Monday, August 01, 2005

Read this article with a grain of salt:

This piece was written by a Christian conservative who was the former student of an openly gay professor. It obviously tells one side of the story only; but if what's written in it is true, the gay professor acted entirely inappropriate in regard to discussing his personal life and sexual issues in general.

If we simply switched things around so the professor said and did the exact same things, but was a heterosexual talking about heterosexual sex, he would be fired for sexual harassment. This professor did in fact allegedly speak of graphic heterosexual sex as well; so he could be in trouble on those grounds even without the switcheroo.

There are plenty of bigoted, anti-gay responses in the comments section at FPM (what do you expect?). The overwhelming majority of gay professors, I guarantee, do not act like this in class. This story better illustrates the fact that colleges more likely tolerate discriminatory treatment against folks with un-PC views and that students in college are more likely to have PC views shoved down their throats than un-PC views. Also that you can get away with "offending" certain less preferred groups like conservative Christians or white males...but say even seemingly minor things against the "sacred" groups and official or unofficial (shunning, name calling) penalties will follow.

The opening line is a classic. And it's quite an amusing read.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It isn't just gay professors who can act like basic lunatics - there are a few in every bunch at every school in America. My concern about this column is that it will be used as an attempt to both a) attack gays as intolerant (we're all the same, you know) and b) attack all universities as hostile to "conservatives."

If you look at this situation, the university did attempt to respond to the student's concerns, and apparently the professor was suspended for a time. That is pretty big, and I am sure the student would have been allowed to withdraw without penalty if the request had been made.