Gay
Jeans Day Letter to College Republicans
Note: the following letter, published in the "Letters to the Editor" column of The Tartan, 4 November 1996, is the opinion of the authors and has not been formally approved by cmuOUT. It is presented first in its original unedited form.
An open letter to the College Republicans:
We would like to commend the College Republicans' "Come Out in Khaki"
campaign, held in conjunction with cmuOUT's "Gay Jeans Day" on October
30. This show of support for your fellow gay, lesbian and bisexual
Republicans delightedly surprised us. We are already providing denim
swatches for those who cannot wear jeans on Wednesday. Because we
believe it is important to demonstrate support for this underrepresented
Republican minority, we are also more than happy to distribute khaki
strips to those who are unable to wear khaki clothing that day. Those
who would like a denim and/or khaki strip should stop by our table in
front of Doherty Hall today (Tuesday) or Wednesday.
Such activities as "Come Out in Khaki" are sure to reinforce the
Republican party's "big tent" principle of acceptance and tolerance for
all people. Keep up the good work, and best of luck in the upcoming
elections.
Cordially,
cmuOUT
The Tartan editors deleted a sentence ["Those who would like a denim and/or khaki strip should stop by our table in front of Doherty Hall today (Tuesday) or Wednesday."] and replaced it with one of their own [shown highlighted], in which they refer to Gay Jeans Day as a "demonstration", a term which cmuOUT never used to describe the event. The Tartan editors also attributed their letter to the "cmuOUT General Membership", which never either reviewed or approved the letter in either it's original or revised forms. The "unknown" author of the original, which was posted from the cmuOUT account, signed it with the name of the account, but did not attribute it explicitly to group.