Texas University Forced To Close LGBTQ Center

This part of the plan to wipe out the LGBTQIA from society, from public view.  Because if you can not see us, we won’t exist.   But they can put crosses and churches on every street.  It seems strange to me that in Texas which is a state that is already minority majority with whites staying in political power by the dirty tricks of voter suppression and gerrymandering.  Suppressing the brown people’s votes as much as possible.  So here are a bunch of white cis men trying to remain the most powerful group by outlawing and banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions.  Hugs

The Texas Tribune reports:

Jamie Gonzales, a former program coordinator at the University of Houston’s LGBTQ Resource Center, hasn’t slept well ever since she heard that the center will be disbanded in accordance with Senate Bill 17, a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions.

Although she knew the closure was coming after the bill passed in April in the Texas Senate, she still found herself emotionally ill-prepared to grapple with the reality: an end of an era for a place that served as a beacon of acceptance, safety and support for thousands of queer “Coogs,” as UH students often call themselves.

“There were a lot of special moments held in that space,” said Gonzales while crying during a phone interview this week. Before Thursday, the effect of the law at UH was unclear to many students, alumni and faculty. But all that changed last week when students noticed a flyer taped to the door of the center that read, “In Accordance with Texas Senate Bill 17, the LGBTQ Resource Center has been disbanded.”

Read the full article.

The law’s author, Sen. Brandon Creighton [photo], is also behind his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill for public schools. Creighton first appeared on JMG in 2019 for his bill seeking to overturn LGBTQ protections enacted by Texas cities. In March 2023, he appeared here for his bill that would deny the prospect of tenure to newly-hired university professors. Creighton has spearheaded the Texas campaign to protect Confederate monuments.

 

This isn’t even about children. College students are adults

It’s about erasing LBGTs out of existence

This isn’t even about children. College students are adults

It’s about erasing LBGTs out of existence

They want us dead, simple as that.

The CultPAC spoke,
Eradicate (people) from public life.

This is but one step.

Private colleges should begin offering public school tuition rates to LGBTQ students.

IT’S ABOUT ANYTHING THAT IS NOT WHITE!

many years ago I was a student at Northern IL university and during this time I was confused and questioning my sexuality. I found out there was a small office for Gay and Lesbian folk so I went and had an interesting and worthwhile discussion with a wonderful lesbian who shared her story with me. i still remained in the closet for a few more years but I have never forgotten what she told me, in her own way she helped me come out some years later. I still wonder what if I had not gone to that office that day,.

That kind of affirmation is exactly what Republicans are trying to prevent.

It’s an amazing feeling when you first realize you aren’t the only one in the world. I’m not gay, just an ally but I went through a somewhat similar experience when I first found out I wasn’t the only atheist in the world. I didn’t even know there was a word for it. We need connections to survive and thrive.

In the mid 80’s, I was at a homophobic, major university in Indiana. The chancellor declared in a speech, there were no “homosexuals” there.

By accident, I found a gay, then gay/lesbian group across the street from the student union, but actually iff campus in the Wesley Foundation. It was jointly sponsored by the Methodist / Episcopalian outreach programs. No religion was pushed. We met in the church basement.

It was truly life saving, during the era of lethal, rampant AIDS, police stings, discrimination, and other abuses.

The University couldn’t touch them. They were off campus, and inna church.

“a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion”

There is NO question what Republicans have in mind.

Yes: All out unapologetic white nationalism.

White straight nationalism.

They want us dead, peeps.

How do we respond?

By driving them out of elected office, a process that will likely take as long as it took *them* to seize power. Which is to say, it needs to be a sustained and unrelenting effort that over the course of many election cycles.

As a survivor of the HIV/AIDS crisis, I see uncanny similarities in how today’s Republican Party is attacking our community.

Back then, it was “let them die, they deserve death.”

Today it’s “do what we can to make their lives, their beings, invisible and non-existent.”

Taking the courts back as well is part of that.

we have to start local (county and city, then state), then work our way up to federal, challenging and changing judges as we go. it is a multipronged effort that all too many don’t want to take time to do. that was how the “moral majority” did it, they started with school boards and city councils, then county level and state level. when they had a strong base in place, then they took federal offices quite easily. once in place there, they appointed judges from within their ranks and owned the country. we will have to fight tooth and nail to get this reversed.

Political mobilization is super important, but I would also gently encourage folks to also give space to what is necessary to protect their own health and wellbeing, and that of their friends and family. Don’t panic, prepare has been my mantra for a while now.

Guess what, knuckledraggers? You have one, maybe two presidential election cycles before the generation you keep fucking over is the majority. They will decide what nursing homes you end up in as well as a host of other issues that will affect your hateful lives.

That’s why they’re trying to destroy democracy – it’s to create minority rule. Remember that whites were always a minority in South Africa, and Apartheid lasted almost 50 years.

I remember in the 60s and 70s colleges having sit ins to create these centers. I think it is time for such activism to start again.

Those 60s and 70s college students are today’s college students’ grandparents. I don’t know what happened.

 

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