ORANGE : New Chapman Gay Group Plans Debate

There is a new student group at Chapman University this year. And even though it has only 35 members on a campus of 2,500 students, it plans to make its presence known.

“It’s vital to organize and inform the campus,” said Mark Howorth, president of the Chapman University Alliance, which represents the school’s gay and lesbian students.

The past three months have been spent organizing the group and holding poetry readings and support sessions for its members.

“It’s vitally important to have a group to which gays and lesbians can belong,” Howorth said.

Today, the group plays host to a discussion on homosexuality featuring the Rev. Dusty Pruitt of the Metropolitan Community Church in Long Beach.

Pruitt was discharged from the Army Reserve after acknowledging her sexual orientation in a newspaper article.

Audience members will have an opportunity to pose questions.

The two-hour event begins at 11 a.m. in Hashinger Lecture Hall on the Chapman campus, 333 N. Glassell St. It is free to the public.

For more information, call (714) 547-6735.