Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Penn State indoctrination 

Perusing the NoIndoctrination site, I found this post from a frustrated student at Penn State.
Earlier in the semester I had written a column on Homophobia and how it was intolerant for someone to call a person a homophobe if they simply disagree with homosexuality. The following day a student was published in the newspaper not only calling me a homophobe but a heterosexist (apparently they are making up more words to name call people . . .one is not enough). Even though the column never touched on my personal beliefs about homosexuality I felt as if the words �homophobe� and �heterosexist� were words of bigotry against Christian beliefs and Conservative ideology - bigotry that should not be tolerated. I further claimed that these names could lead to the suspension or expulsion of students from school or the dismissal of employees if they became stigmatized by these often abused names. ... After submitting my complaint to REPORT THE HATE, they responded some time later explaining that the words were not used in a context of historical discrimination. The Diversity Advocate also excused her words because she was reacting to �systematic oppression of a people� and saw me as the oppressor. Interesting how simply saying �Tolerate others' beliefs� makes you an oppressor.
Now the guy that gave our diversity seminar at SCSU this year is the Vice Provost for Educational Equity at PSU, whose office runs Report the Hate. The letter the student wrote which provoked the angry response isn't eloquent, but neither does it deserve the rudeness of the response. It is inconceivable that he would have escaped punishment if he had been the responding letter. But according to that vice provost, listening to conservative talk radio is punishable if others might hear it.

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