"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Hundreds rally at UW against anti-homosexual-marriage column in campus newspaper

We read:

"About 200 people attended a rally Friday at the University of Washington to protest an anti-gay marriage column that ran in the student newspaper, The Daily. Protesters say language in the column, including a reference to bestiality, coupled with the accompanying image of a man standing next to a sheep, amounted to hate speech. But speakers differed on whether the paper should be censured.

Ana Mari Cauce, the UW's dean of arts and sciences, talked about her own struggles coming out as a lesbian and the hurt she felt in reading the column. "But the antidote to free speech is more free speech," she said. "I am thankful that I am living in a country where everyone has the right to express their opinions."

On the other hand, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) this week passed a resolution demanding the paper apologize. However, the editor-in-chief of The Daily, Sarah Jeglum, said this week she stands behind the decision to run the column and isn't planning any sort of apology. In a Friday column, Jeglum said she'd learned "Free speech is for everyone. It's not just for the majority, and it's not just for the minority."

That difference of opinion, if not resolved, could lead to a showdown between the editors of the paper and the elected student-body representatives who sit on the publications board which oversees The Daily. Dave Iseminger, GPSS vice president, hinted at such a showdown when he said at the rally that lacking an apology, his group may work to change the composition of the paper's editorial board.

Source

The column concerned was a perfectly rational one. Here is an excerpt:
"Race is a biological state; homosexuality is more of an emotional condition, and we should not, for that reason alone, start passing laws condoning it. Being homosexual, like other emotional tendencies, doesn't make someone a bad person, but it's a problem that needs to be dealt with, not denied. Now, there are several major problems with legalizing gay marriage. Once you've legalized gay marriage, why not polygamy, incest, bestiality or any other form of union? If the only criteria is that people love each other, then who says it's wrong for a 70-year-old man to marry 10 underage girls?

Source

Rational debate is beyond the Left. All that they are good at is hate.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

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