Shorter University, a small university in Rome, Georgia that you’ve likely never heard of before today, has announced that it will now be requiring each of its employees sign a “pledge of personal lifestyle.” The pledge is an assertion that the employee is not gay, and does not “engage in all sexuality not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality.”

Employees who fail to sign the pledge face termination of their contract.

If you’re wondering whether this is legal, wonder no more: It is. Since Shorter University doesn’t receive any federal funding, it doesn’t have to adhere to federal nondiscrimination regulations.

Well, you know what they say: When in Rome, Georgia… don’t do as the Romans do or you’ll be fired.

• Baptist university says employees must pledge they are not gay [Digital Journal]

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that gay people, from all different walks of life, are everywhere, including some not-so-gay-friendly places. Take, for example, Christian universities in the middle of Arkansas. But if you still demand proof, visit this heart-tuggingly amazing website by the gay students at Harding University: HU Queer Press.

Well, visit, unless you actually go to Harding University, in which case you’ll notice that the above link doesn’t work. You see, one week after going live, the university has blocked all campus access to the website—a direct order from the campus president himself, David Burke.

Speaking to the press about his decision to censor the private website, Burke expressed his immense displeasure with the site’s very existance: “I won’t even publicly speak the web address—not because I think I can keep it from you, but because the address itself is offensive to me.”

huqueerpress.com

Scandalous!

I can only imagine what Burke actually thinks of his queer students if he finds just the title of a website about them to be so terrible as to be… unmentionable.

Hmm… I wonder if Slap is blocked there? If not, I guess I mustn’t be working hard enough.

• Christian university blocks gay student publication [CNEWS]

Hundreds of dollars worth of gay-themed library books that were found soaked in urine at Harvard is no longer being treated as a hate crime, according to university investigators.

The 36 books, which covered GLBT topics ranging from coming out to equal marriage rights, were found by a library staff member in late November. Urine had been poured over each of the books, ruining them completely. An almost empty bottle (the smoking gun, so to speak) was found nearby.

The Harvard University Police Department reacted quickly, launching an investigation. Their findings: The damage was an accident, caused by a library staff member who inadvertently tipped over a bottle of urine that was sitting on the bookshelf. With the conclusion of their investigation, the incident is no longer being considered an act of vandalism or a hate crime.

Ah. Case closed, then. Good work.

A mishap like this was probably inevitable, actually, considering how libraries always store their bookshelf urine in inordinately tall bottles with rounded bottoms. A bump is all it takes.

I’m not even sure why they store that stuff there in the first place, come to think of it.

• Damaged LGBT Books in Lamont Not Result of Hate Crime, Dean Says [The Harvard Crimson]

Ken Cuccinelli II, the Attorney General for the U.S. state of Virginia has formally warned all of the state’s colleges and universities that they must rescind their non-discrimination policies for gays, or face legal consequences.

Well, that’s all kinds of crazy. Surely “non-discrimination policies” is a really just some coded phrase to camouflage what might actually be a more reasonable request, right? Let’s look at Cuccinelli’s letter:

It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” “gender expression,” or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly.

Oh dear.

Yes, it appears that treating everyone equally, regardless of their sexual orientation, is illegal in Virginia. Discrimination with respect to employment and college admission is the letter of the law and, by golly, Cuccinelli is going to enforce it.

The state’s top universities—all of which have such non-discrimination policies—are reacting nervously, declining any official comments. Students, on the other hand, are having no trouble speaking their mind. Even though it’s in the middle of spring break, a Facebook group in support of equal treatment has already popped up with nearly 5,000 members.

Say, Cuccinelli does realize that being straight is a sexual orientation too, right? Hey, maybe this means I could start a gay-only faculty, offering degrees in fabulousness!

Special thanks to Slap reader Chase for alerting me to this craziness!

• Virginia attorney general to colleges: End gay protections [Washington Post]

Campus police at the University of Windsor have issued a security alert after several homophobic and racist messages were found across campus. While the content of the messages is a mystery, it was disturbing enough for the Office of the President to issue an open letter to the university community:

There have been [incidents that] deeply concern us involving abusive language and intimidating behaviour towards gay students at the Faculty of Law. The University of Windsor is committed to fostering an inclusive campus [...] however, considerable progress must be made before we are able to realize such an environment.

What, no attempt at sugar-coating the university’s progress on their vision of an diverse and tolerant campus? Why, that could only mean there’s a delightfully ironic twist somewhere here!

Yes, it turns out that one of the racist incidents mentioned in the letter involved members of a campus social justice community committed to “diversity and equity and the education of future generations of young people.”

I’d say the university’s vision needs work.

• Racist, anti-gay graffiti, flyers found at U of W [Windsor Star]
• An Open Letter to the University of Windsor Community [University of Windsor, Office of the President]

Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, visited Columbia University on Monday. When pressed by a student about Iran’s treatment of gays, Ahmadinejad had this to say:

In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have this.

While the comment elicited derisive laughter from the audience, I found the words chilling. Iran executes homosexuals. A television report produced by the CBC in February detailed a few of the stories coming out of Iran, and the horror is unimaginable.

Iran isn’t the only country to persecute gays by law and then deny they exist, either. When Canada’s own Coalition gaie et lesbienne du Québec first attempted to gain Observer Status at the UN so they could officially report on human rights attrocities around the world, Egypt voted against admittance, saying they “don’t have a gay problem in [Egypt] because there are no gays there.” Egypt actively entraps and tortures homosexuals.

Really, one only needs to look at traveler warnings to see the extent of persecution faced by gays worldwide. Misinformation and denial about homosexuality is widespread and troublesome, and this is reflected in the cruel laws of many countries.

Remedying this won’t be easy. Given Canada’s own denial of the dangers faced by gay refugees, a local start isn’t too far back.

• Ahmadinejad questions 9-11, Holocaust after heated reception at Columbia U [CBC News]
• Gays Join Protest Against Ahmadinejad Speech At Columbia [Gay365]