Gay Harvard Students Protest Movie

About 500 demonstrators, including 20 Harvard students, chanting slogans like "Close Windows, Open Closets," protested the opening of the movie "Windows" last night outside the Sack Beacon Hill theater in Boston.

The demonstrators, who included gay and lesbian supporters as well as the feminist group Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW), waved banners and placards and urged passersby not to patronize the film.

Benjamin H. Schatz '81, coordinator of Gays Organized to Oppose Discrimination (GOOD) and organizer of the Harvard protesters attending the rally, said he was angry at the images Hollywood uses to protray gays. "We want the film makers to know that the false and dangerous ideas they are perpetrating will not go unopposed," he said.

Schatz said part of GOOD's aim was to cut into the movie's profits so that more "misleading" films like "Windows" could not be made. "This movie just fuels the anti-gay feelings that we see when we try to make announcements in the House dining halls and get hissed and jeered at," he said.

Robert L. Rothary '81, a member of GOOD, said last night it is important that men support women in their protest. "Unfortunately violence against women is more accepted, and too many men tend to feel that it is not their problem," he added.

Timothy R. Lyman '80 said he is opposed to the image conveyed in "Windows" that women either provoke or perpetrate rape. "This movie reinforces the false idea that women ask to be raped and that men are not responsible for it," he said.

Ellen Herman, a spokesman for WAVAW, said last night she is angry that millions of dollars were spent on "anti-lesbian propaganda" like "Windows," and $800,000 could not be found to finance "Rubyfruit Jungle," a positive story about a lesbian written by a lesbian.

A spokesman for the Sack theaters last night refused to comment.