Viewpoint Neutrality and the TAMU GLBT Resource Center

Original post for Left of College Station. I'll post some of the things I write for that blog here, but after the fact, so you'll always see it there first.

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If you've had your ear to the grindstone, you may have heard the uproar over Texas Rep. Wayne Christian's Amendment 143 last month, which proposed that equal amounts of funding be provided for both campus GLBT Resource Centers and what he termed "Traditional Family Values Centers," providing the obvious indication that the two are somehow antithetical to each other. The folks who support this idea are the same folks who feel that homosexuals are out there destroying families, as exhausting as that sounds. Who finds the energy to go out there and wreck American families? Is this a spare time hobby or a full-time gig? What does that job advertisement even look like?

"HELP WANTED! Family next door super annoying! Too perfect! Need homosexual to come drive over their white picket fence and/or lawn gnome. DESTROY THE JONESES."

Whenever I initially hear something like this being proposed by our elected representatives, I cringe, then my inner logic keels over and dies, possibly from sheer embarassment. The concern about something of this nature passing and being made a reality is an omni-present reality, but moreso, my fears are always the lingering ripple effects. In this case, it didn't take long for those to start up.

Cue SB 63-106, what the student senate of Texas A&M University call the "Sexual Education Equality in Funding" Bill. The objectives are identical to Amendment 143, and it passed with a vote of 21-21 (the Senate Speaker broke the tie in favor of the bill). Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and Student Body President Jacob Robinson vetoed the bill, sending it back to the senate where it failed to garner the 2/3 majority vote required to override Robinson's decision.

The fight is over, right? Hardly. The ripples linger on across campus, having longer-lasting effects on the already poor climate regarding GLBT issues and the GLBT community. Most notably, the Texas Aggie Conservatives became the most vocal about fighting against the GLBT Resource Center on campus. Nearly every post they have made about Campus Reform has somehow turned back to various ways that the Resource Center is sucking the entire Texas A&M campus dry, both fiscally and in terms of values.

Basically, TAC is positing that GLBT Resource Center Director Lowell Kane is a liberal vampire, and not even one of those sparkly, fun vampires that get the tweens all excited. No, he's the Bram Stoker variety - the kind with hairy palms who sleeps in dirt, waking only in the twilight hours to devour conservatism by discussing progressive changes, human rights, pride, and all that other liberal ballyhoo. Be forewarned that he may talk to anybody. If he sees you - yes, you, specifically - he might be willing to talk to you. He's that personable and passionate about his work.

Chilling.

But what's the issue here? Why do we need a Traditional Family Values Resource Center? What are they providing that fills that void our GLBT Resource Center is not currently filling? According to the student senate and the TAC, having this TFV center fulfills the university's obligation to remaining neutral. If we let the GLBT center keep talking about homosexuality all the time, we need another place that can talk about heterosexuality just as much! And we should be spending the exact same amount of money on both!

Huh. What say you, Center for Campus Free Speech? The GLBT Resource Center meets all requirements for existence on this campus and viewpoint neutrality does not in any way, shape, or form indicate that we most devote equal funding to all ideas, all the time? Well, there goes my exclusive, members-only "People Who Enjoy Dressing Like Cats" club. Guess I'll just hang the old ears up for good. I can use this newfound spare time to read more facts from some burgeoning young bloggers who seem to know their stuff.

Since the demolishment or harm of the GLBT Resource Center seems pre-destined to not happen, there was an obvious expectation for a public show of support. A definitive "We got your back, guys" followed by a "One Love" from the university's administration. Perhaps even the chunking of "le deuce" before they retired back to their respective offices.

And to be fair, it did happen, from a variety of sources. But prior to that gust of fresh, linen-scented air, there was an uneasy silence. Any support came from publically-called and poorly-advertised meetings designed for reassurance and brief Q&A. It took a little prodding to get something in writing.

Don't misunderstand me - the show of support Allies received last week was exactly what we needed. It was a shot of confidence; the validation that this is something that matters to those in power. It should have happened immediately.

We communicate just as much in the things we don't say as in the things we do. I still believe in Texas A&M. They are making many of the right moves. I'm just hopeful that everyone remembers that we must walk the walk and talk the talk.

Books to Read: Fat Shame by Amy Farrell

Technically, the next book I want to read is "I Love Yous Are For White People" by Lac Su, but this is another one that I'm now interested in, thanks in no small part to a delightful interview on The Colbert Report, embedded below.

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

I promise that as soon as I get around to reading either of these books I'll post a brief review. In the meantime, maybe check this one out for yourself and let me know what you think!

Zeebo Out.

Back

I recognize that it's been...well, you can see how long it's been since I effectively shouted "BRB AFK" at the world, but that was because I was sort of busy winning the Robert M. Gates Inspiration Award for the diversity based work I've done with the Regents' Scholars Program - a student program designed specifically for first-generation, low family income college students.



Yes.....I've been busy winning that award for months. This is the story we're running with. I'm not mentioning it now to toot my own horn or anything.

Actually, I'm lying to all of you guys. That, up there? That was a lie. The Justice Readers deserve so much better than that. The truth of the matter is that for quite a while I was just plain stressed out about working at Texas A&M University and loudly shouting liberal thoughts from rooftops. Did you guys know this place is sort of conservative? Did you know that? I know! I was shocked too!

And so things happened and I didn't bother covering them because I began to feel like like there were eyes on me. Spying eyes. Hungry eyes. Eyes waiting for me to eat something messy so they could snap a photograph for the tabloid magazines and ask when I'm going to cut it out and get ready for the bikini season.

