Squelching Gay Voices

IN A BLATANT and reprehensible act of discrimination, the Dean of Students and the registrar's office indicated last week they may deny what should be a routine request by the Gay Students Association (GSA) to include a pamphlet in this spring's registration packets.

Until GSA made its request, no one questioned the practice of allowing student groups to use the registration envelopes. Now, however, University officials say they may not allow any students access to the envelopes, and they claim that past use of the envelopes by the Student Assembly, Phillips Brooks House and other groups has been a mistake. Since this "mistake" has been occurring regularly for several years, we can only assume that administrators are either biased against gays or negligent of their duties.

The University's response to GSA's request is only the most recent example of what looks like a pattern of prejudice against gays and lesbians at Harvard. New regulations restricting the placement of posters also appear to be aimed at GSA, which successfully advertised its activities last year through a series of poster barrages. Together, the new postering rules and restricted access to registration packets amount to a medieval attempt to squelch an active minority at Harvard. Registration envelopes should be open to all student groups, and the right of minorities to be heard must not be denied. If there is some rule on the books that would restrict access to the envelopes if it were, enforced, that rule should be scrapped.