Chapter 79: Momentous News

Sunday, March 31, 1985

We spent the morning on the phone (as we did on many Sundays) checking in with friends and family.

I also left messages with the three property management companies the fence would affect. We would see what sort of responses they had.

Villanova had won yesterday, beating Memphis State by seven. One game tomorrow, for all of the marbles (and several hundred thousand dollars). Either we would be much richer, or we’d be April Fools.

Besides that, much of the day was spent studying. We had our accounting army over (the groups had converged into one big conglomeration by now) in the main living room. Mel and Cammie had their physics posse in the basement living room, while Angie and Paige had the biology brigade upstairs in the second-floor sitting area.

Yes, those were the names. We were fairly good at alliteration (and pretty much all wordplay).

We also spent a few hours on our logic studies. The material wasn’t all that difficult for any of us, but we wanted to stay at the top of the class.

All of this was in preparation for the next wave of exams, which would largely be held the week before Easter. Given the timing of finals and ‘dead week,’ things needed to move along!

Monday, April 1, 1985

We spent much of the time we were home hearing shouts of ‘April Fools!’

It started with salty orange juice at breakfast (surprisingly good!) and continued with objects moved, a whoopee cushion strategically hidden under couch cushions (several times!), and similar benign hijinks.

Paige (no surprise) and Mel (a bigger surprise, though I should have seen it coming, given who her brothers were) were the biggest culprits, but everyone got into the spirit of the day.

Today was a big day on the GSS front. Marco and a couple of other GSS leaders were speaking at Rudder Fountain at noon as part of an event organized by the Political Forum and MSC Great Issues. The whole thing was to draw attention to Tuesday night’s ‘debate,’ which featured someone from the ACLU (I wasn’t sure who) debating Louis Welch. I was nearly certain this was not the forum where Welch had his famous (in my first life) meltdown — that was near the November elections, I was pretty sure — but, then, that was then and this was now. Perhaps Louis Welch hadn’t even spoken at this forum in my first life. I was pretty sure several Houston political leaders had switched positions from my first life to this one, after all.

Claire, Katy, Lindsay, and Paula joined us at Rudder Fountain just before noon. Marco Roberts was, as yet, nowhere to be seen. Nor were Debbie Brown or any of the other few people who I thought of as the GSS Leadership. Justin Blake, who I’d met way back in September and still barely knew, told me they had all left about fifteen minutes ago after one of the Great Issues people came out and fetched them.

I wasn’t sure what was going on. Maybe bad news — A&M might be trying to block Marco from speaking — but it could be good news. We were in April, after all, and the clock had been running for a long time.

I didn’t say anything. No reason to create false hope.

John, Ed, Brent, Jeff, Allison, and Monique all wound up joining us. Some of our GSS friends wouldn’t be here. They were out to us, but not out in any other way. I wasn’t sure how many of these guys were out, either (except that I knew at least Ed and Allison were out to a few close friends), but they were standing next to a notably straight guy and his girlfriend. Two (nationally, but not always locally) out gay girls, too, but that ‘not always locally’ part really mattered.

Not to mention that Claire was just as straight as I was.

Marco, along with Debbie Brown, came out just at the top of the hour and greeted everyone, briefly introducing himself. The whole thing had drawn perhaps sixty or seventy kids. Not great — not at all — but much of the campus was tired of the whole GSS issue and just wanted it to go away.

Marco’s next words perhaps confirmed it would, and soon. He said, “Everyone! This forum was supposed to be about tomorrow night’s debate, and it still is. Nothing has changed there. But — something very big has changed! This morning, the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari for the University’s appeal of our case!”

Some people looked confused, and a few even looked downcast, before the wave of whooping and applause made it clear this was — for GSS supporters, anyway — a very good thing.

Marco continued, saying, “This leaves the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in place, which means — it’s over!”

Another, louder, round of whoops and cheers broke out.

“The University has already said they’re looking for whatever appeals may still be available to them, but according to our counsel — who the University will be paying!...”

That got a lot of laughter and applause.

“ ... there are none. It’s over. Soon, what should have happened nine years ago will finally come to pass! Gay Student Services will be an officially recognized student organization!”

The loudest outburst yet overwhelmed Marco. He and Debbie waved their arms in the air for a bit, a mix of celebrating and quieting the crowd.

