Gays Protest MIT Fraternity Prank

MIT administrators are considering disciplinary action against a fraternity that staged a mock rally in Harvard Square Saturday demanding capital punishment for homosexuals, the MIT News Office reported yesterday.

Members of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity delivered a letter to Gays At MIT (GAMIT) yesterday apologizing for the incident, in which they handed out anti-gay leaflets, and saying it was only a prank.

Gay students at Harvard and MIT said yesterday they may demand a public apology from the fraternity. The students have charged that fraternity members attached copies of the leaflets to severed lambs' heads which were left in public places around the MIT campus Saturday.

Sarah E. Yedinsky '83, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Gay Students Association (HRGSA), said yesterday the association will send a letter to Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, protesting the incident.

"This has all the effect of an assault and just can't be treated as a joke," J. French Wall '83, vice-president of HRGSA, said yesterday, adding that he hoped MIT officials would take severe disciplinary action against the fraternity.

Little Corporal

Saying his group is not anti-homosexual, fraternity president Jay L. Napoleon, an MIT senior, explained yesterday that the group stages a fake rally every year, "taking a popular cause to a ridiculous extent so it's obviously a farce."

The fraternity also sent letters of apology to students who discovered lambs' heads, Napoleon added, denying that leaflets were attached to the heads and calling the incident separate from the anti-gay rally.

Leaflet

Napoleon said the leaflets contained quotes fraternity members made up, including one attributed to President Bok saying, "Homosexuals at Harvard? No way, it's just not preppy."

Another spurious quote--"They are all foreign agents spying on us"--was signed George Bush.

Gaye Williams '83, president of the Radcliffe Lesbians' Association, said yesterday she and other gay students thought the rally was part of a San Francisco-based campaign demanding capital punishment for gays.

"We certainly didn't know it was a prank and I feared for my safety," she added.