A Simplistic Comparison

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Paul Engelmayer's recent essay (May 3, 1982) linking the Harvard Jewish Law Student Association's response to the presence of a Palestine Liberation Organization employee at a Law School conference and the Gay Student Association's reaction to the publication in the Independent of a letter from the Director of the Harvard University Center for Behavioral Sciences calling for "negative social pressures" against gay people was simplistic and offensive.

While the HULSA was indeed seeking to interrupt the free exchange of ideas, the GSA was reacting to an attack by a University official against the rights of gay people to live their lives free from fear, harassment, and discrimination.

No one questions Mr. E.L. Pattullo's right to express his opinions, no matter how misinformed and inflammatory they may be. What the GSA and those of who have signed its petition object to is the fact that his signing his letter with his title and his using the word "we" ("...we see exclusive homosexuality as a disability and believe that society should be structured to encourage heterosexual development") implies, perhaps unwittingly, that the Center for Behavioral Sciences endorses the concept of "negative social pressures" against gay people.

Under the circumstances, the GSA is not only justified in calling on Dean Rosovsky to investigate and clarify the Center's policies, it is obligated to do so.

What both Mr. Pattullo and Mr. Engelmayer had to grasp is that "exclusive homosexuality" is rarely, if ever, a matter of choice. A person's sexuality, whether environmentally or genetically determined, is a fixed and integral part of his or her personality from an early age Discrimination based on sexual orientation is as heinous as any other form of arbitrary discrimination. When such discrimination is advocated as a social good by an officer of the University, much more than freedom of speech is at stake for a large segment of the student body.

To maintain, as Mr. Engelmayer does, that the GSA's calling for an investigation of the Center's position on this matter is a chilling threat to freedom of expression is such a gross distortion of the situation that I wonder if the GSA has indeed made the "impressive strides on this campus" which Mr. Engelmayer attributes to it. Andrew B. Herrmann '82