Gonzaga
Students Asked To Stop Yelling "Brokeback Mountain"
POSTED: 9:55 am PST February 13, 2006
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. -- 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."