MISCONCEPTION: Discrimination played no part in the expulsion of ROTC in 1969.
TRUTH: Stephen Donaldson, founder of Columbia Queer Alliance and navy veteran, lobbied Columbia to expel ROTC from its campus in 1969.
The 14 March 1969 Report of the Joint
Committee on NROTC is available for all to read. It provides a good
snapshot of what were considered the issues. It goes into detail about issues
such as academic freedom, course credit, choice of college majors and faculty
appointments, and states that these considerations have become important due to
opposition to the war in Vietnam. We don't see anything in the report that
could be seen as a reference to gay rights; there is a reference to marriage but it appears to be about
heterosexual marriage.
Indeed, Donaldson did lobby Columbia to expel ROTC from its campus in 1969.
However, at that time his organization (founded as the Student Homophile
League—the Columbia Queer Alliance came to be decades later) had very little
support from the trustees, who asked that Donaldson refrain from publicizing his
group or reaching out to the community. The idea that these trustees acted on
behalf of LGBT rights when they expelled ROTC is inaccurate.
Analysis and photo by Columbia Students for
NROTC.