr. Moderator, Kind Mr. Moderator. See, I didn't go there J
Get a #$*(&%@ job, you sissy Mary!
When I was his age, I had been working for ten years - including two in the Army. It's no wonder that he didn't want his name mentioned. He's probably ashamed of himself, and rightly so.
The pity is, this garbage can vote.
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