The ‘Right Side of History’ is making a push For a complete preview of W.I.L.D., including for legal equality for the LGBT community. an interview with Deskhop, profi les on the For details about the movement, check out artists, a schedule, a timeline and a W.I.L.D. the video on studlife.com Top 5, see CADENZA, PAGES 8 & 10 STUDENT LIFE the independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since eighteen seventy-eight Vol. 131, No. 18 www.studlife.com Friday, October 2, 2009 STUDENT ACTIVISM ON CAMPUS Students ‘The Right Side of History’ ready to go W.I.L.D. Dan Woznica music.” News Editor Sophomore Liz Jordan agreed. She also enjoys lis- tening to Method Man and With the fall Walk In Lay Redman and is looking for- Down concert just a day ward to seeing them on away, students across campus stage. are gearing up for the music “When I first heard the event of the semester. headliners, I was a little con- Students said they are cerned,” Jordan said. “But familiar with this year’s Walk after thinking about it, I real- In Lay Down’s (W.I.L.D.) ized that they’re going to lead performers, Method Man be very, very entertaining. and Redman, and though the They’re very funny guys.” artists are a throwback, the Senior Amirah Ahmed SAM GUZIK | STUDENT LIFE duo will still put on a great said she believes the perfor- show on Saturday. mance will be a memorable Senior David Dresner (second from left) leads a meeting of students involved with a nascent organization fi ghting for gay “I’m familiar with the one, and said she expects that rights; the movement, known as The Right Side of History, hopes to see sweeping gay rights legislation passed nationally in headliners, even though I a wide variety of students will the next two years. Also pictured, from left to right, are sophomore Jeremy Cramer Gibbs, sophomore Michael Weiss, junior haven’t heard much from find the performers’ music David Klein, junior David Dobbs and Gregory Hogan, regional director of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. them in the past few years,” enjoyable. sophomore Chavelle Pat- terson said. “I do like their See W.I.L.D., page 7 Co-founded by senior David Dresner, The Right Side of History seeks equality for the LGBT community by engaging straight youth. David Messenger and Perry Stein A closer look at the Student Life Editors Senior David Dresner doesn’t want his children to have par- ents who are second-class citizens. Over the next two years, Dresner hopes to jump-start a national movement by applying new strategies to gain equal ethnic profi ling of rights for the LGBT community. Dresner’s journey as a gay rights activist started just seven weeks ago when he was approached by Brian Elliot—the older brother of 2008 Washington University alum Marc Elliot—to Japanese Americans join him in a project called “The Right Side of History.” Dresner and Elliot—both openly gay men—hope that The Right Side of History will reshape the status quo of the LGBT Kimi Kodani Hill. movement by using straight youth to garner mainstream inter- Interviews with Student Life reporter Dana est and propel the movement into the national political sphere. Glaser sat down with Michael Michael Adams Adams and Gyo Obata, alumni Equal rights in 26 months and Gyo Obata of the Washington University The Right Side of History’s 26-month goal is to pass legis- School of Medicine and Sam lation akin to the 1964 Civil Rights Act that would ultimately Dana Glaser Fox School of Design and Visual afford the LGBT community equal rights in the United States. Contributing Reporter Arts, respectively, to discuss their The idea to engage straight people in the struggle for gay fathers’ legacies and their own rights came to Elliot after he read a Columbia University study experiences while observing the conducted in every state. The study showed that at least 75 per- The Center for the Study of fate of Japanese Americans. cent of each state supported equal legal rights—a fi gure much Ethics & Human Values assem- larger than Elliot had anticipated. bled a series of speakers, artists Michael Adams Despite this widespread support, however, 29 states do not and performances this weekend have laws on record prohibiting employers from terminating for the next chapter of its eth- Student Life: What was the employment based on sexual orientation. Additionally, 13,000 nic profi ling program, titled “A relationship like between your people have been discharged from the military in violation of Challenge to Democracy: Ethnic father and Chiura Obata? “Don’t ask, don’t tell” for admitting their homosexuality. SAM GUZIK | STUDENT LIFE Profi ling of Japanese Americans Michael Adams: I was pretty “The second takeaway of the study was [that] the young Senior David Dresner works with sophomore Michael