Henry walked through Harvard's hallways his mind more in the past than in the present. The two years he'd spent studying here taught him a lot about himself, and about the world. It had surprised him; he had thought he had nothing left to learn about it after spending years living on the street.
"Are you all right?" Thomas asked him.
Henry's eyes were still somewhere in the past as he answered, "I'm just remembering my time here."
"If this is too much for you we don't have to stay."
Henry focused on his boyfriend and smiled at him. "I didn't have only bad times here; there were plenty of good ones too. And what would Maurice think if I was to bail out on him, especially now that he can see us," he added pointing out the older man waving at them.
"Henry," Maurice said presenting his hand, "I'm glad you made it."
Henry grabbed the hand and pulled him in a hug, "it's good to see you in the flesh again after all these years."
"That was your own fault," the older man replied once Henry let go of him, "for taking so long to accept my offer."
"Thomas, this is Maurice Duprey, he was my advanced genetics teacher while I was here."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mister Black," Maurice said offering his hand before Henry could continue with the presentation.
Thomas shook it, "Like wise. I take it you've already heard of me."
The older man gave him a wide smile, "oh yes. It's very difficult for Henry not to talk about someone he loves. It's gotten him in trouble before."
Thomas raised an eyebrow and looked at his lover, "do tell."
"Maybe later," Henry interrupted Maurice as he was about to elaborate, "I believe your class will be starting soon."
Maurice checked his watch, "You're correct. Why don't you follow me, we can continue talking there while we wait for the students to arrive?"
When they entered the amphitheater there were already a few students seated in the front row. Henry, Thomas and Maurice stood behind the podium talking while the other students arrived.
"Professor, what's the meaning of this?" a young woman in the second row asked once everyone was there and the doors were closed.
The three of them looked at her. The first three rows were now almost full. "Excuse me?" Maurice asked.
"What are these fags doing here?" Her question was accompanied by many nodding head and a few surprised exclamations.
Henry felt Thomas' hand leave his. He hadn't even realized their fingers had intertwined while they talked until now.
"How dare you speak this way about," Maurice exclaimed, but he stopped talking when Henry placed a hand on his shoulder
"Why don't you let me handle this?" Henry asked him. Maurice was surprised at how calm he was, but moved away from the podium. Henry looked at the indignant woman standing in front of her seat. "Miss Alicia Montrose, correct?"
"How'd you know that?" She asked, shocked.
"The first thing I did when I got here was hack the mainframe and familiarize myself with all the students in this class."
"That's impossible," she said.
"Hardly," he said casually, "it wasn't even difficult."
"Bullshit," someone else said, "you'd have to be some sort of genius to get through the security."
Henry smiled at the middle aged man in a business suit, "Once the class is done look for my files, it's going to be under Henry McCoy. You'll find out that my IQ is probably higher than all of yours combine."
A man in his early twenties stood up, "if you're so smart how come I've never seen your picture in the graduation books?"
"Because when the school found out I was gay they decided I wasn't the kind of person they wanted studying here." He stated in an even tone. "It didn't matter that I had the highest marks they'd ever seen, in all of my classes; I simply wasn't suitable for this kind of establishment. So they kicked me out." He paused for a moment and looked at Alicia, "which brings me back to Miss Montrose. Would you be willing to explore a theorical situation with me?"
She hesitated a moment and then crossed her arms over her chest, "Sure," she said with confidence.
Henry nodded and looked over the class, searching for someone. "Mister Carpenter, could you stand please?" he asked the man in the back row. He stood nervously, his hair and jacket were disheveled, like he had had to run here and hadn't had the time to straighten himself out yet. "I believe the two of you know each other, you share many of the same classes."
Sebastian blushed and nodded. Alicia looked at Sebastian Carpenter dismissively. "Yeah, I do, so what?"
"Let's say that this is a few years from now. You've graduated and you run into each other when you both go to apply for the position of head researcher for a large pharmacical company, Let's say it Pfizer. Your interview goes very well Miss Montrose, you manage to impress them with your knowledge as well as you ability to manage people. You leave the interview confident that you've got the position." Alicia nodded in agreement. "A week later you get a call informing you that as impressed with you as they were, they didn't feel you were the right person for the job."
"What? How the fuck did that happen? Who did they chose?"
