gonzaga fans asked to stop chant. lol

jaypasco · #1 02-12-2006, 11:16 AM

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) … Fans of No. 5 Gonzaga have been asked
to stop yelling "Brokeback Mountain" at opposing players.

The reference to the recent movie about homosexual cowboys
was chanted by some fans during Monday's game against Saint
Mary's, and is apparently intended to suggest an opposing
player is gay.

The chants were the subject of several classroom discussions
over the past week, and the faculty advisers for the Kennel
Club booster group urged students this week to avoid
"inappropriate chants" during the Bulldogs' Saturday game
against Stanford, which was nationally televised on ESPN.

"We implore the students of the Kennel Club to show the
nation this weekend what makes Gonzaga different," Kennel Club
advisers David Lindsay and Aaron Hill wrote in a letter in the
student newspaper, the Bulletin. "We challenge the students of
the Kennel Club to exhibit the class, the creativeness and the
competitive drive that has become a foundation of this great
university."

Mark Alfino, a professor of philosophy at Gonzaga, said the
matter had been widely discussed by faculty and students.

"Many faculty members have brought up the discussion in
their classes," he said. "They find none of the students have
been comfortable with the chant, and that's a good sign."

Ryan Olson, the president of Helping Educate Regarding
Orientation, a gay-straight alliance on campus, said the chants
are just the latest incident that shows GU is struggling to
make gays and lesbians welcome on campus.

In a letter to the Bulletin, the HERO membership wrote, "This is not even remotely the first time that Kennel Club
chanters have chanted homophobic phrases at basketball games."

"A lot of people in the Kennel Club say it wasn't them" that
chanted "Brokeback Mountain," Olson said. "But there's
something to be said about apathy as well. Students didn't stop
people from saying it."

In Friday's Bulletin, senior Callie Monroe wrote a column
calling the chants a case of "outright discrimination."

"Imagine yourself as a homosexual individual in the midst of
your peers, classmates and friends during this 'Brokeback
Mountain' cheer," Monroe wrote. "I simply do not understand how
a student body claiming to live by Jesuit principles of
acceptance and respect for all can allow an incident like this
to happen and remain silent."