Posted on 05/10/2006 1:12:02 PM PDT by andrew2527
Four fraternity members accused of making pledges wear cowboy clothes and suffer homophobic insults in a "Brokeback Mountain"-themed initiation ritual face $1,000 fines under the state's anti-hazing law.
University of Vermont police said the civil penalties stemmed from a March 2 party at the Phi Gamma Delta house based on the movie about gay cowboys.
"What they did, which I felt was homophobic in nature, was inappropriate," UVM Police Chief Gary Margolis said.
Phi Gamma Delta's alumni advisers have denied accounts of anti- homosexual remarks and heavy drinking at the party.
Chittenden County Deputy State's Attorney Ed Sutton said his office did not plan to file criminal charges and believed the case "would be better dealt with in context of a university judicial review."
University police singled out four officers in the fraternity, Margolis said. Scott Curley II, 18, of Bridgewater, Mass.; Eric Freedman, 20, of West Simsbury, Conn.; Bill Holohan IV, 20, of Branford, Conn.; and Geoffrey Robinson, 20, of Middletown Springs were given tickets Friday, police said.
Vermont's anti-hazing law was passed after a 1999 hazing scandal at UVM in which members of the hockey team were accused of forcing freshman players to drink warm beer until they vomited and march in an "elephant walk" while holding each other's genitals. The allegations triggered the cancellation of the last 15 games of the hockey season
I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you, to find that there are anti-homosexual comments at fraternities.
Hate criminals! Burn them!
I shocked the little whimps spilled the beans.
What losers. We tied people to abandoned T-line in our stunts at MIT (train would go on other track).
He should be fired for using the term 'homophobic'.
And in Vermont too!
Speech as hazing. No hitting, etc. Just speech.
How PC.
The 1999 incident seems to have more to do with Brokeback Mountain than the recent one.
Actually, it sounds pretty funny.
Didn't you know? It's illegal to be a homophobe in Vermont.
How dare they be so openly heterosexual!!!
This fraternity has also been accused of "heavy drinking".
OTHEHUGEMANATEE!
"What they did, which I felt was homophobic in nature, was inappropriate," UVM Police Chief Gary Margolis said.
When they say "homophobic" does that mean they expressed an irrational fear, or is this word now just another way to say "they were really really mean and scary!" ???
Sounds rather mild...some fraternities make them go the full brokeback. I've never understood why anyone would want to join such an organization, but to each his own.
What did they do?
This appears to be a "thought crime", without knowing what was done I can't even have an opinion.
Is this how news is handled today?
"What they did, which I felt was homophobic in nature, was inappropriate," UVM Police Chief Gary Margolis said as he adjusted his Gucci Sam Brown belt and wiped maple syrup off of his bejeweled badge.
If the "victims" were joining the frat of their own accord and nobody was assaulted then it shouldn't be police business.
.....if they ever find out about what we did.....
.....we would be sent to "old sparky" for sure.....
....."hell night" itself would've been a capital offense.....
"some fraternities make them go the full brokeback"
Pretty much a myth, I think.
At MIT, it was something upwards of 80% greek. There was no place (reasonably priced and non-dorm) to live, otherwise.
How terrible! Homophobic insults! That's against the law, isn't it?
I have never been to a frat initiation. I am a shell-back, though. And I know that initiation would be cause for a firing squad, now.
Why do these fraternities have so many homo overtones?
Lots of closeted rich guys?
We have a great thing called "Freedom of Assembly" in this country. Except when we don't.
In those cases, we have the state dictating to willing parties that they are not allowed to pursue their own private interests.
FIJI was banned at Cornell just before I arrived.
A 'fun loving bunch' for sure.
-thats not nice...
ROTFLMAO
phobic: (new definition) expressing insufficient zeal while expressing total support.
Joe was expelled from the university for homophobia because he stopped clapping too soon at the end of the gay pride parade.
The Navy stopped that particular initiation, re-instuted a Bowdlerized version, and (I am told, although I'd love to hear from a current sailor) then stopped even that. Pity. I can't think of a better way to spend a day than crawling through garbage stem to stern with guys whipping on you with firehoses. And then there was the Royal Baby...
.....but it never seemed more than just "harmless" humor.....
.....yep, I was scared to death at the time.....
.....but after it was over.....
.....we all could'nt wait to "haze" the next pledges.....
.....and as far as making fun of homos.....
.....heck, we made fun of everybody!.....
When I was at U of M, a frat {I forget which one) was banned after a pledge was shot in the genitals by a BB gun during some sick initiation.
No, silly. Homophobic is a fear of words that sound the same but are spelled differently.
Delta house?
I read this thinking, this was a crime? Gees, this is such bulloney!
Video at 6:00 and 11:00.
Whew. Well, that's nothing. When I read the headline I thought... well.. you know.
Me too! But ours was pretty mild as it was a submarine tender with women aboard.
If they simply would have called it a "diversity sensitization workshop", they could have made the pledges fist each other, and nobody in Vermont would have raised an eyebrow.
LOL
The "incident" was fabricated. The student who made it up later admitted making it up but still got a big settlement.
LOL good one.
I strongly suspect that there was a lot more to it than cowboy costumes and off-color verbal insults and underage drinking. The "more" probably involved things which would classify the perpetrators as sex-crime felons and the victims as sexual assault victims. To avoid public embarrassment of the victims, bad PR for the college, and lifelong criminal records for sexual assault for the perpetrators, the administration and prosecutors probably arranged a plea deal, since it was possible to mete out a legal penalty based just on the information that we're getting here. These "students" are probably getting their real punishment at home, where parents are asking stern questions (perhaps after having been given plenty more info about what actually went on, than we're getting), and reevaluating whether they should be paying for live-away-from-home college education for their miscreant offspring.
The parties on the receiving end of these things are not generally informed of the details in advance, so they can hardly be said to have consented. In addition, the perpetrators use a combination of strong peer pressure, illegal serving of alcohol to underage pledges, and often physical force, to discourage anyone from backing out after they find out what's really going to happen. When these things get reported and prosecuted, it's usually either because one of the unwilling victims blows the whistle, or because something goes horribly wrong and somebody ends up in the hospital or dead.
Pledging always looked kind of gay.
How could you not watch this stupid movie and make homosexual jokes? Especially after a few beers
Agreed.
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