Christopher Walker explains the history of "Homecoming Royalty&#34

[Christopher Walker]

She really is a cool person and has done a lot for the school. I'm glad to see Talons have a Homecoming king or queen for a change. I don't care about her sexual orientation. But the changing of terms to "royalty", which as I understand was not done for her, was what bugged me.

This x10. It's a popularity contest, but changing the terms falls on the university and is a slap in the face of tradition. Also, I wouldn't mind a dress code for the court either. It used to be understood that men wore suits and women wore dresses. Last year I remember a guy or two wearing jeans. Seems disrespectful to the homecoming tradition to me.

Alright, so I got to pony up to this as I am to blame for the quasi-"royalty"-debacle.

In the Fall of 2010, some folks representing GLAD and Queer Liberaction wanted to run as a couple in the Homecoming Court but before they applied, they were told through various SGA and SAC channels that they wouldn't qualify to do so since there needed to be a clear Male and Female winner. There had been some moves made by these organizations in the past to rally or protest SGA into changing things, to much publicity but little efficacy. A Google or YouTube search of "GLAD, UNT, SGA" can find you a readily-viewed video of one of those protests.

SGA was still running and regulating Homecoming festivities, and now these groups wanted to get change made in our normal mode and protocol. I and a few other Senators and a current Speaker agreed to help go about fixing the issue. We had meetings with each group, but more so with QL in the back room of Big Mike's; I learned more about the LGBTQ community than I ever could I think in any other circumstance and was often schooled on how my own thinking and words on the subject(s) weren't accurately reflected in the reality of these folks' lives.

Our first attempt was to modify the SGA By-Laws that concerned Homecoming initiatives, art. V, § 4 and art. VI, to reflect that it was permissible to have a couple of the same gender or any couple of various gender-identity be able to represent as the HC King and Queen. Out of the Internal Affairs Committee however, it was readily looking like the notion of that being a simple vote within the Senate would fail with contention as many Senators held onto moral beliefs or notions of tradition that wouldn't allow for the change. GLAAD and QL decided then was the time to play hardball and threatened legal action both within our framework and against the University as a whole, a tactic I never quite thought was necessary or worthwhile and in hindsight probably hurt the proceedings going forward.

I was the author of the legislation that became the primary focal point of contention for that academic year. Because we couldn't come to terms as the 45 Senators to hash it out, we instead moved towards going for a ballot referendum item that would be voted upon by the whole student body in the Spring General Election. For months we argued, refined, compromised, and many Wednesday evenings in various classrooms and lecture halls became five-eight hour affairs of back-and-forth. The final referendum item that was fleshed out included three various options of reclassifying and restructuring the Homecoming Court, under various "royal" titles that allowed for gender neutrality, with a few options calling for the winner(s) of the contest to represent the year-round "Miss America" style and lead charity efforts within SGA. In the 11th hour, a fourth option was added to keep the status quo and not change anything, a notion that GLAD and QL vehemently disagreed with and again threatened to call off their cooperation if such a measure was kept in. Finally by the slimmest of margins, the item passed the Senate and was ready to be installed into the election ballot.

And then, things came to a head. At that point in the Spring, I had been elected within the Senate to be Speaker Pro Tempore and as such held a more neutral "front of house" position. Due to an absence, I was handling the computer used for modifying bills and other items as well. At some point, either the evening the bill passed our body or when that copy was sent back to the SGA offices, the final voted upon document was "lost". All hell broke loose. Fingers were pointed everywhere, including by and at myself. A comment I made online of an NTDaily article on the affair led to a shouting match and tears between me and the Speaker in the Vice-President's office - this is one of the primary reasons why I explicitly do not use an anonymous handle on GMG.com because I never want to face that sort of scenario again, essentially, I (hopefully) say less stupid things when it's "really me" saying them.

The referendum never saw itself on a ballot, I don't recall if GLAD or QL went through on their threat of legal action, but the only recompense at the time was the then President setting up an informal poll in the Library Mall during University Day to gauge the available public on what the outcome of the referendum could've been. In the next election, certain Presidential candidates ran with an added tenant of explicitly blocking any sort of semblance of this episode happening again, in vocal favor of denying any change.

In the end this whole debacle left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. I left SGA after the Fall of 2011, and SGA itself quietly voted to get out of the homecoming business altogether and handed it off to Student Activities who formed the more replete "Homecoming Crew". This body then decided on their own to use the Homecoming Court structure option that was the most watered down: organizations would sponsor single individuals, and not couples, to go after two winning places of "Homecoming Royalty"; an imperfect solution, but one that I'm ultimately okay with.

