Cambridge Common

Wow. Leave the blog for one afternoon and the whole thing shuts down. Leave the race for one afternoon and the Harvard Republicans and the queer community agree on something. Life is pretty weird sometimes...

So the big news, as you know if you're on any email lists anywhere it appears, is that the HRC and the BGLTSA have released a joint statement that launches an absolutely sizzling attack on Voith and Gadgil's credibility and says that they lied to pander to each side over whether or not they support the possibility of ROTC's return to campus. Then, because their hole was not deep enough, the Voith campaign released a response statement that included these lines: "We stand by this [the HRC questionairre] written statement. We made that clear to the HRC and to the BGLTSA." In other words, they're saying the BGLTSA is flat out wrong. This, I think, is probably a huge mistake because the BGLTSA board will say (and has said): so you're calling us liars?

What this leads to is Voith in a fight over the truth with the board of a student group that fights on behalf of marginalized people. This is almost a textbook definition of bad politics: appearing and/or being dishonest (and wrong), fighting against the marginalized and looking weak and manipulative while you're at it. Board members of BGLTSA are jumping on lists to declare their certainty and not only do I think they're probably right (they're all people I personally trust and their motives for lying/twisting the truth are incredibly small compared to Voith/Gadgil's), I don't think this is a fight Voith/Gadgil can win. While the majority of politically active students know little to nothing of depth about current queer politics and causes and still live with a lot of the underlying hang-ups and prejudices of society, they are abstractly pro-gay and won't react well to Voith attacking the credibility of the BGLTSA, especially with the Harvard Republics speaking with them.