Equal time for heterosexuals

THE FESTIVAL of reaction in Texas government marches on.

Last year, the Texas Board of Education approved a host of curriculum changes to history and economics textbooks that are the stuff conservative dreams are made of.

By a 10-to-5 vote, the board voted for curriculum changes "stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light," according to the New York Times.

Now, the Texas House of Representatives has set its sights on higher education. Specifically, the House recently passed a budget bill that would require any public college with a student center on "alternative" sexuality to provide equal funding to create new centers to promote "traditional values."

In other words, colleges that have student centers for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students would be required to have equal funding for centers that promote "traditional values" like heterosexuality and straight marriage.

According to Inside Higher Ed:

The House vote in favor of the amendment on the campus sexuality centers was 110-24.

Many Texas public colleges -- as is the case at many colleges elsewhere -- have centers within student affairs departments that serve gay and lesbian students. These centers sponsor programming, refer students who need counseling or support groups, and serve as advocates for gay and lesbian students on their campuses.

Representative Wayne Christian, a Republican, proposed the amendment, which would apply to any public colleges with a center "for students focused on gay, lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, transsexual, transgender, gender questioning, or other gender identity issues." According to The Dallas Morning News, lawmakers "cracked jokes and guffawed" during debate, with one representative asking Christian what "pansexual" means. Christian urged the lawmaker to visit the centers at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University to find out.

Lawmakers supporting the bill have said that they favor only equal time for all kinds of sexuality.

But the Young Conservatives of Texas, a group that worked with Christian on the legislation, did so with the hope that public colleges would respond to a law, if the bill passes, by ending support for existing centers. Tony McDonald, senior vice chairman of the group and a law student at UT Austin, said in an interview that "we could try to get these groups defunded" in a law, but that the equal funding approach was viewed as more likely to pass (perhaps with the same impact).

McDonald said that he doesn't believe universities should be funding centers on any sexuality or values--traditional or otherwise. He said that students "who want to promote a homosexual lifestyle" can do so "on their own time and with their own money."

Requiring the creation of traditional values centers would "give the left a taste of its own medicine," he said. He charged that these centers "are encouraging folks who consider themselves homosexuals to go on considering themselves as such. That's the point of the centers, and that's not something Texas taxpayers should spend their money on."

In other words, McDonald's real problem is with the idea that LGBT people should exist at all.

As Inside Higher Ed noted:

While McDonald said he hoped that, if the bill is enacted, public colleges eliminate existing sexuality centers, he said that there are good programs that could be sponsored by a traditional values center. He said that they might offer programs to encourage chastity or marriage between male and female students, for example.

The budget measure is prompting derision from Texas liberals. A column in The Texas Observer began this way: "Imagine the plight of the heterosexual student stepping on to a college campus for the first time. How will he fit in? Should he tell his new roommate about his alternative hetero lifestyle? Will he be bullied, just like he was in high school, where he was mercilessly teased for being a sexual deviant? Where does a straight person turn?"