Once we were relatively calm again, he said, “And — to those who don’t agree — I say this: We are Aggies. You are Aggies. Aggies support Aggies! The fight has been fought, the courts have had their say, and it’s time to move on. Over time, you’ll see: not only are we not a threat, we never were a threat. We want A&M to be great for all Aggies, regardless of who they love!”

The crowd didn’t get too loud, but they were clearly eating it up. A reasonable number of people didn’t seem to be on either side, and most of them were nodding along and smiling.

“I have to run, unfortunately. I have a call with the lawyers in fifteen minutes. Even with the Supreme Court ‘doing nothing,’ there are things we need to do. Debbie Brown, our vice president, will be taking over and will answer your questions, at least to the extent we know the answers.”

With that, he waved, then headed off quickly. Debbie moved behind the lectern and said, “Howdy!”

“Howdy!” everyone called back. There is simply no better way to get a group of Aggies to respond than a simple ‘Howdy!’ Works every time!

She thanked everyone for their support, was gracious about the opposition, echoed Marco’s ‘can’t we all just get along’ sentiment (to borrow the words of someone who wouldn’t be in the national spotlight for many years — if ever), then opened things up to questions.

Many of them were unanswerable: When would GSS be recognized? Where would they meet? What might the University try next?

Some she could answer: What did this say for women in the band? What did this say about the university recognizing fraternities and sororities? The answers were ‘nothing’ and ‘nothing.’ The band fight was nominally over, but (like GSS) the University was still sputtering about ‘possible appeals.’ As for fraternities and sororities, my guess was that they had years to go in their fight.

One of the later questions was from a young woman (perhaps in her 30s) who asked some pointed questions about ‘gays and kids.’ Some of them were borderline offensive, but Debbie and a couple of others defused them and gave her answers that seemed to satisfy her.

Things had moved on when I noticed a crowd pressing in around her. I made my way over and found her, several Corps members (in uniform), a few other people, and one loud guy who was standing much too close to her and waving his arms threateningly.

I stepped in. As I did, John and Monique came over and joined me.

“Excuse me,” I said. “Is there a problem here?”

“She’s gone too far!” the guy shouted. “It’s offensive!”

“What is?”

“She called me a Nazi!” he said. “I am not a Nazi! I’m standing up for what’s right!”

The woman said something which I couldn’t quite catch over all of the shouting, but seemed to say some people were acting like ‘close-minded Nazis’ and that they should just listen to the answers like she had.

He lunged at her again, and I stepped in, with John joining me from the other side.

“Back off,” I said. “There’s no excuse for fighting here. This is a forum, not a boxing match.”

John nodded.

“Use your words,” he said.

With that, one of the Corps members (‘Thompson’, per his nameplate) said, “Yeah. This is getting out of hand. Let’s calm things down.”

The woman, from behind us, said, “Thank you!”

We got things de-escalated enough within a few minutes that people started going their own way. Nancy, the woman who had (perhaps) started it all, introduced herself, shook hands, and then took off. I think she was embarrassed by the whole thing.

I noticed a TV camera covering all of this and walked over.

“Hi,” I said. “What’s up?”

“That was some ruckus!” the reporter said.

“Look, I’m all for reporting what happened, but please think about what happened,” I said. “That poor woman — Nancy — almost got attacked because of a few out-of-context words. Let’s try to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

He nodded slowly, then said, “Are you with GSS? Can you comment?”

“I’m a member,” I said, “but I’m definitely not in leadership. I’m just a straight friend. Would you like me to see if I can get someone to talk to you?”

“Please!” he said.

After a quick discussion, I was able to get Debbie to say a few words. It was all very vague — she and Marco were thrilled, their lawyers were still deciding what would happen next, and they expected to file for recognition ‘shortly.’

Once that wrapped up, Debbie thanked John and me for stepping in. A fight was the last thing anyone needed, especially today!

Jas hugged me as it all calmed down. She hadn’t been worried, but shouting and fists waving in the air are never a good thing. Claire hugged me next. She had been worried, it turned out, but Jas had reassured her before she got too worried.

As we got ready to leave, I noticed Angie, Paige, and Cammie with their heads together planning something or other. I was pretty sure it was related to their group. The external fight was over. The internal fight, though? That might explode, now that our external adversary was vanquished.