Posters promoting Straight Pride appeared on the Youngstown State University in Ohio campus just days after a Pennsylvania high school made headlines for organizing an anti-gay day. The anonymously posted flyers popped up at YSU to invite students to celebrate during finals week…
“…by not annoying the shit out of everyone about your sexual orientation. Brought to you by the students that are sick of hearing about your LGBT pride. Nobody cares about what you think you are, or what you want to have sex with. We have nothing against your sexual orientation. We just don’t give a fuck.”
Ron Cole, the YSU’s public information officer said that the school had no sanctioned “straight pride week” and the messages were “completely bogus” and the posters have since been removed.
But Nathan Allan Baxter, a human rights activist who helped publicize the incident, said the university doesn’t do enough to protect its LGBTI students:
“While the YSU SGA [studednt government organization] and other student-led organizations have condemned the actions taken by those that published the posters, I do not feel this is enough. YSU has no social justice center, gender center or women’s outreach center to counter future discrimination effectively. While I admit that these centers may not prevent further hate speech from spreading around campus, I feel it may help deter it.”
YSUnity, the school’s LGBTI support group, said they…
“hope this situation will draw attention to the need for further inclusivity and education about diversity at YSU.”
The YSU SGA released a statement after the incident saying those who posted the flyers ‘miss the point of minority activism.’
“For minorities who every day face discrimination and marginalization, such efforts are necessary without zeal and persistence, sociology teaches that minority concerns very easily go by the wayside. Thus, dismissing the efforts of LGBTQIA students to push for equitable treatment as unnecessary is dangerous because it catalyzes discrimination, whether meant to do so or not.”
Oh, jeez, what do you say to these ignorant folks who are at an institute for higher learning? I guess patience and tolerance are in order, if the community is asking for that, but when an organization is founded on dickishness, it’s hard to take the high road sometimes. (via Gay Star News)
