Berkeley Students Push To Ban Salvation Army From Campus

[alp227]

UC Berkeley officials are reviewing a proposal by the student governing body that would ban the Salvation Army from collecting donations on campus.

The Associated Students of the University of California Senate unanimously passed a resolution in November calling for Salvation Army donation boxes to be removed from campus residence halls on grounds that the Christian organization discriminates against gays and lesbians.

“By putting this in the residential facilities right in front of students, it’s a tacit endorsement of the Salvation Army by the university. And the problem with that is that the Salvation Army has a long history of anti-LGBTQ advocacy,” said Student Senator Nolan Pack.

Pack said the organization helped lobby against gay rights legislation in New York and denied shelter to a transgender woman in Texas who later died of exposure.

full: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/12/13/berkeley-students-push-to-ban-salvation-army-from-campus/

UC Berkeley is a public university, so doesn't it violate the Salvation Army's First Amendment rights to ban the donation boxes? If Secular Student Alliance can exist on campus, so can the Salvation Army.

[Exultant Democracy]

1. Wrong, it is a public university so it can not subsidize religious based bigotry

hard to see how you could get mixed up over this. These students are obviously right, intolerance of intolerance is a virtue not a vice.

[alp227]

2. The university isn't subsidizing, rather students have the option of donating.

I am a first amendment absolutist...so even discriminatory orgs like the Salv Army have free speech rights on campus.

[Exultant Democracy]

3. They are donating them free time in a public space on the campus, aka subsidizing.

Students still have the option of donating to whom ever they want but they have the right as citizens not to subsidize a hateful and bigoted religious cult.

[alp227]

6. Watch where you are going right there.

To side with free speech, I think the UCB AS could find alternative channels to warn students about the anti gay position of the salvation army.

I could understand if a private college picks and chooses which political/religious groups may meet on on campus. Such as: a bible college banning Young Democrats. But at a public college like berkeley, free speech MUST be the most fundamentally protected right.

I go to another public university in northern CA and see orgs with which I disagree on campus all the time handing out pamphlets. Such as Campus Crusade for Christ/other evangelical orgs, Mercy for Animals with anti meat booklets, and conservative/libertarian student groups. Sites that mean I will complain and try to ban those groups? No!

In fact, the student council of a public junior college near Sacramento passed a resolution four years ago supporting prop 8, the ballot initiative against gay marriage. That student body could easily go beyond mere political posturing and ban a Gay/Straight Alliance from meeting on campus. As far as I know, that did not happen.

That theoretical situation is why I am on the side of discussing, not suppressing. I get worried when I hear progressives support restricting first amendment rights for discriminatory/bigoted speech. Under that logic, conservatives can call on liberal speech to be banned because it is bigoted. All the salvation army is doing is voluntarily visiting campus to collect donations. Hardly any different from the SA putting out red buckets at a public park or outside a grocery store.

Furthermore, stories like this one only feed the conservative mindset that colleges like UCB are out to suppress any "politically incorrect" POV. It turns average folks' politics towards as they keep reading about "liberals against free speech who do not tolerate other viewpoints".

[musical_soul]

4. Ban them, and they look like martyrs.

I do personally boycott them. I make checks to United Way and give my clothes to the Goodwill.

[Mz Pip]

5. They were collecting in Sproul Plaza on Thursday

The was one guy with a sign "We Support the Salvation Army" and another with a bucket and a bell. Not many people around and the ones that were - like me - ignored them.

Can't imagine that they are making much money.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. Whenever I want to be informed of the Right Wing Blog Cultural Outrage du jour

I need do no more than seek out alp227's latest post.

Thanks for keeping the board up to date on what conservative assholes are whining about today!

[alp227]

8. Well, I first heard this particular story on local news segment of my NPR station.

[forestpath]

9. Good for them. I hope they succeed.