What things? Things like the House bill that suggested we take money away from LGBT Resource Centers on college campus and form "Traditional Values" centers in an effort to remain neutral. Neutrality is a funny argument to make. It's what allows most of our modern media news outlets to run a story about a mock slavery auction designed to teach kids about slavery by participating in a demeaning display of mastery, and then to feature a quote by a local yokel who says something akin to, "I don't see what the big deal is if they learned something."

You know what? I'll just let Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal show you how ridiculous this concept is.



When confronted with these mindsets over and over, and when my side seems to be constantly scrambling to try and reason with the unreasonable, I began to feel like I was slipping and sliding on top of some pretty thin ice.

And so, I sort of slinked off for a bit.

But hey, why stress out about the past? It's clear that I'm a forward-thinking, future kind of guy. That's why I travel to work making spaceship noises and eat copious amounts of astronaut ice cream. It's also why I'm always in favor of progressive change in America, and why I was asked to begin contributing to Left of College Station, a blog run by Teddy Wilson, public radio darling of the Bryan/College Station area. You can find my introductory post here, and I'll be contributing further thoughts to his blog on a weekly basis.

Teddy gives me and other local bloggers Twitter love very regularly, despite the fact that I've clearly been MIA for a while now (though I maintain that my last post features enough glorious art of rainbow tentacle penises that it deserved to be held up for posterity). As a result, I feel that the community deserves more from me, and I now slink back onto blogger and pretend that I never actually left to begin with, as is THE WAY OF THE WRITER.

You're welcome.

Zeebo Out.

5 Misconceptions About Homosexuals

I've decided to start a new occasional segment on my website, born largely of my newfound love of the often irreverent Hyperbole and a Half. The drawings often remind me of Natalie Dee and my wife's doodles, so I thought I'd find a way to combine my love of ridiculous doodles with social justice. Wow, that was easy! Every now and then I will post a brief list of misconceptions that the public has about some specific group or movement and my wife Huong will illustrate them using her iPad doodles. Hopefully if everyone can see how ridiculous these misconceptions actually are, we can start working to disprove them.

So, without further ado, I bring you 5 Misconceptions People Have About Homosexuals!

1.) Homosexuals are predatory and will pounce on a desired member of the same sex at the drop of a hat, regardless of your sexual orientation. This is the exact argument that allows “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to still exist in the Army. Basically, those against homosexuality believe that the moment you let the gay cat out of the bag, everybody is just going to start raping everybody else in their sleep. Seriously. That is an actual argument that has been made.




2.) Homosexuality is a choice that people make. Like maybe they were just getting bored with heterosexuality and decided to give this “new thing a spin.” Based on this argument, that sort of throws all the science which has discovered homosexuality in animals out the window. Your dog basically woke up one day and decided she had no interest in dog penis. We are all well aware of your dog’s proclivity for making thought-provoking, politically stirring decisions. That happens every day with Fluffy.



3.) Because homosexuality is a choice, it’s possible to “recruit” others to become homosexual. So basically, if your kids are taught by a gay teacher, those kids are getting indoctrinated at a very young age and are destined to become a new breed of “super gay.”



4.) Homosexuals destroy families. I’m not 100% sure how, but they just do.



5.) Adolf Hitler was gay and recruited homosexuals in a secret gay army because of how savage and godless they were. I wish so hard I was making this last one up.



Zeebo Out.

Counter-Productive: Tim Pawlenty

I have to give a hearty congratulations to Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty (or "T-Paw" as we will colloquially refer to him). It takes one hell of a man to actually turn down nearly a million dollars of free money to help fund a sex education program for young teens. Why? Because it advocates the use of condoms and discusses safe sex practices.

The horror.

As we all know, informing people about the purpose and use of condoms - as well as providing the little buggers - inevitably just lead to a nonstop orgy of irresponsible teenage sex. It's the only logical conclusion. As soon as they know they can have sex with minimized repercussions, they're just going to have way more sex than they normally would! I mean, it's like handing them the keys to your car and then letting them know it's equipped with airbags: Those little fuckers are going to wreck your car on purpose.

This is bullshit, of course. Being informed of safety measures does not induce us to want to go engage in dangerous activities nonstop - it intuitively just makes sure that when we do things that are inherently unsafe that we take appropriate precautions. Gosh, how novel.

Fortunately, T-Paw had a brilliant back-up plan for the $850,000 in money he turned his back on: a $500,000 grant for abstinence-only education that will require $379,000 in matching funds to come from the State of Minnesota. That's right. Abstinence-only education, the same program that has already been shown to work like gangbusters in the state of Minnesota.

For the average person, this is a no-brainer of a decision: nearly a million dollars of free money for a program with a decent success rate Versus having to drop nearly $400,000 of taxpayer money for a program that has already been proven to be ineffective. Unfortunately, T-Paw is not an average person. He's a politician with specific political obligations - he can't accept that $850k worth of federal grant money because it's being backed by health care reform, which he vehemently opposes. He's sticking to his guns!

Oh, wait....wait, sorry, he's not. See, the other grant he's a fan of is also sponsored by health care reform. It just happens to be a much shittier grant that supports the type of sex education that looks better to T-Paw's political party. So he's a hypocritical douche who is putting his political ambitions ahead of his constituents, especially when you consider that the Minnesota Department of Health actually wanted to apply for both grants to try and get the most bang for their buck.

The only Minnesotans who seem to be happy about this whole thing are those members of the Minnesota Family Council, the head of which had this to say: "It's better to spend no money on sex education if it's going to have a condom message. You are pouring fuel on the fire."

Congratulations, Tim Pawlenty. You are officially Counter-Productive.

Zeebo Out.