You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
It amazes me that doctors, like Warren Throckmorton and Mark Yarhouse, think they have the right to comment on gay issues - even though their schools have a prohibition on openly gay students. Isn't that a little like professors of Bob Jones University conducting "studies" on interracial dating? (Prior to the lifted ban)
Until Grove City College and Pat Robertson University allow openly gay students and GLBT student groups, Yarhouse and Throckmorton should keep a lid on it. How dare they pass judgment or create sham studies while working at apartheid schools. The very nature of working at institutions that codify discrimination and humiliation of GLBT pupils - means they have lost the moral authority to lead on this issue. If they want to be taken seriously, they must quit and go to schools that support equal access to education.
Furthermore, we know that if Throckmorton or Yarhouse released papers or study results that were even remotely pro-gay, their careers would be effectively over. Does anyone think that Pat Robertson would promote a pro-gay professor? Does anyone think Throckmorton's career would advance if he came to the honest conclusion that coming out and self-acceptance was in the best interest of GLBT students? Clearly, there is a conflict of interest that colors and thus invalidates anything these men say on GLBT issues.
New Rule: If you work at a school that forbids GLBT students - your work should be forbidden from serious discussion and consideration. Why should "researchers" from bigot schools have a say when they are actively discriminating?
15 Comments:
Trusting any so-called "scientific study" on sexual orientation from a homophobic religious school is like trusting a "scientific study" on smoking that was commissioned by the tobacco companies.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/01/2008 1:36 PM
Wayne - that is a really perspicacious and salient point. Why should people who works at schools that prohibit homosexuals have a say at all?
I never thought about it - but you are so right. Sure, they have the right to free speech - but shame on us for offering them a platform. Shame on us for giving them any respect or credibility, as they work for schools that do not allow us and deny our very existence.
Wayne did you hear about this? This is in the recent Freedom From Religion Foundation newspaper:
"A Tennessee state representative has filed a bill preventing public elementary and middle schools from mentioning anything about gays. The bill would bar 'any instruction or materials discussing sexual orientation other than heterosexuality'. For example, students could not learn that playwright Tennessee Williams was gay."
posted by Anonymous, at
3/01/2008 3:11 PM
These right-wingers exist in the politics and positions of power only to maintain the situation as it is so that they retain their power. If they were green with blue spots, they would be trying to convince everyone that you are wrong of you are not green woth blue spots. This really has very little to do with sexuality, except that it is the most convenient talking point right now. Jos76 www.jos76.wordpress.com
posted by Jos76, at
3/01/2008 3:29 PM
By the same token, gays should not have any say in how fundamentalist live???
That argument doesn't work for me. I'm still stikcing with the idea that you have those rights up until they impose on mine - that way fundamentalist christians cannot say it isn't fair.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/02/2008 3:42 AM
If gays barred fundamentalists from schools - then your argument would make sense. However, this is not the case. The discrimination and hatred is largely a one-way street. The only time gays care about fundamentalism at all - is when they suffer from religion-based bigotry.
posted by Wayne Besen, at
3/02/2008 9:24 AM
Wayne - I doubt you would apply to an all black college either? Sometimes birds of a feather do flock together. And as much as it might irk some people - fundamentalist people go to schools that are more accepting of their attiutdes and views because they feel the social intimidation in more liberal settings. And just like the Mormon university that makes it atheletes sign a moral contract (which can be dissolved if an athelete breaches) regarding sexual conduct, smoking, and other social behaviors - so to can a fundamentalist college do the same. I doubt they would kick you out if you admitted to having homosexual feelings - but because of their view on the morality of sexuality (sex in general) - they might kick you and others out if you were to engage in sexual activity outside the "marriage contract." I'm not sure but it is just a thought that that may be one of the reasons they don't want gay marriage to be legal - it would invalidate their moral contract issues in such places.
Now as far as recieving governmantal funding and grants etc.... Well .... I have major issues with that it they are engaging in such restrictive "codes" and still recieving money (as that identifies it is no longer being a private institution and one of public support)
posted by Anonymous, at
3/02/2008 12:59 PM
If there were an all black school that not only barred white people, but produced and distributed racist literature attacking all whites in America, and whose leaders actively fought to influence politics and pass federal and state laws that discriminated against white people, then maybe your "all black school" analogy would hold up.
But that's ridiculous, and so is your analogy.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/02/2008 7:53 PM
Well said Eshto.
I can't imagine a professor at an all black school - that banned Caucasians - presenting himself as America's "Expert on White People."
But, that is what unqualified quacks like Throckmorton do. Who does he think he is in his rural gay-banning school to present himself as an authority on this issue?
It's just sickening that the media gives this clown a platform - while gay people are tossed out of his third-rate brain washing academy.
posted by Wayne Besen, at
3/03/2008 12:25 AM
There was a closeted gay culture at GCC, but it was very closeted. No one openly admitted their sexual orientation, even though it was common knowledge that we had gay students on campus. And when someone openly supported gay rights (like myself) it was actively discouraged by the administration.
