At Wesleyan University in Connecticut, the “Open House” residence is:
a safe space for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Flexual, Asexual, Genderfuck, Polyamourous, Bondage/Disciple, Dominance/Submission, Sadism/Masochism (LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM) communities and for people of sexually or gender dissident communities.
I am shocked that they have invisibilized and excluded Two Spirit (TS) Native Americans, as well as the entire Intersex (I) community from their acronym. (And no, adding on “gender dissident communities” as a generality does
More. No, this is not a parody. It’s a link from the official Wesleyan Program Housing page. It is conceivable that the denizens of Open House themselves are having some fun, but given the general humorlessness of LGBT political correctness that would truly mark them as outliers.
22 Comments for “Not a Parody?”
posted by Houndentenor on
Yes, this is ridiculous, assuming it’s not a parody. I guess gay Republicans are in desperate need of a distraction from the plethora of anti-gay bills working their way through Republican controlled state legislatures these days.
posted by craig123 on
I fear that Houndentenor has become the parody.
posted by Houndentenor on
LOL. Personal attacks, again? What does it say about craig that he can’t come up with even the weakest substantive counterargument against what I have to say?
I suspect that the site is a hoax. I googled it last night and found many hits, but almost exclusively on far right news sites. It gives us a pretty good idea of what Stephen is reading if nothing else. I find it hard to believe that any group came up with an acronym that included the word FAG in the middle. It sounds exactly like something that disgruntled undergrads might come up with as a clever hoax, however. This all seems to stem from a controversy over the university attempting to take over the property owned by a fraternity which more than anything is a typical modern university power grab (in which case I’d tend to side with the frat).
posted by craig123 on
I suspect the site is real – it’s within the Wesleyan domain and not that far afield from the academic mainstream. That the right is linking to it doesn’t mitigate that.
As for Houdentenor, seriously your only response to Steve is to (a) belittle him and (b) say that Republicans are worse. Well, the LGBT blogosphere is all about Republicans are worse. This site is specifically about how the cause of gay legal and social equality is undermined by left wing othodoxy. That’s the mission statement right there on the homepage. But you are obsessed with the fact that Steve is not marching in lockstep, because … REPUBLICANS ARE WORSE.
Oh, I see your response to the subsequent post is…Republicans are worse.
posted by Mike in Houston on
Again with the parsing…
I believe you left out “ideological rigidity” which your posts demonstrate time & again.
(And Houndentenor — it is a real thing, just like all the other program houses here: http://www.wesleyan.edu/reslife/ugrad_housing/program-housing.html )
posted by Houndentenor on
If your point is that the far left is loony, you’ll get no disagreement from me. But I find it odd that Stephen is choosing to post about such minutiae when Republican state legislatures are racing to pass anti-gay legislation. Yes, Republicans are worse than Democrats on gay issues which is especially sad because the Democrats haven’t exactly set the bar all that high.
posted by Houndentenor on
btw, thanks for pointing out the change in the site’s mission statement. I hadn’t noticed that they’d dropped the “forging a gay mainstream” pretense.
posted by Mike in Houston on
H – craig123, if not a sock puppet, is the digital version of a sea gull: shrieking in, crapping everywhere, then flying away.
posted by Francis on
Apparently, the gull made two sweeps. Hope we’ve all been inoculated against leptospirosis.
posted by craig123 on
So, we see what passes for “argument” on the left.
posted by Francis on
So, we see what passes for “intelligence” on the right.
posted by Francis on
And that’s three sweeps now. Hope everyone’s had their jabs.
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
I think it begs the question as to whether or not this is a parody (or protest of some sort).
Yes, it plays into the “liberals are evil and gay people should vote Republican” narrative, but the fact that something may play into a narrative, does not actually mean it is news (as opposed to opinion). How about we visit the official University webpage…..
The email list to learn about upcoming “queer events” seems to have a sense of humor. “listservendlessacronym, named for the seemingly endless letters in LGBTQQFAGIPBDSM… Allies are welcome to join the list too.”
posted by JohnInCA on
I don’t get it. Other then having an amusingly long name what’s the issue here? Or are we really just making fun of them for having a long silly name?
posted by Francis on
I highly doubt “flexual” and “genderfuck” are even proper words, unless someone squeezed them into Dr Johnson’s dictionary alongside “anaspeptic”, “pericombobulations”, and “interfrastically”.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
It is conceivable that the denizens of Open House themselves are having some fun, but given the general humorlessness of LGBT political correctness that would truly mark them as outliers.
Good G-d, Stephen, you really have gotten sour in your old age. These are college kids, for goodness sake — young, naive, bright-eyed, out to change the world, college kids, engaged in who knows what manner of foolishness.
posted by dc on
Ha. Ya, I agree with Tom. As someone who went to a liberal arts college, I can tell you: Yes, these kids–be they gay, straight, bi, trans, whatever–are smoking weed, having tons of sex, drinking, and doing all sorts of odd drugs in their spare time. This is Wesleyan we’re talking about. So yes, we don’t need to worry about a bunch of college kids not having fun. College kids are experts at “fun”; that’s practically all they do–drink, sex, drugs, party, and go to class–it’s the college schedule regardless of where you go to school. In fact, they are probably getting high and laughing at this dumb site right now. Steve Miller and his right wing ilk are so out of touch it isn’t even funny. You are taking this WAY too seriously.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
I hadn’t noticed that they’d dropped the “forging a gay mainstream” pretense.
I hadn’t, either, but it makes sense. The “gay mainstream” formed in sometime between 2004-2008, a broad consensus that marriage equality and “equal, no more, no less” were the goals. What polling exists strongly suggests that about 90% of gays and lesbians favor those goals.
Although gays and lesbians may differ about the details, the tactics and the strategy, and different segments within the gay/lesbian population may have other/additional priorities, a “mainstream” has been forged around the simple idea that gays and lesbians should be treated like all other Americans.
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
Golly gee! My word! I am shocked and stunned that anyone would suggest that a group of young, sex-crazed men and women with (almost) zero adult supervision would think of engaging in “smoking weed, having tons of sex, drinking, and doing all sorts of odd drugs in their spare time.”
posted by Lori Heine on
They were almost certainly trying to be funny. Lighthearted. Gay–in the original sense of the word.
Look what happened to Sally Kohn when she tried to make a funny about hoping her kids grow up to be gay. To the reactionary right, it means, “The Gay Agenda…it’s ALIIIIIVE!”
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
Also you do not really need to be terrible smart (or tactful) in order to become the leader of a student organization.
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
Stephen is apparently shocked to find out that college is oftentimes like high school, but with less adult supervision.