Where is homosexuality legal and illegal throughout the world?

Via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_homosexuality_laws.svg

Homosexuality legal ██ Same-sex marriage ██ Civil unions or other recognition ██ No recognition of same-sex couples ██ Foreign same-sex marriages recognized

Homosexuality illegal ██ Minimal penalty ██ Large penalty ██ Life in prison ██ Death penalty

Oh no! The radical liberal agenda is taking over!

Last night, the Tufts Republicans brought David Horowitz over to speak about academic freedom and how education is liberally biased.  Horowitz is a neo-con who is the founder and president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center (at least he has an something named after him.)  The Center publishes FrontPage magazine, a conservative online journal.  I found a better way to spend my time, but the Tufts Daily seems to have pretty decent coverage of the lecture.

Horowitz claims that liberal professors are indoctrinating students with their liberal ideology and undermining the nation’s democracy.  He specifically picked on disciplines like Women’s Studies, Peace and Justice Studies, African-American studies, and various other cultural studies as being extremely leftist.   Apparently these disciplines  do not properly educate students because they don’t challenge their beliefs.

Excuse me but Women’s Studies, Peace and Justice Studies, and the various cultural studies exist to challenge the status quo and the dominant ideology that we’ve all been socialized into.  They exist to challenge the prevalence and intersection of different forms of oppression: heterosexism, sexism, racism, ableism, classism, etc., and to give a voice to groups who have been traditionally marginalized and excluded from academia and society as a whole.

Horowitz supported former Harvard University President Larry Summers who said that men are better than women are at math because women have less mathematical ability.

According to Horowitz, Summers’ statement that women have lower mathematical ability than men was a perfectly intellectual statement backed up by research, and it only caused controversy because it did not coincide with traditionally liberal academic beliefs.

Wake up Horowitz!  Summers’ statement was sexist, misogynist, and anything but “a perfectly intellectual statement backed up by research.”  It didn’t cause controversy because it wasn’t in line with “traditionally liberal academic beliefs.”  It caused controversy because it wasn’t in line period!

And specifically about Women’s Studies, Horowitz said:

Women’s Studies programs are training students to be radical feminists. How many of you have heard that gender is a social construct? The “nature versus nurture” debate has been going on for years, and anyone who argues that gender is a social construct should not be allowed to teach … It’s not a proven point.

This actually made me laugh out loud.  Seriously Horowitz and your neo-con cronies?!  Nice try.  How dare Women’s Studies programs exist?   It’s so very radical to want to learn about gender and sexuality interact with and manifest in social institutions like the law, the media, the economy, etc.  And it’s so very radical to challenge patriarchy!  We can’t afford to have any of those “radical feminists” running around!

Senior Dan Hartman, a former president of the Tufts Republicans, agreed with much of Horowitz’s argument. “We need to have professors stand up to the status quo, challenge those who are ideologues and bring back academic balance,” he said.

“‘We need to have professors stand up to the status quo’”?!  This doesn’t really make sense.  Does he mean “stand up for the status quo”?   Besides, nothing is stopping professors from being conservative if they want to.  I’m sure there are conservative professors out there just as there are liberal professors.

If you really want to talk about indoctrinating students and not properly educating them, why don’t you look at the dominant “banking” method of education that is dominant in this country?  But no, we must all watch out for those radical liberals who dare to question the status quo.  Not surprising from a neo-con.  As usual, the right is wrong.

Stop saying “retarded” !

As I was browsing through our Twitter contacts, (follow us @TUgenderblender) I noticed a post by Feministe. I think this is a cause that really needs to be brought to light. The Special Olympics started a campaign called “Spread the word to end the word” to get people to think about their word choices and how it may affect others.

Honestly, I’ve personally never got into the habit of saying “that’s retarded” and I’m glad. It’s something that always made me cringe. It’s right up there with saying “that’s gay.”

So what can you do?

Make a pledge on http://www.r-word.org/

Tweet about it: “I pledged to end the use of the r-word today – can you? http://www.r-word.org/ #rword.”

Donate your Facebook Status: “I pledge and support the elimination of the derogatory use of the r-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. http://www.r-word.org/ #rword”

Do your part. What you say DOES make a difference! People of all abilities should be treated fairly.

This is egregious

For those of you who don’t know what Tufts’ official sexual assault policy is, here it is:

The University supports the right of the victim/survivor of a sexual assault to decide how best to utilize various University, community, private, and public remedies to address crimes of sexual assault. Within the University, instances of sexual assault may be reported to the following offices:

For Arts, Sciences, and Engineering students:

The Office of the Dean of Students

617 627-3158

For all other Students and Staff/Faculty:

The Office of Equal Opportunity

617 627-3298

Instances of sexual assault may also be reported to the Tufts University Police Department:

Medford Police Department: 617 627-3030

Boston Police Department: 617 636-6610

Grafton Police Department: 508 839-5303

 

There are so many things wrong with this non-policy that I don’t even know where to begin.  For starters, there is no definition of sexual assault.  Furthermore, why is the Dean of Students’ Office the first telephone number listed?!  Who is going to call the Dean to report being sexually assaulted?!  How awkward would that be?!  Besides, most assaults do not occur during the 9-5 work hours so students would just be directed to voicemail. 

The resources that should be listed but aren’t are the contact information for Elaine Theodore, the Sexual Violence Resource Coordinator (located at Health Services); Susan Mahoney, the Sexual Assault Clinician (also located at Health Services); as well as the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC). 

It is also seems a little irrelevant to include the phone numbers for the local police departments because many survivors may not feel like reporting especially if the perpetrator is another student, someone they are friends with or someone they know on campus.  Furthermore, putting the phone numbers of the police departments while not putting the phone numbers for the Sexual Violence Resource Coordinator, the Sexual Assault Clinician, and BARCC, seems to sway survivors into reporting. 

Reporting is an option, but it is an option that not many survivors choose to go through for various reasons.  The most important thing for a survivor is to regain autonomy and a sense of control over his/her life.  Therefore options should be presented to him/her without pushing or persuading him/her in a particular direction.

And the Tufts policy says that the University will support the survivor in best utilizing various resources (or in their own words, “remedies”) after their assault.  However, it fails to mention what the resources are.  So how are survivors supposed to know what they can do if they aren’t presented with various routes they can take?

Sadly, the other written material that Tufts has about its sexual assault policy and procedures in the Judicial Handbook only gets more vague.