A Thayer first-year may face disciplinary charges for removing a poster put up in the Harvard Union by the Association Against Learning in the Absence of Religion and Morality (AALARM).

Last Tuesday, Joshua L. Oppenheimer '96, tore down the poster in front of Robert K. Wasinger '94, a member of the presidential council of AALARM.

Oppenheimer said he arrived at the Union to attend a Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Awareness Days (BGLAD) dinner when he saw Wasinger putting up the poster.

According to Oppenheimer, he went up to Wasinger and asked him what the poster campaign was about. He said Wasinger told him that AALARM was a group that believed homosexuality was a crime.

"I didn't know how to respond in a spoken way," said Oppenheimer, who is gay. "In order to be at all consistent with everything I had been taught of dignity, I felt I needed to respond."

In response, Oppenheimer tore down the AALARM poster.

Oppenheimer said he did not tear down the poster to prevent Wasinger from expressing his views. He said he saw that there were several other AALARM posters on the same bulletin board and he knew Wasinger, who carried a stack of posters, would put up a new poster in its place.

"Rather than a gesture to silence him it was the only action I could take that was at all consistent with being dignified," he said. "I felt that I had participated in a debate in the most non-violent, non-affrontive way I could."

Wasinger said that at the time, he criticized Oppenheimer's action, but was ignored. Oppenheimer attended the dinner and, upon leaving, saw Wasinger with Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III.

According to Epps, it was chance that he entered the Union at that time.

"I just happened to be going in the front door," Epps said.

Wasinger said he informed Epps about the incident. When questioned by Epps, Oppenheimer confessed to removing the poster, and Epps asked him to apologize.

"It was very humiliating. It was difficult to apologize to someone who would persecute me," Oppenheimer said.

The charges are part of a larger conflict between AALARM and gay rights groups that has been played out on the College poster boards.

Earlier this week, in response to posters advertising BGLAD events, AALARM posted several posters criticizing homosexual lifestyles.

On Tuesday evening, according to Oppenheimer, he and several other students interested in gay rights, countered with posters likening AALARM's condemnation of homosexuality of Nazi anti-Semitism.