What is a nice “lgbt-whatever” to do on campus?

Hello JMU students!

In case you didn’t see the Breeze yesterday, It had a really lovely headline- quoted directly from Fox news favorite and former chairman for VA republicans, Kate Obenshain. And let me emphasize: Headline.

“What do you think nice Christian girls feel getting onto campus and seeing the LGBT-whatever banner? These girls need support.”

Please note that GayMU, JMU’s one week of recognition that not all people are heterosexual also began yesterday (Of course, if one wishes to not recognize this, one can turn a blind eye to their table on the commons for five days– an eternity, for some.) And hey, guess what, this is totally promoted and supported by Madison Equality, that nefarious group that I suppose plasters “LGBT-whatever” banners all over campus and terrorizes everyone.

So where is a “nice Christian girl” to find support? Let’s investigate!

Disclaimer: Please note, I am never one to attack people on their religious beliefs. If you are a Christian, supreme! If you are a Muslim, great! Jewish? Marvelous! Buddhist? Awesome! Atheist? Go for it! The beauty of this nation is the ideal of the freedom of religion, but we also must remember we have freedom FROM religion. Respect goes both ways, and I think that is often forgotten.

But Obenshain, and the Breeze BEG the question. Where is support?

1) The Breeze– They ran this headline, put Kate Obenshain in the “News” section while feminist speaker Susan Douglass was pushed back into the “Life” section. Also, they run advertisements from Crisis Pregnancy Centers (which dispense morals and not medical advice) and, if anyone forgot, ran a piece on Dukes For Life last spring titled “The ‘Right’ Choice”– (as if the quotes around ‘Right’ totally mystified their editorial implications.)

2)  Christians are WHOM Obenshain specified (although I’m sure there are conservatives who follow other religions, maybe she refers to them as “whatevers” as well), so let us run “Christian” through the jmu.edu search bar and go from there…

1. Agape Christian Fellowship
2. Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
3. Christian Student Union
4. Places of Worship
5. Orthodox Christian Fellowship
6. And this list, which contains a diverse list of organizations, the majority of which are Christian.

Clearly, if one searches, support can be found.

So what if I as the crazy liberal feminist queer and am in need of support from on-campus orgs? I can find it in–

1. Madison Equality
2. SisterSpeak
3. This blog

I’ll let that speak for itself.

My friend Emily brought to my attention a recent post titled Women v. Women at enlightenedwomen.org by a fellow student about the recent controversy surrounding the Obershain lecture. I have a few responses to this article.

The student, Alyssa, writes that before the event:

 “Flyers around campus were defaced or completely torn down, intolerant comments were left online, and the Women’s Studies’ Program hosted feminist speaker Susan Douglas on the same night and at the same time.” (Note: Emily has already responded beautifully in the comments section about the scheduling of Susan Douglas at the same time.)

Yes. The defacement of fliers is problematic. But I also find fliers featuring only white women in power suits showing a bit of cleavage exploitive and ethnocentric. Also, they were “attacking” the Vagina Monologues (which was SO ten years ago. Can we find a new piece of feminism to tangle with?) Also, ask any member of Madison Equality about their GayMU fliers and chalking being defaced (I certainly remember being anonymously told that “We do not represent JMU” — “We” never said we did, but clearly whomever was responding thought that they represented JMU.)

But Alyssa does note that “I do not agree with all speakers that different organizations host at JMU, but I would NEVER consider defacing their advertisements or leaving such intolerant comments.”

Which, yes! Thank you for not defacing our or other’s fliers! Really! That kind of respect is what I’m asking for, but we must note that intolerance goes both ways.

And intolerance is what it boils down to. Alyssa asserts that the publishing of fellow blogger grrrir’s op-ed over her own is an act of “intolerance”— which is something I contest, because that word is getting stretched beyond any and all meaning.

I think the Breeze demonstrated its “tolerance” for the event by placing such an emphasis on Obershain, as mentioned before. What is intolerant here is simple.

The letters are LGBTQIQ. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Questioning. Only three more extra letters. That is all. I imagine this cannot be much harder than, I dunno, memorizing all the letters in “whatever”.

 So, three identities totally erased by Kate Obershain. People are swept quite literally off the map. That generalization, that blase dismissal of three complete and alternate identities jeopardizes the rest and treats all sexual minorities as if we are some joke.

 And that joke was a headline on OUR school paper on the day that our one week that we are allowed to petition for existence on campus began.  I would never get on a stage and wipe identities clean by referring to people as “Christ-whatevers” because I can understand that being a core part of someone’s being, and having it be unacknowledged or mocked is dehumanizing. 

It would be absolutely intolerant.