Rabble-Rousing and its Consequences - On the day when a Virginia Senate committee is considering legalizing DP benefits for private employers, the local paper in Charlottesville has come out with an excellent article on the fracas over benefits at Mr. Jefferson's university.

As you will recall, recent grads Andy Borchini and Andy Bond founded a website called DontGiveToUVa.com - proposing that until gay employees get health and other DP benefits, alumni should give to their group rather than the school. I had raised both general questions about the wisdom of impulsive donating and specific concerns about the punitive goal of the Andys' website - which begged the question of whether UVa even possessed legal authority to grant the privileges which they claimed it was denying.

The Daily Progress article relates how the official organization of gay employees at Virginia has "distanced itself" from the DontGive movement, taking exception to its "aggressive tone" and claiming that it may be "leaving the very people they aim to help vulnerable to criticism and possibly harassment." A leader among the gay employees says Borchini and Bond meant well but were "'naïve' about the complicated history of the issue at the university."

The report provides much needed background on the DP benefits question, including the prior attempts to raise the issue at the school and across the Commonwealth. Among the things we learn: While prior action never got past a faculty senate meeting, it looks like university President John Casteen is actually considering options as I write. Also, William & Mary got creamed in the General Assembly when they tried to force this issue in the 1990s, so one can understand the reluctance of Virginia to push their luck. Finally, we learn that the state attorney-general has "issued an opinion that agencies are under the control of the state legislature." Not a conclusive decision, but the university would surely be inviting a lawsuit it could easily lose by opposing the AG.

However ill-informed the DontGivers were - Borchini apparently didn't know the UVa Pride group existed before he started his protest site - it appears that the controversy has given new impetus for employees and the administration to work together on a solution. As with much activism, some good may well come through inadvertence. Stay tuned for the next update.