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<\/a><\/p>\nDemonstrations at Sinclair went peacefully March 25\u2014despite ill-boding phone calls\u00a0threatening to ruin the Traditional Value Club\u2019s prayer rally for traditional marriage.<\/p>\n
The Traditional Values Club (TVC) held their rally outside building 4 on East Fourth Street,and just a few yards away, under the shadow of the Hamster Tube, the LGBT organizations Brite Signal Alliance, Have a Gay Day and Love Wins collaborated on a colorfulcounter-protest.<\/p>\n
Sinclair\u2019s public safety department was on hand, but both parties continued calmly and without incident.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The event began at 2:30 p.m., and the group displayed a banner that read: \u201cGod\u2019s Marriage= 1 Man + 1 Woman.\u201d The group of nearly 15 people then spent about 20 minutes in a quiet prayer vigil.<\/p>\n
Some Traditional Values Club demonstrators held signs, one of which read \u201cKids Thrive with\u00a0a Mom (Female) and a Dad (Male).\u201d Pamphlets were also available from TVC for future\u00a0church services.<\/p>\n
Nearby, members of Brite Signal Alliance and other marriage equality supporters held a large, rainbow-emblazoned banner which read: \u00a0\u201cHave A Gay Day.\u201d Members of Sinclair\u2019s\u00a0English department dropped off snacks to the group to show their support.<\/p>\n
The demonstrations went on for about two hours, but controversy stirred the night before.<\/p>\n
Vickie Lair, Traditional Values Club advisor and math professor at Sinclair, reported that she\u00a0received two harassing phone calls from individuals claiming to be affiliated with the LGBT\u00a0community. According to Lair, one of the individuals said they intended to ruin TVC\u2019s prayer\u00a0rally. Lair also said that one of the offensive voicemail messages contained many expletives.<\/p>\n
Kara Brown, faculty advisor for Brite Signal Alliance, responded to Lair\u2019s allegations:\u00a0\u201cOur members know that\u2019s not appropriate behavior. The Traditional Values Club does have\u00a0a right to be here on campus and we have a right to disagree with them and counter-\u00a0protest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jane Cammel, who is also an advisor for Brite Signal Alliance, commented on the harassing phone messages as well. During the rally, Cammel reached out to the TVC and apologized,\u00a0reaffirming her expectations of members of the BSA.\u00a0\u201cI am absolutely opposed to any threats. We believe in peaceful protests, and people are expected to be peaceful and respectful,\u201d Cammel said. \u201cIf [Lair] received a threat, that is\u00a0unfortunate, and I feel confident that it did not come from one of our members.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students and faculty from both sides of the issue of same-sex marriage were outspoken about their opinions during Wednesday\u2019s demonstrations. Chants could be heard from the\u00a0Traditional Values side, vocalizing the message: \u201cChildren have only one mother and one\u00a0father.\u201d Several drivers honked their vehicle\u2019s horns while passing by the rally on East\u00a0Fourth Street.<\/p>\n
The Clarion spoke with several active participants in Wednesday\u2019s rally and counter-protest.\u00a0Among them was Traditional Values Club supporter and Sinclair Professor Emeritus Al\u00a0Giambrone.<\/p>\n
Giambrone, who began teaching mathematics at Sinclair during the summer of 1972,\u00a0explained to the Clarion some of the values that TVC believes are important to maintain on\u00a0Sinclair\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve tried to help promote \u2026 those values that I think America was founded on: freedom of\u00a0speech, freedom of religion, sanctity of life, and sanctity of marriage,\u201d Giambrone said. \u201cI\u00a0think those are principles that helped our country to be probably the greatest country in all\u00a0of history, as far as freedom and opportunity and the chance for people to prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giambrone added: \u201cMarriage is an ancient institution; it\u2019s been around for as long as\u00a0mankind has been around. Up until recently it\u2019s always been clearly and universally\u00a0understood as an institution whereby a man and a woman \u2026 dedicate themselves together\u00a0for life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Lair believes it is important to speak out about this issue on campus.<\/p>\n
“Sinclair students need to listen to both sides of the story on the homosexual issue. I think they’re only fed one side here at school. And that is to practice homosexuality at your pleasure and do it as you want, and that’s not best for society.”<\/p>\n
Sinclair\u2019s campus is not the only place where groups and individuals find themselves at odds\u00a0with each other over the contentious issue of marriage equality.<\/p>\n
In Ohio, as well as many other states, there has been a strong push to legalize same-sex\u00a0marriage. Ohio\u2019s law may change depending on the Supreme Court\u2019s decision, which is\u00a0expected to be finalized in June of 2015.<\/p>\n
Students who would like to reach out to Traditional Values Club or Brite Signal Alliance can\u00a0contact Vickie Lair (TVC) or Jane Cammel (BSA). Information is also available on the Sinclair\u00a0website under Student Services\/Student Leadership Development\/Active Student Clubs.<\/p>\n
Barton Kleen <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Demonstrations at Sinclair went peacefully March 25\u2014despite ill-boding phone calls\u00a0threatening to ruin the Traditional Value Club\u2019s prayer rally for traditional marriage. The Traditional Values Club (TVC) held their rally outside building 4 on East Fourth Street,and just a few yards away, under the shadow of the Hamster Tube, the LGBT organizations Brite Signal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1999,2080],"class_list":["post-11878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-barton-kleen","tag-jason-sedy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s5s3vR-11878","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11878"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11884,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11878\/revisions\/11884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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