It's good to see that tolerance is still alive and well in the Republican party! That Big Tent thing is really working.
DemfromColo

I'm happy that the Republicans are pushing everyone away from their base - blacks, hispanics, gays, pro-choicers, and people who simply want health care and the right not to get shot by mistake on the streets. The more people that leave the big tent, the less people who will vote for them

And this is a surprise to anybody?

Ahmen, It is the party of conservative white men, and their shills, like the loathsome Condy Rice...

Failing to show respect for members, appropriation of organization funds for personal use, and not attending group events are all valid reasons for being removed from a leadership post. The question seems to be whether these became issues (the "reason") AFTER his status as gay become public or before. If they weren't big enough issues before, they can't become the "reason" after members of the group find out that my Robinette is gay. That's discrimination and intolerance, period.

If the list of specific actions in the articles of impeachment are true, then any student club would have justification to impeach its president. If the charges are false, then removing Mr. Robinette would, of course, be wrong. However, If the charges are true, then Mr. Robinette's sexual orientation should not play a factor either way, as it would be just as wrong to keep him just because he is gay as it would be to oust him because he is gay. It does make a nice headline, though.

Duh! Now let's see, Neo Nazis oust Jewish leader...

I have no problem with the removal. I guess that is because I am an old, white male who was raised during a time period that believed being "gay" was deviant behavior and the passage of time has not changed my mind. Many people may accept it an as alternate lifestyle but I am not one of them.

Was that "outed" or "ousted." I kinda got confused. I thought the Republicans were the "party of inclusion," but apparently they are the party of "occusion."

hmlowry...you are a scream. Thanks for the laugh.

eacclibrary2 - You're entitled to your views, of course, as well as to antiquated, close-minded thinking. Taking pride in such, however, seems tacky to me. I sincerely hope you don't miss the good ol' days of segregated buses and drinking fountains, too.

The question raised by these events is not, "Is being gay acceptable?" but, "Is it acceptable to discriminate on the basis of particularly narrow social mores?" That's a question that transcends your personal opinion. Any intellectual should be able to see that.

Ah, yes, eacclibrary2, I'm also an older white male, and I well remember those halcyon days. Back then, being Black at Duke was also deviant behavior, and no Black could have been president of the Republican Club or any other club. Is that still no problem for you, either? Proudly maintaining certain traditions is not a sign of character, eacclibrary2.

Neo-Nazis? The party of "tolerance" shows its stripes once again. Think like us or be denounced.

I can't wait for the purges to begin, to ensure ideological purity. Sorry, fellas, but it's your Lefty comrades throughout history that specialized in destroying, imprisoning, torturing and killing people.

The Nazis were the National SOCIALIST party.

Now, let's have some perspective. This is not the Republican Party, this is a college club whose president apparently violated the terms of his elected office. Equating the homosexual experience with that of African Americans is a common ploy these days, but is thoroughly insulting and insensitive. Gays have an education level and income level higher than the national average (African Americans do not). Gays have never been slaves in this country. eacclibrary2's post was one of the most blatant "plant" posts that I have seen in the Chronicle (though it apparently acheived the desired effect). The bottom line is that, according to some of our colleagues here, Mr. Robinette has a "free pass" and has no responsibility to execute his club leadership position in a responsbible manner because he is gay and can now play the "sexual orientation card," no manner how many rules he may violate or how unqualified he might be for any future position. If the articles of impeachment are wrong, and nothing except Mr. Robinette's sexual orientation was in play here, then the students responsible must be held accountable for their discrimination. If, however, they are true, then this idea that homosexuality constitutes a "free pass" for Mr. Robinette (or anyone else) is not progress at all, even for the enlightened souls here in academia.

I have to question the use of the term "lifestyle" by eacclibrary2. My "gay lifestyle" is likely very similar to yours: I own a house and have a mortgage, my basement floods during heavy rain, I have a master's degree in education from a reputable university, I enjoy crossword puzzles, movies, scrapbooking and walking the dog, I visit my parents regularly, and my trash goes out on the same day as my (heterosexual) neighbor's trash goes out. Other than the fact that my partner and I are the same gender, is my "lifestyle" really that different from yours? What I see as the most major difference between our lifestyles is that you have full legal protection in your relationships for things like hospital visits whereas I do not.**

On the subject of the student, shouldn't the issues of misconduct have been brought up before he was re-elected to his position? If these are issues that have existed for a while (which is very likely), he should have not be re-elected or allowed to run for his position. I agree with haohtt, being gay should not give this student a free pass but it also does mean that he should be impeached unfairly.

** I am not an "angry" gay person, I merely believe that in order to stop people's misconceptions about "alternate" lifestyles, one needs to educate them. And yes, that is me being a gay person who is highly educated and comes from a very academic family.

I need a favor, please don't compare gay White people's experiences to the African American experience. White gays were the slave-masters, the klansmen and white citizen council members that elected the democrats and republicans that voted against the Civil Rights laws that are now used to advance their cause.

Is heterosexuality also a "lifestyle"? I don't remember choosing to be a heterosexual or making it a "lifestyle" choice. I doubt that gays do either; the mere use of the word "lifestyle" in reference to a gay person's orientation is an insulting slur. How would heterosexuals feel if they were to be referred to as a group who made a choice of an alternative "lifestyle"?
Impeach this guy on his merits, or lack of them. Leave his sexual orientation out of it... unless sexual orientation is the only reason for impeachment. If that's the case, then impeach the membership for the deviant behavior of discrimination.

-- Patefermente

It would be interesting to see the financial numbers and whether there was inappropriate spending - usually the follow-up is lost though because it is not as sensational as the original story.

If it has nothing to do with the financials, then the story is why would the Duke Republican Club decided that they needed to create this issue? Unless Dick Cheney is your dad, homosexuality doesn't rate well with "family-value" republicans, then man-up and accept your bigotry, if that's the case.

I thought that a minimum level of education would be a prerequisite for reading the CHE, but it seems that I was wrong. Only people ignorant of the history buy in to the notion that supertatie sems to have picked up from right wing propagandists that the Nazis were a SOCIALIST party. In fact they were a far right party that used the word socialist in their name because they favored social policies, but not socialist ones, for members of their "national" community or Volk. They sat on the right in the Reichstag and murdered leftists whenever they got the chance, but they are so discredited that right wingers today try to label them leftists to shift the burden away from the right. That i need to explain this to CHE readers (or at least some of them) is a sad commentary on the state of historical and political knowlege among some of them.

Disrerspect, failure to attend meetings, misappropriation of funds: If the charges are true, then he should be booted from the College Republicans, the Untimate Frisbee Team, or the scrapbooking club.

Nothing says, "Duke Republican" like the name Carter Boyle.