FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: MELINDA SHELTON, 76; SUSANNAH SCHWARTZ, 775
"We are here today to protest the 157-year history of gender discrimination by the state- supported institution known as Virginia Military Institute. We are here in support of the notion that citizen-soldiers come with and without penises. We are here to ask the Supreme Court to do the right thing and end the phallocracy, the rule by the phallus, that is practiced at VMI.
"VMI's purported mission is to create so-called citizen-soldiers. I stand before you as one citizen-soldier who dedicated 20 years of my life to serve my country in the United States Air Force. I stand before you as one of the over 1.2 million veterans who are women. I was on active duty during the Persian Gulf War when 33,000 sister soldiers put their lives on the line in the desert. Those women were U.S. soldiers experiencing the same hardships as their male counterparts and they performed their jobs admirably.
"Five sister soldiers were killed in combat in Saudi Arabia. Two were taken as prisoners of war. One of those women taken as prisoner of war was a then Major Rhonda Cornum, a flight surgeon. Major Cornum's helicopter was shot down during a search and rescue mission in Iraq. She suffered two broken arms, a gunshot wound and a serious knee injury. Major Cornum has signed on as a friend of the court in this litigation, supporting opening the VMI cadet corps to women.
"She stated,
Everyone should be allowed to compete for available jobs, regardless of race or gender. There is no question that the average woman is not as tall, heavy or strong as the average man ... But what does that mean? I'd say that it means if the job requires someone to be tall, heavy and strong, then fewer women will be competitive than men. But at least let them compete. Who cares what percentage qualifies? Just pick the best ... The qualities that are most important in all military jobs -- things like integrity, moral courage, and determination -- have nothing to do with gender.
"When I joined the Air Force in 1972, only 1.6 percent of the active duty military were women. I joined wanting to go to Vietnam and wound up in Northern Thailand as one of 14 female soldiers on a base of over 3,000 male soldiers. Our military culture and esprit de corps and unit cohesiveness was not damaged on that base by the presence of 14 women.
"Presently, we have about 200,000 women serving on active duty in the U.S. military. Thus, about 12 percent of our military members are women. In 1996, two decades after our military academies at West Point, Annapolis and Colorado Springs opened their doors to women, VMI still shuts their doors to women. What's wrong with this picture?
"Women have participated in every armed conflict engaged in by the United States. Women proved that they can withstand the real-life stress of combat situations. Women are active participants in military leadership. Military women have died in combat and been taken as prisoners of war.
"In World War II there were 88 women prisoners of war taken by the Japanese yet none of the women who valiantly served their country would have qualified to attend VMI. The VMI litigation is about equal opportunity for qualified individuals.
"VMI is supported by the tax dollars of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Over half the citizens of Virginia are women, yet these women are not eligible to attend this state school because they lack the essential credential of a penis. VMI fears that persons without penises would destroy unit cohesion and esprit de corps, lower the prestige, change the methods educating the citizen soldier and, of course, break with tradition.
"Some of the same concerns raised by VMI about admitting female cadets were raised in the 1950s and 1960s about admitting Black cadets. Finally, in 1968 Black cadets were admitted to VMI. In 1968 the VMI tradition was to have all cadets sing 'Dixie' and salute the confederate flag at the annual Battle of New Market commemoration ceremony. In 1971 Black cadets refused to sing 'Dixie' and salute the confederate flag. In 1972 Black cadets boycotted the New Market event. Finally, in 1974 VMI -- in recognition of its diversified student body -- abandoned the practice of singing 'Dixie' and saluting the confederate flag.
"It took 129 years to change the tradition of racial discrimination and now VMI encourages racial integration. VMI has enrolled students from other countries into their cadet corps since 1905. In the academic year 1993-94, 36 students from 12 countries were enrolled at VMI, yet daughters of Virginia residents are denied admission.
"Virginia residents who meet requirements for admission to VMI but who are without a penis may now attend the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership at Mary Baldwin College. However, even judges on the Fourth Circuit Court note that the student will not receive a comparable and equal education to that of VMI. The education at Mary Baldwin College is described as a pale shadow of the VMI program. It does not afford the engineering or science curriculum of VMI nor does it provide the immersion in military culture that VMI provides.
"The VMI and Citadel cases have very little to do with education and have everything to do with the fervent desire to exclude women. In the words of Judge Hall in the Faulkner v. Jones case:
They instead have very much to do with wealth, power, and the ability of those who have it to determine who will have it later. The daughters of Virginia and South Carolina have every right to insist that their tax dollars no longer be spent to support what amount to fraternal organizations whose initiates emerge as full-fledged members of an all-male aristocracy. Though our nation has, throughout its history, discounted the contributions and wasted the abilities of the female half of its population, it cannot continue to do so. As we prepare, together, to face the 21st century, we simply cannot afford to preserve a relic of the 19th.
"The National Organization for Women will continue to work toward gender integration for VMI and the Citadel, for it is the right and just thing to do."