The University of Pittsburgh discriminates. There is no other way to phrase the University’s action. Pitt has decided that the families of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) will not receive healthcare. The only entities capable to change this decision are the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor himself. Both refuse to make comment.

In 1996 Deborah Henson filed suit against the University. Two years before, Pitt had decided to recognize same-sex couples through a university registry. Here couples had to jump through numerous bureaucratic hoops to gain access to library cards, gym facilities, and bereavement pay. For 1993 this was an exceptional move at a time when the Christian Coalition was lambasting early Clintonian advances in America by making life measurable on the morality Richter scale. Like Clinton, the University of Pittsburgh soon decided that recognition of the LGBT was acceptable but equal rights would anger a conservative legislature.

The rest is history. The Chair of the Board of Trustees, J.W. Connolly, railed against same-sex unions and homosexuals. Chancellor Mark Nordenberg stayed silent. Henson left the University soon after filing and more people joined the case. The students rallied and the faculty petitioned. The hunger strike at Pitt brought national attention, yet the University refused to compromise its position. The case’s basis was the City of Pittsburgh’s civil rights ordinance. No employer could discriminate based on sexual orientation or marital status. The University was doing both, and so the fight waged on.

In 2001, a deal was struck between the plaintiffs and the University. The plaintiffs suspended litigation while the chancellor’s appointed commission looked into the plausibility of granting healthcare benefits — a brilliant stalling tactic by the University, because everyone fell for it. The public waited a year (cries that commission’s findings were six months overdue were moot pleas from the community, which seemed to have taken a hiatus from the struggle.)

The report is out, issued by the Chancellor on May 9, and this activist could not be more disappointed. The commission decided Pitt should grant the benefits, but politics would not allow it at the present time. The commission took out every account of what healthcare benefits mean to people, and reduced the argument to numbers. Reading the report leads one to forget that the focus is actual human lives. There were noncommittal reasons such as: "The University would have to renegotiate with its healthcare provider," or "The gubernatorial election makes the political waters of Pennsylvania uncertain." And Chancellor Nordenberg stood silent hiding behind the committee, as he had hid behind Connolly the previous six years.

What is the Chancellor scared of? Connolly, having retired from the Board of Trustees, no longer can hire and fire, and the trustees seem quite blasé at the moment. At least none of them have come out as fire and brimstone Falwell followers. The University’s spokesperson Robert Hill has told every media source that the Chancellor stands firmly behind the committee and its findings. So I guess the chancellor knows the University is discriminating. He has decided that it would be in the University’s best interest to continue to discriminate, because it’s easier, and it’s cheaper

The Chancellor was new to his position when Connolly began his tirade on the LGBT community. He stood behind his boss and was thereby branded as a co-conspirator with Connolly, a title he can rid himself of only by doing a complete about-face.

The Chancellor may hope that if he stays quiet for long enough his role in this case will be forgotten and he can retire with a new building named after him. Unfortunately, this will not happen while he stays silent. We will all remember him as just another homophobe standing in the way of equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

Joshua Ferris is president of the Rainbow Alliance at Pitt, where he is a classroom assistant employed by the Computer Learning Center.