Letter FromrnAnn Arborrnby John AttarianrnLibraries of PropagandarnOliver Wendell Holmes used to say thatrnupon first glance at the books in a libraryrn”one gets a notion very speedily ofrnthe [reader’s] tastes and the range of hisrnpursuits.” One ean only imagine whatrnHolmes would have thought about ourrn”range of pursuits” had he visited thernUniversity of Michigan’s Harlan HatcherrnGraduate Library, which I use heavily asrna visiting scholar, last October duringrnGay History Month.rnOn the walls of the foyer behind thernGrad Library’s main entrance are severalrnlarge (roughly 4.5′ x 5′) display cases,rnnormally used for showcasing art or rarernbooks or to educate patrons in properrncare for books by displaying varieties ofrnbook damage (vandalism, food and drinkrnspills, iirsect pest damage, broken spinesrnfrom mishandling, etc.). ThroughoutrnOctober, however, most were propagandizingrnfor homosexuality.rnThe second one on the left wall containedrna rainbow flag (horizontal orange,rnred, yellow stripes) on loan from GommonrnLanguage Bookstore, a local gaylesbianrnbookstore, with a large “Gay HistoryrnMonth” sign, plus two books onrngay-lesbian role models. The Gay 100rnand Uncommon Heroes.rnThe next case addressed homosexualrnliterary figures: black lesbian feministrnAudre Lorde; Pier Paolo Pasolini; andrnYukio Nhshima, a Japanese homosexualrnwho received a feminizing upbringingrnfrom a smothering mother, rebelledrnagainst it, and ended up committing seppukurnin 1970 after giving a fiery tenminuternspeech to an unappreciative audiencernof Japanese servicemen at thernIchigava military headquarters. Oddlyrnenough, they missed the biggest pervertrnof all: the bisexual, sodomy-obsessedrnMarquis de Sade, of Justine, Juliette, andrnThe 120 Days of Sodom fame and godfatherrnof modernity. But perhaps not sornoddly. Sade makes a pretty unconvincingrnmartvr, and as I know from a conversationrnwith Catharme Mackinnon a fewrnyears back, he’s none too popular amongrnantipornography feminists.rnMoving on to music, the next displayrncase showed the ballet dancers RudolfrnNureyev, Diaghilev, and Nijinsky; composersrnTchaikovsky, Benjamin Britten,rnand Leonard Bernstein. The mathematicsrndisplay on the rear wall featured computerrnpioneer Alan Turing, who headedrnthe British team of mathematicians atrnBletchley that broke the German “Enigma”rnmachine cipher during Worid WarrnII. On the right wall, the Pop Culture,rnSports and Politics display showed GregrnLouganis and Harvey Milk.rnBest of all was the Michigan case, onrnthe rig’.it wall, between the right stairwayrnto the second floor and the entrance tornthe circulation desk, making it almostrnimpossible to avoid seeing if you werernheading upstairs or going to charge outrnbooks or request a book search or recall.rnHere were portraits, biographical information,rnand so on for the university’s directorsrnof its Lesbian Gay Bisexual ProgramsrnOffice (LGBPO), part of thernDivision of Student Affairs. But thernchief attraction in this last display case,rnand my favorite, was a banner packedrnwith leftist and gay political buttons.rnClinton-Gore buttons, portraits of MartinrnLuther King; “Housing is a right not arnprivilege”; “Pro-choice is pro-life yoursrnand mine”; “Silence = Death”; “BornrnAgain Pagan”; “U.S. out of my uterus”;rn”No little Dutch boy is going to plug thisrndyke”; “If you’re a pro-lifer, then adoptrnan interracial mongoloid or shut the f—rnup!” and much else.rnIn all mv years as a student (1976-rn1984) and employee (1985-1990) of thernuniversity, I never saw anything like this.rnFortunately, it’s history; when I stoppedrnby the next day to return some books andrnphotocopy the following data from thisrnyear’s university budget, the homosexualrndisplay eases had been cleaned out, exceptrnfor the music exhibit. Perhapsrnsomeone on the library staff has a crushrnon Nureyev.rnThe Gay History Month display wasrnarranged jointly by the Bisexual, Gay andrnLesbian Library Association (BGALLA)rnand the University Library ExhibitsrnCommittee. The unavoidable conclusionrnis that promoting homosexualism isrnthe official policy of the University ofrnMichigan, a public, taxpayer-supportedrninstitution. “U.S. out of my uterus”—rnmv tax dollars at work.rnThey’re at work promoting homosexualismrnat the university in other ways,rntoo, through the good offices of the Les-rnIn the Heart of Europe,rnAn Alternative forrnAmerican High SchoolrnGraduatesrn/^rasmus Institute, Lausanne, Switzerland. A new one-year tutorial andrnC9 residential college, emphasizing Literature, History, French language, andrncourse-correlated travel in Europe. 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