During World War II.” small, but they were very good folks overwhelmingly support the most controversial issues,” Weiss in his mission, entitled “The Right Side of History,” Photographer Ansel Adams, friends. They’d been friends in Elliot said. “Young people were the vanguards of the civil rights which strives to launch the gay rights movement into the famous for his iconic images of the art world in San Francisco mainstream and eventually to pass legislation guaranteeing Yosemite Valley and the Sierra and Bay area. They had also See HISTORY, page 7 the LGBT community equal status in the United States. Nevada mountains, documented been friends in the Sierra area in the Japanese internment at the hiking and taking trips into the Manzanar Relocation Center in backcountry of Yosemite and northern California. into King’s Canyon. Japanese painter Chiura SL: Do you know why he Obata depicted life in Topaz originally decided to document WU apologizes for linking SLU to abortion program War Relocation Center from the the Japanese internment? inside, when he was interned MA: He was too old and had Michelle Merlin “We sincerely regret any in the program are listed as According to the Universi- there with his family. children, so he couldn’t be in the News Manager problems this caused,” Wester- professors at SLU. Jeff Fowler, ty’s statement, the fellowship’s The two artists were friends military, and I think he felt a lit- house wrote in a statement to associate vice president for mission is to “develop spe- and colleagues in life, hiking tle guilty that he wasn’t doing his Student Life. marketing and communica- cialists focused on research, and teaching together during the share. Then he was contacted by Washington University offi - Saint Louis University tions at SLU, confi rmed that teaching and clinical practice summers at Adams’ studio in a fellow by the name of Ralph cials have apologized to Saint noticed the error when a press the professors mentioned do in contraception and abortion” Yosemite. Now their respective Merritt, who was an old friend Louis University for linking release from the fellowship not teach anything concern- and provide “comprehensive work on the internment hangs from the Sierra Club and who the Jesuit university to an abor- mistakenly linked the Jesuit ing abortion at the Catholic training in contraception and side by side in the exhibition in had been appointed administra- tion program for physicians. institution with the fellow- institution. family planning. The two-year the Mildred Lane Kemper Art tor of the camp Manzanar and The University listed Saint ship’s mission and research. “When WU’s fellowship fellowship is one of 20 offered Museum. was told there was a unique situ- Louis University (SLU) as col- The program’s Web site program began in 2007, SLU by top medical schools in the Adams and Obata’s sons will ation that probably would benefi t laborating with the Washington originally stated, “Washing- was a possible resource for nation.” join forces for a presentation on from documentation. My dad University School of Medicine ton University’s School of fellows who wished to seek Every year, the program Friday called “Remembering jumped at the opportunity and and Planned Parenthood in the Medicine is collaborating a master’s degree in pub- accepts one licensed physician the Internment: A Conversation went to Manzanar. Family Planning Fellowship, with Planned Parenthood— lic health, but there was no interested in family planning by the Sons of Chiura Obata SL: Since he was originally which teaches medical students St. Louis Region and St. Louis established collaboration or as a fellow. and Ansel Adams” to discuss asked to go by the government, how to perform abortions. University to accomplish the partnership between the pro- The program’s Web site the problem of ethnic profi ling were there rules about what he The University adminis- goals of the Family Planning grams,” Westerhouse said in states that the University today and on the home front dur- could or could not photograph? tration quickly extended an Fellowship.” the statement. is one of 20 participating ing World War II. MA: He agreed to do it, but apology to SLU and made SLU offi cials denied even The University adminis- schools in the fellowship. Oth- This weekend’s events also on the stipulation that it would changes to the program’s Web knowing about the abortion tration has already sent out ers include Harvard Medical include two performances of the not be paid for. He did this on his site after a representative from program and said they were a letter addressing its mis- School, Johns Hopkins Uni- play “Dust Storm: Art and Sur- own, and the supervision, I think, SLU notifi ed the University of shocked to see that the institu- take.