Some College Republicans executive board members said an event the group sponsored honoring traditional marriage should have never taken place.
Last week the organization announced an event in which wedding cake and palm cards would be handed out to promote the Republican position in favor of marriage between a man and a woman. The event took place in the lobby of Ivory Tower Wednesday.
According to minutes from the group’s Feb. 5 meeting, six of the 10 members of the College Republican’s executive board voted against organizing the event. Four members, including chairman Gary Livacari, a senior, voted in favor of the event.
A statement released by the six members of the “majority” of the executive board on Wednesday afternoon criticizes Livacari for holding the event.
The members who opposed the event said they are not against lobbying for traditional marriage, only the way that Livacari and other executive board members chose to promote their message.
“Although protecting traditional marriage is, and will continue to be, an inherent part of the values of our organization, this event conveyed a message of malice and spite that does not reflect the values of the overwhelming majority of our organization,” the letter stated.
The six members who voted against holding the event were freshman Conor Walsh, Will Luton, sophomores Ainsley Stromberg, Brand Kroeger, Chris Diaz and Brittany Segneri.
“Many of our members were turned off by this event and by our chairman’s complete disregard for a democratic executive board that was elected by the membership,” the letter states. “The actions taken by our chairman were undemocratic, flagrant and most of all, betrayed the spirit of an organization that seeks to be a positive, intellectual influence on our campus.”
Livacari defended his decision to have the event, saying that the organization’s constitution does not require the executive board to vote on each individual event.
“(Six) members of the executive board have decided to ignore precedent, and conveniently adopt a loose and creative view of the constitution,” Livacari wrote in an e-mail Wednesday afternoon. “I think it is wrong, but this is clearly an issue that needs to be specified in the constitution and resolved by the membership.”
The organization’s governing document states that “a simple majority is required for approval of business.”
The group’s constitution does not specify what “business” entails and whether political events must be approved by a majority.
“My actions were keeping with the precedent and the history of the College Republicans,” Livacari said in an interview. “The constitution is totally silent on the issue of who decides political events, therefore, in keeping with precedent and tradition, it is up to the chairman and the director of political affairs to guide and lead the political agenda of the organization.”
Dan Moss is a 2004 graduate of GW and a former chairman of the College Republicans and said he never made a decision against the will of the majority of the executive board.
“It’s not my organization any more but this particularly bothered me because I always ran (the organization) as a democracy, and one to promote and educate students about a conservative cause,” he said in a phone interview.
Moss learned of the series of events after an executive board member e-mailed him. He also wrote a letter to the Hatchet giving his opinion.
“This was the chairman doing something that the (executive) board was against doing, which is not appropriate for a leader to do,” he said. “If a majority of the (executive) board is against something there is no reason to go forward.”
In addition to the issue causing a rift between the organization’s leadership, other student organizations including Allied in Pride, the College Democrats and GW Democrats held a counter protest on Wednesday in favor of equal marriage rights.
“We feel is that Valentines Day is a day of love and celebrating each other, but instead of honoring these traditional values the CRs are trying to make it about hate,” said sophomore Michael Weil, the College Democrats Director of Communications. “We support equal rights.”
The CRs event was held in a subdued fashion in the lobby of Ivory Towers where Livacari said about 10 people attended. Originally the event was to take place in University Yard, but it was moved to the Mount Vernon campus after learning that the College Democrats and Allied in Pride planned counter protests.
The event was then cancelled by Mount Vernon operations officials due to inclement weather and moved into the Ivory Tower common room. Allied in Pride and College Democrat members still protested outside the Marvin Center Wednesday afternoon.