--

So here's the thing: after this toil and hardship and reflecting back upon it all, I am super proud of our university, it's student body, and the leaders it elects. This campus seriously serves as a great example of democracy at both its most efficient and inefficient, with plenty of liberal, conservative, radical and calm representatives on all sides getting their voices heard. It's a slice of the actual America that's out there breathing and evolving. I have friends to this day, some of whom are on this board or are at least lurkers (Hey, Jason.), that as Senators were my primary opposition in this whole fight. Friends who I fundamentally disagree with on a variety of issues but of whom I know have a strong bond with because we each deeply, deeply love the University of North Texas, our vision of it, and our hopes for what it could and should be.

So there's your background.

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And hey, Tasty, I know my little above novella kind of contradicts the edict you laid out previously concerning borderline or outright-politically related material, but this is a part of recent UNT history and I sincerely felt it needed to be shared.

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TL;DR : I authored the contentious legislation in SGA that eventually led to the makeup of Homecoming Court that we witnessed Saturday evening. It's certainly imperfect and had a stupid, tedious route getting there, but ultimately, I know at least my UNT experience was enhanced and I grew as person from it all.

[TheTastyGreek]

If we're going to discuss this, let's keep it here, and let's keep it civil. We fought the British to abolish royalty, homecoming and otherwise.

Let's remember that we're all Americans, probably. Gay or straight, there's nothing sexier than a bald eagle wearing stars and stripes lingerie.

[northtexassigep]

just glad we weren't on fox sports 1 this week

[UNTFan23]

just glad we weren't on fox sports 1 this week

Most people don't really care. TV tends to not show very much that takes place during a school's homecoming anyway. I go to the concession stands when the homecoming court is announced as I don't care about that part anyway anymore.

[UNT 90 Grad]

Thanks for the insight and explanation. What a mess. Sorry you had to go through all that. I never realized running as couples was ever part of the process. It's a shame the decision to not run as couples wasn't made prior to the decision to get rid of the court titles. That might have made things a little less hairy. Who knows.

[aztecskin]

We ruined USM's homecoming by destroying them. At halftime the Fox College Sports announcers mentioned that they had homecoming 'Royalty' as well.

Don't recall an uproar.

If we lose 'tradition' and gain respect and tolerance, I'm perfectly okay with this.

[oldguystudent]

Man and woman, man and man, woman and treefrogs. It's a strange concept to me in general to even having homecoming royalty/queens/pairs/trios/N students of consenting age at the university level. The entire concept of a homecoming court is very high school to me, and therefore of complete and utter no consequence to me. Still, though, I wish I could've taken someone other than my little cousin to the university level prom.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Man and woman, man and man, woman and treefrogs. It's a strange concept to me in general to even having homecoming royalty/queens/pairs/trios/N students of consenting age at the university level. The entire concept of a homecoming court is very high school to me, and therefore of complete and utter no consequence to me. Still, though, I wish I could've taken someone other than my little cousin to the university level prom.

Bingo. Couldn't agree more.

You know, I think I'm going to pitch a Homecoming court to my Fortune 500 company. Why stop at the University?!?! Let's just keep it rolling for the rest of our lives. If I retire before I win at work, I'll pitch it to my old-folks home that my kids are most certainly going to put me in.

Eventually, I'll win Homecoming King sometime. And my life will be validated.

[DeepGreen]

Homecoming court is very high-schoolish and has turned into a popularity contest and the stage for someone's political agenda. It should be eliminated from UNT's homecoming festivities.

Edited November 11, 2013 by DeepGreen

[SSP]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrRmTTb8cbI‎

Sorry.. I agree that Homecoming court is pretty high school, but that was nothing more than a political statement by a sect of students. Those poor girls who actually thought they had a shot were discriminated against. If they were gay, they may have had a chance. What a joke. And that poor dude that won King looked SO uncomfortable.

The pendulum swings both ways, friends.

[oldguystudent]

The pendulum swings both ways, friends.

I thought swinging both ways is what got us into this debate.

[Green P1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrRmTTb8cbI‎

Sorry.. I agree that Homecoming court is pretty high school, but that was nothing more than a political statement by a sect of students. Those poor girls who actually thought they had a shot were discriminated against. If they were gay, they may have had a chance. What a joke. And that poor dude that won King looked SO uncomfortable.

