Silent majority says ‘we don’t care’While I appreciate Forrest Hinton’s concern about the safety and well-being of LGBT students, he continues to misunderstand the purpose and funding of the LGBT Center. It needs to be reiterated that the University has no plans to fund the center out of student fees, and the administration has repeatedly stated this fact. Beyond that, the majority of the $150,000 (not $200,000) is for staff salaries – someone has to be accountable for all this programming and education you are suggesting.
However, let’s get beyond the smoke screen of the “funding” argument and get down to the real issue at hand – our theological opposition to homosexuality. I am not one to call people who disapprove of gays and lesbians “haters” and “homophobes.” I believe a person can do a serious study of scripture and determine that homosexuality is a sin, but I also believe you can do serious study and determine that it is not a sin. I will leave this theological paradox to each reader to determine.
I will not, however, sit idly by and let the blissfully unaware make religious arguments against a LGBT Center at a public land-grant institution. Why do we write off the LGBT Center as an endorsement of sinfulness, but we never turn obese people away at Clark or Fountain to help them avoid their sins of gluttony? One can even argue that obese students adversely affect meal plan rates because they eat a disproportionate amount of food. We don’t challenge the obese because it’s easier to pigeonhole minority groups like gays than it is to drop the french fry at dinner.
If you really think homosexuality is wrong and people can change, then gays and lesbians need to see it in how you live. Relationships change the hearts and minds of people – not legislation. I personality do not see being gay as a sin, and I’m pro-LIFE. However, I’m not just pro-LIFE as it relates to abortion – I believe LIFE can be summed up in the acronym Living In Faith Everyday.
LIFE sums up my personal theology – living without all the answers, but trusting that God is a living God, and one who is still speaking. I want my life to be one of integrity and one that affects the lives of others. I personally look forward to the opening of the LGBT Center as a resource for our campus. For those who oppose the center, I encourage you to live LIFE, and if you are right, then your life will affect campus in such a way that the center will have to close because everyone has been set “straight.”
Until that day comes, the silent majority says let the LGBT Center have as much or as little fanfare as it deserves.
Lee SartainLifelong Education
Centers are valuableWhile I really appreciated Amy Denton’s insightful remarks in her Viewpoint column [LGBT? Fine by me, Nov. 2], I’m offended by Forrest Hinton’s most recent column. The campus-based Women’s Center, African-American Cultural Centers, and LGBT Centers serve a valuable purpose in working to improve the campus climate because sexism, racism and homophobia still exist in our culture. The services provided include having a safe space for students (as well as staff and faculty) bombarded with overt prejudice and micro-inequities, empowering students to be all they can be despite the obstacles placed in front of them by people such as yourself who don’t respect differences and educating the campus community about these inequalities that exist daily for a significant portion of the N.C. State community. Such centers are also available to the entire campus community to expand your knowledge about issues with which you are not as familiar. Education comes from the many programs organized by the “overpaid” Student Affairs employees who are experts in their area.You’re in college to educate yourself, and I encourage everyone to take advantage of the many opportunities available, even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone and learning about tolerance. You don’t need one of these centers until your wife is raped, your sister marries someone from a different ethnic background or your brother comes out to you as gay. And while these issues may not affect you today, they DEFINITELY affect members of your Wolfpack family.
Shannon JohnsonDirector, Women’s Center
Sex is goodMost of the articles from this week’s series on sex have treated it as a sterile, merely physical process by which disease might be spread or during which contraception may or may not work. We shouldn’t forget, though, that sex is a great gift! It’s good. It’s beautiful. It’s holy. In the Theology of the Body, Pope John Paul II points out the supernatural significance of our sexuality: When a husband’s free, total, fruitful, faithful gift of himself is received and returned by his wife during sex, their love reflects the love that God has for us.
Phil KoshuteGraduate student, Operations Research
Kudos to TechnicianI would just like to say kudos to the Technician for printing The Sex Series. In case no one has noticed, there have been more people reading the paper in class this week than all semester. If you don’t like the series, I have a suggestion for you: Don’t read it. If you can’t talk about sex on a college campus, where can you talk about sex? Keep printing more articles that pertain to college life.
Amanda RasmussenSenior, Business Management
