Posted on 05/06/2006 10:17:31 AM PDT by gwb2OO4
Step onto a college campus these days and you might hear the remark, “That's so gay.”
For many students, the words seem like a harmless way to poke fun at something. But for University of California San Diego senior Peper Anan, it's a personal attack on her sexual identity.
Anan, who considers herself bisexual, says she hears the sentence about once a month and always tries to educate the person about how offensive it is.
It's this sort of comment that she hopes will disappear with the creation of UCSD's first permanent Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center. The center will officially celebrate its opening today.
It is billed as the largest of its kind among public universities in the United States. UCSD students and faculty alike hail the 2,700-square-foot facility, in the heart of the university, as a major milestone for the campus.
“We're coming into our own,” said senior Rafael Colonna. “We've got a permanent space with a set budget. I think it's a big step for UCSD.”
By many accounts, members of UC San Diego's LGBT community say they feel safe on campus and have not experienced overt discrimination. A report released in March by a campus committee found varied experiences, with one recurring theme being that students and faculty in the science departments have more concerns about jeopardizing their academic standing if their sexual orientation became public.
UCSD has had few reports of hate crimes involving sexual orientation. Campus police say there has been only one hate crime reported in the past four years, and no hate incidents.
The project's $800,000 price tag strikes some on campus as high.
“It does seem like a lot of money. I don't know if students would have approved it,” said senior Joshua Norton, 22, a math major and president of the New Life Student Ministry, a Bible study group.
Norton said he supports providing services such as counseling for people in need but considers “promoting the homosexual lifestyle to be immoral.”
Which brings up the question: Why spend the chancellor's discretionary money and other campus funds, including student fees, to build the center?
For UCSD lecturer Amanda Roberts, who holds her office hours at the center, it's about the future.
“The more we can do to provide diversity awareness,” Roberts said, “the more we'll be raising a tolerant generation.”
Experts say UCSD's investment is part of a trend that has intensified in the past decade. The first LGBT resource center opened in 1971 at the University of Michigan, and the rate at which others have followed suit has increased since the mid-1990s, said Ronni Sanlo, director of the LGBT Center at UCLA and the author of a how-to book on setting up LGBT centers.
That said, only about 3 percent of U.S. colleges – or 105 out of 3,500 – have established LGBT resource centers, according to the National Consortium of Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Education.
The idea for UCSD's center was born 14 years ago when a student submitted a modest request to the chancellor to create a resource center for lesbian, gay and bisexual students and staff. The first LGBT resource office, dedicated in 1999, consisted of two small rooms inside the financial aid building. Three years later, the office moved to a 960-square-foot trailer and was renamed as a center.
Through the years, the center's mission has not changed: to provide a safe space for LGBT students, faculty and staff.
But the permanent center's expanded size and resources have already translated into more staffing and educational programming on campus. Three full-time employees, an increase from two, operate an annual budget of $180,000. In the coming weeks, the center's workers will organize sessions on LGBT issues for the campus police and athletic department.
It would be easy to miss the second-story center, if not for the rainbow flag hanging outside and the life-size images of Wonder Woman displayed in front. Located between Mandeville Center and the original Student Center, it features a “living room” with a bank of lounge chairs, multimedia conference room (the dining room), 3,000-book library, kitchen and counseling room.
On a recent afternoon last week, the center was buzzing with activity. Several students sat in the front, eating lunch and working on laptops. A professor held office hours in a room in back.
The center's location near the middle of campus has helped it to double its foot traffic – from about 100 visitors to some 200 – in the two months it has been operating, Travers said.
“It's definitely a place where we can go to on campus that we know is safe,” Anan said. “We think of each other as a family.”
Corrupting the next generation and spreading deadly diseases: Priceless
For many students, the words seem like a harmless way to poke fun at something. But for University of California San Diego senior Peper Anan, it's a personal attack on her sexual identity.
A personal attack? That's so gay.
That is a lot of money for less than 2% of the population. If I was of Korean, Armenian or American Indian descent I would protest.
Now how about if I tried to educate people on her chosen lifestyle, and how offensive it is? Can we say double standard?
She is the universal standard of what offensive is. How about someone tell her how offensive it is that her ilk tries to push their agenda on little 5 year olds in school.
Must be one gigantic public restroom fashioned in the shape of an I-5 rest area.
Gives me a reason to use that expression quite a bit more. Whenever anyone says "you shouldn't say that, its offensive," I rattle it off about 5 times in quick succession.
Is that anything like the pot calling the black kettle?
“The more we can do to provide diversity awareness,” Roberts said, “the more we'll be raising a tolerant generation.”
Why is it when liberals say tolerate, they mean accept?
Tolerate means you endure differences...it doesn't mean you accept them, like them or even believe them to be decent.
Bump and ping.
Kids use this term all the time in the public schools. They know "gay" is abnormal, and I agree. I think it's pretty funny. I say it when something is really ugly or stupid.
It doesn't bother me a bit - but I'm a normal heterosexual, so I'll continue to use it. Who important cares, anyway?
Have fun with it. It's too bad if the truth hurts the homos. They'd better get used to it. Reality is reality, and they can change if they don't like being social outcasts.
In other words, they want tolerance of all sin and debauchery. Sure, that'll make the U.S. a "heaven on earth". (WTF?)
Maybe this person needs to read a friggan dictionary.
Maybe " That's so gay" means;
That's so merry,
That's so frolicsome
That's so lively
That's so animated
That's so sudden
That's so rash
That's so quick.
All definitions from the 2003 Webster's expanded edition dictionary.
Maybe this person is on a serious guilt trip and knows her lifestyle is counterproductive and will not face up to the truth.
The correct term is "Student Activities Fees". Conservative students need not apply (but feel free to offend them).
Liberal "Tolerance" means you will think the way they tell you to think. You will obey them and you will like it. Only they have a choice
That's what political correctness was designed to do - silence any descent against liberalism.
It's this sort of comment that she hopes will disappear with the creation of UCSD's first permanent Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center.
So we can expect a "Conservative Resource Center" to follow suit? Judging from the invective aimed at them, the CRC should be the size of a football stadium....?
"Anan, who considers herself bisexual.."
"Bisexual", that's just a cowardly way of saying your a homo.
NOTE: I did not use the "G" word.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.