"Now, Miss Montrose, they don't have to tell that."
"Come on," she exclaimed, "who the hell could they have chosen over me?" She paused and slowly turned toward Sebastian. "You're joking, right? They chose *him* over me? No offence Carpenter, but your marks are nowhere near mine." Sebastian just blushed and tried to shrink inside himself.
"None the less, they did," Henry stated.
"Why?"
"Now Miss Montrose, I've already said they don't have...."
"Don't give me that crap," she interrupted him, "if they're going to take *him* over me they'd better tell me why if they don't want to have to deal with a lawsuit."
Henry sighed dramatically, "Very well. They picked him over you because he's a man."
She stared at him in disbelief for a moment, "What kind of bullshit is that? They can't do that"
"Of course they can, Miss Montrose, they are the one making the decision."
"Yeah? Well it's against he law to choose someone simply based on if there a man or not."
Henry smiled at her, "is it now? I happen to have a passing knowledge of the law; maybe you can tell me in which article that is mentioned?" He looked at her while she looked back at him, at a loss to say something. "I didn't think so, in fact there is no such article. Women have always been equal to men in our society so there never was a need to enter into law how one should be treated in relation to the other."
"Well, they still can't do that." Alicia insisted.
"I do believe I've explained why they can." Henry replied.
"Damn it, they can't do that." she said through gritted teeth, "it isn't right."
"No it isn't," Henry said calmly, looking at her. "Mister Carpenter, could you remind everyone here what the name of this class is?"
It took Sebastian a few moments to find his voice, "Ethics, sir."
"Yes, Ethics," Henry restated. "I believe that with Miss Montrose's help I have establish that Ethics and the Law are not the same thing. You can sit down now." Henry leaned against the podium and was silent for some time. "When you graduate at the end of the year you will all be powerful people. You will be scientist, bankers, reporters and some of you may even end up being head of states. You will all be placed in positions where you will have to make a choice between what is legal and what is ethical; what is right.
"The school, like Miss Montrose, didn't have any problem questioning my right to be here because they had the power of the law behind them. As a gay man I have no protection. Should you decide to do so, you could gang up on me and beat me to a pulp without having to fear repercussions." Thomas cleared his throat and Henry smiled, "well, legal repercussions. My boyfriend is rather protective. What they did wasn't right. Discrimination of any kind never is. That didn't make them bad people, but ethics is what makes people better. I have my own code of ethics; because of it I didn't take advantage of the fact that I was the one who build the security programs protecting the mainframe to enact some form of revenge on them. I decided to be a better person, and the purpose of this course is to give you the tools you'll need so you can decide if you want to be a better person too."
Henry then launched in a history of discrimination; showing that because of their part in the events of the first world war the Jewish people were discriminated upon, and then because of what was done to them in the second world war people's attitude toward them changed, but then it was the Japanese that fell under the sway of discrimination. He explained how after a century of being second class citizens Blacks were able to lift the veil of discrimination through their participation in the Vietnam war, but the same war brought mutants into view and made them the new targets. He showed them that now that mutants had been able to claim legitimacy a new group was needed as the focus of people's fears. And that Gays had become that focus because of the Greenwich Village riot.
"Discrimination will always exist," he said once he was done, "because humans aren't perfect. Even without meaning to, we find reasons to fear others. We need ethics because it is one of the few things we have that keeps us from giving in blindly into that fear." The class was completely silent for a moment, and then the bell rang.
Thomas moved next to him and placed a hand over his, "Are you ok?" Henry nodded, but took the hand in his and squeezed it.
"I've got to say it wasn't what I was expecting you to talk about," Maurice said, "but it was very well done."
"It wasn't what I was planning on either," Henry replied, "but it seemed appropriate to the situation." They watched as the students left, until only Alicia was left in her seat. She slowly gathered her things and walked to the front.
"Can I help you with something Miss Montrose?" Maurice asked her coldly.
She shook her head and looked at Henry. "I wanted to apologize for what I said, what I implied, earlier. I don't know that I agree with everything you said, but you've given me a lot of things to think about."
"That you think is all I can ask of you; where those thought take you will be up to you." He offered her his hand, "I hope you make the most of that journey."
She hesitated a moment before shaking it, "I hope so too."