A swirl of protest over an anti-gay
opinion column appears to be overtaking the University of Washington,
reports the university's paper The Daily.
On Dec. 5, hundreds of students
protested John Fay's anti-gay marriage rant, which ran in the paper
on November 25.
Protesters found both the content of
the article and the accompanying image of a man and a sheep
objectionable. Several school groups have called for an apology from
its editor-in-chief, Sarah Jeglum.
Fay's argument for why gay and lesbian
couples should be banned from marrying is this: “Once you've
legalized gay marriage, why not polygamy, incest, bestiality or any
other form of union?”
“Last week, The Daily
published a homophobic image and opinion article,” said Kathy Rice,
who established Students for a Hate Free Daily as a response to Fay's
column and helped organize the protest. “That article incited fear
into many members of the LGBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender] and allied community.”
“Let me be clear,” Rice said at the
protest. “We do not promote censorship. Our group believes that
the public should be informed of all sides of issues ... We want to
use this as an opportunity for learning; as a catalyst for change.
We cannot turn our backs on this.”
In the opinion piece, titled Gay
marriage? Let's stop and think about this, Fay
reasons being gay is an “emotional condition” and a
“problem that needs to be dealt with, not denied.”
“Now, there are several major
problems with legalizing gay marriage,” Fay writes. “Once you've
legalized gay marriage, why not polygamy, incest, bestiality or any
other form of union? If the only criteria is that people love each
other, then who says it's wrong for a 70-year-old man to marry 10
underage girls?”
Fay calls gay marriage a
reinterpretation of traditional marriage that violates the First
Amendment.
Gay marriage would also have a
dysfunctional effect on society as people become accustomed to
violating certain social norms, Fay argues.
“If traditional marriage is
overturned, it won't be the last tradition to be abolished by our
government, and some of those will be ones none of us want to lose.”
On December 3, the university's
Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) passed a resolution
demanding that The Daily editorial board either apologize or
resign.
Jeglum says she stands by the decision
to run the piece and will not apologize.