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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyMarch 22nd, 2011
In the early 80’s, it was not at all unusual for the leadership of the College Republicans to be gay, in that “everyone knows but no one says” kinda way. In fact, I’d say it was pretty common (there’s that story about the three leading candidates for national chairman and a hot tub). But in the years since then, the organization had become in many schools little more than the local college voice of social conservatism and religious rigidity.
But young folks just don’t have the appetite for anti-gay malice anymore. They’ve grown up in a post Will and Grace world where Glee rules the airways, and Lady Gaga can influence votes. Now half of Americans support marriage equality and being anti-gay is seen as so distasteful that it can hurt you politically.
And no where is gay support stronger than in younger voters. So it should not be at all surprising that the chairman of the Colorado College Republicans has come out in support of the Colorado’s civil unions bill. Nor should it surprise us much that he’s openly gay and believes that Republican ideals, if followed, would favor gay rights.
But it is a little bit surprising that Troy Ard was elected to the chairmanship unanimously last year. And it is but one tiny sign among many that the war is almost over. Maggie can say whatever she likes about marriage not being an inevitability, but if you can’t get one single College Republican in Focus on the Family’s home state to object to electing the gay guy, then I think we can see where things are going.
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Graham
March 23rd, 2011
Republican ideals, that is say, the ideals of republicanism, favor gay rights. But the GOP has zero to do with repbulicanism…their political ideology is about two things: theocracy and oligarchy.
John
March 23rd, 2011
That isn’t the case here at the University of Minnesota. The Queer Student Cultural Center (the gay group on campus) got denied funding 100% by a conservative student finance board. Meanwhile conservative groups got up to 300% increased funding. A group called the “Ayn Rand Study Club” got $80,000.
I’m surprised that I haven’t seen more coverage of this in gay media and gay blogs. If the U of M doesn’t fix this the problem is gonna blow up big time. The QSCC isn’t the only group to get snuffed for funding, and the others are pissed as well.
Matt
March 23rd, 2011
Hi John,
I’m curious — do you have any more insight, or any links, to further information about the University of Minnesota? Google got me to a couple of articles, one of which stated that the Queer Student Cultural Center submitted their application for funding for the 2010-11 academic year late, another which talked about conservative groups receiving lots more funding but didn’t address the gay group.
It would be interesting to hear more about this. Thanks for raising it!
John
March 23rd, 2011
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/183054_872011609694_11315491_46965066_1739406_n.jpg
http://www.studentservicesfees.umn.edu//forms/FY12feesMNDaily_initial.pdf
The first link is a comparison of last year’s funding to this years of political groups, and the second is the official funding for all groups this year.
It is true that the QSCC submitted their funding request late- by 40 minutes- but completely denying funding to a group for being late, especially by only 40 minutes, is pretty much unheard of.
Matt
March 23rd, 2011
Thanks for the links, John! One more request, if possible — where does the first one come from? That is, who prepared the graph?
I’m particularly interested in the Ayn Rand Study Group receiving more than $80,000. I would love to know what they spend that money on. One would think that a group dedicated to studying the works of Ayn Rand would not need a particularly large budget on which to operate. If you are trying to get more publicity for this issue, that might be something to highlight!
John
March 23rd, 2011
The first graph isn’t anything official, it was made by a friend of mine who is very involved with politics here. You can compare it to the second graph to see that its accurate.
I have absolutely NO idea why the Ayn Rand Study Group got so much funding this year. If you look at the second graph again, you’ll notice that they didn’t even request any money last year, and thus didn’t get any. To jump from $0 to over $80,000 funding (which, by the way, is more than the QSCC has ever even requested) for a book club is absolutely ridiculous.
One thing I DO know is that one of the conservative groups that got a huge boost in funding this year got $100,000 dollars to get Bush on campus, because Obama came to campus to speak last year (never mind that Obama spoke here for free, as it was for voter outreach during election season).
TampaZeke
March 24th, 2011
Have you contacted the ACLU?
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