The pendulum swings both ways, friends.

Lolz.

You think if they were gay they could have beaten an Asian?

[greenminer]

Lolz.

You think if they were gay they could have beaten an Asian?

You have a knack for timing.

[SSP]

I thought swinging both ways is what got us into this debate.

Truth.

Lolz.

You think if they were gay they could have beaten an Asian?

Foot guy just went up 2 points in my book.

[JesseMartin]

It's funny how much more involved people are lately. The same issue came up in 1997, because GLAAD (then Courage) had a bone to pick with the fact that the Election Code said gender and not sex. They wanted the freedom to run any couple of any gender identification they wanted, and were told they couldn't...but because the Code referred to gender and not sex, they were talking about the possibility of lawsuits. So I said to them, "Hey, why don't I play Devil's Advocate here and request that it be changed to sex if they aren't going to let you run?"

My thinking was that if the issue was brought up, people would agree to change it to "sex", i.e. the legal sex of the person running, in order to avoid having to deal with it. But only two or three others thought it was even a valid issue, so it didn't pass.

The reason it wasn't a big deal is that the candidates from Courage decided not to run anyway. They weren't very well organized back then...which is funny, because a few of them are now working in Austin and D.C. It's funny how much changes in just over a decade...the fact that it was so heavily debated, protested, etc. this time around shows that there are a lot more people paying attention and doing a little bit more than just showing up and staring ahead blankly.

Regardless of which side of the debate you agree with, that's definitely a change we can all get behind.

[oldguystudent]

The same issue came up in 1997

I read these stories from 1997, and think, "Man, that guy went to college a LONG time ago!"

Then I come to the realization that I graduated college in 1994. Somehow, though, and it makes perfectly logical sense in my mind, I was in college just last week, while you, having gone to college in 1997, are a very old man.

Edited November 15, 2013 by oldguystudent

[JesseMartin]

I read these stories from 1997, and think, "Man, that guy went to college a LONG time ago!"

Then I come to the realization that I graduated college in 1994. Somehow, though, and it makes perfectly logical sense in my mind, I was in college just last week, while you, having gone to college in 1997, are a very old man.

It's even funnier how confused people are when I talk about stuff like that in person, or they see that I have 3 kids, because I look probably about 23.

[Mean Green Matt]

The referendum never saw itself on a ballot, I don't recall if GLAD or QL went through on their threat of legal action, but the only recompense at the time was the then President setting up an informal poll in the Library Mall during University Day to gauge the available public on what the outcome of the referendum could've been. In the next election, certain Presidential candidates ran with an added tenant of explicitly blocking any sort of semblance of this episode happening again, in vocal favor of denying any change.

This part of your post is a little misleading...the issue did, in fact, go to a campus wide vote and the "same-sex homecoming" concept as it became known failed by a 58% to 42% margin. The voting took place in November 2009 after much hullabaloo. I still really do not see what was inherently discriminatory about the old way, though I will say I was an advocate of a system in which the king and queen were elected separately rather than as a pair representing an organization.

http://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2009/11/23/no-gay-couples-unt-homecoming-court

Edited November 16, 2013 by Mean Green Matt

[Christopher Walker]

This part of your post is a little misleading...the issue did, in fact, go to a campus wide vote and the "same-sex homecoming" concept as it became known failed by a 58% to 42% margin. The voting took place in November 2009 after much hullabaloo. I still really do not see what was inherently discriminatory about the old way, though I will say I was an advocate of a system in which the king and queen were elected separately rather than as a pair representing an organization.

http://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2009/11/23/no-gay-couples-unt-homecoming-court

Yes and no. The 2009 vote was in the form of a non-binding survey, like the ones UPC/Fine Arts Series uses at the end of ballots to get input on guest artists and stuff. What we were angling for at the time was an actual referendum.

[Coffee and TV]

It's even funnier how confused people are when I talk about stuff like that in person, or they see that I have 3 kids, because I look probably about 23.

[Mean Green Matt]

Yes and no. The 2009 vote was in the form of a non-binding survey, like the ones UPC/Fine Arts Series uses at the end of ballots to get input on guest artists and stuff. What we were angling for at the time was an actual referendum.

My recollection is that the result was binding if the students voted in favor of the measure and non-binding if the students voted no. I cannot find the actual language of what was voted on online. It doesn't really matter at this point.

[JesseMartin]

I didn't know that people were making comics based on "Enemy Mine". Very creepy.