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Intolerance of Gays at King's College


I had quite an "encounter" at work tonight. For those of you who don't know, I work at a campus restaurant that stays open until 2AM on Friday and Saturday. Many drunk students come in after 10PM and order greasy food. People are usually not hostile. Students sometimes make messes or are very loud. No big deal.

Tonight, while I was away from the lobby area, a student told my lesbian co-worker that she was going to burn in Hell for being gay. I soon found out about this when she was obviously disgruntled after walking away saying things like, "Wow, that guy was an asshole." After confirming who uttered this phrase to her, I confronted the person and asked him why he was making intolerant statements to my co-worker. He first denied saying anything and then said, "I was just trying to reason with her." My manager told him that he had to leave and directed me to leave the lobby (she later said that she didn't want any problems). The student started saying, "Are you joking me? I'm getting kicked out because of a lesbian," followed up with "You wanna take this outside" to my lesbian co-worker" and left.

Unfortunately, I was not able to have a conversation with this person, intellectually demolish him, and make him aware of his ridiculous belief system and his hateful God, but it was nice that he got kicked out for his behavior. People like this need to be called out for their bad behavior and quickly identified in front of their peers and others in the area. Sadly, no person who was sitting with him said anything to him about his hateful comments, but I'm glad I was there to call him out after the fact. I also wasn't able to get his name, either, but he was from the King's College football team*. I wasn't quite sure if he was drunk, but this doesn't matter. Drunk or sober, people shouldn't make hateful comments toward gays and flaunt their hateful beliefs.

King's students, from my experience, usually aren't hateful to gays. Most people understand that people with different sexual orientations exist and tolerate or accept them, but there are still straggling theists who think that an all-loving God whom they worship will send people to be punished for eternity simply because they are attracted to people of the same sex or both sexes. Sorry, I'm not going to tolerate that nonsense and just be quiet.

Near the beginning of the semester, a Knights of Columbus member* was mad at me because I wanted their group removed from campus for grossly violating the school's policy of non-discrimination (Student clubs and organizations must adhere to all college policies and regulations. The organization must not discriminate on membership based on race, religion, gender, physical disability, or sexual orientation (emphasis mine)). He claimed that the Q&A Club [Gay Straight Allianceish club] at King's is only for "fags who like hairy buttholes" while I was in a cafeteria. Sadly, many others who were sitting at the table with him were not phased by this and simply sat there.

The Knights of Columbus at King's College, as I previously discussed in a blog post, only allow "practicing male Catholics 18 years of age or older who are in union with the commandments of God and the Holy See" to join their club. Shame on them and shame on King's. If any student wanted to make a Muslim-only club, a Hindu-only club, or anything else that is similar, it would never be allowed. I tried to make a club for atheists (in which theists were welcome) and King's declared it to be "against the mission statement of the college."

People who are intolerant of gays and make hateful comments need to be called out. We shouldn't just stand by while people make comments like these and let the intolerance slide. Raise awareness. Educate people. Gay or straight, everyone should be against intolerance of gays.

I'll close with great lyrics from a favorite song of mine, Cry for the Moon by Epica. Religion doesn't give you a cover to stand behind to excuse hateful comments.

Follow your common sense
You cannot hide yourself
behind a fairytale forever and ever
Only by revealing the whole truth can we disclose
The soul of this bulwark forever and ever
Forever and ever




* As previously mentioned in this post and some others like, "Painting All Catholics With the Same Brush," all Catholics and members of specific groups don't all think alike. Members in a group have all sorts of different beliefs. All Knights of Columbus members at King's College certainly don't endorse this line of thinking. His statement does not count as official doctrine(?) of his group.

All King's football players obviously don't think that all gays should burn in Hell and that they can be "reasoned with."

Thinking that one person's statement or action is representative of the beliefs or desires of an entire group is extremely fallacious thinking.

This may differ, though, when leaders of organizations release official statements or make stances. Leaders can make the organization look very bad, but this still doesn't mean that all members think the same way or endorse this behavior. If the organization, though, stands for some principles like "gay marriage is harmful to society and should be opposed" or "black people are inferior people" members are endorsing this message by being a member of the group. You can't just join the Knights for the free donuts, free coffee, and the krafts and kookie baking at konventions (see what I did there?).