Blatant display of homophobia on Greek shirts

Dear Editor,

I was in the North Campus Library on Tuesday night when I noticed a group of students looking at a fellow student's T-shirt, laughing. Out of curiosity, I walked closer and much to my dismay and disgust discovered what they were laughing at. The drawing on his shirt showed two male clowns engaged in what appeared to be anal sex. There was a red circle around the image with a red line drawn diagonally through it. The caption read "no clowning around" and "no foul fooling," insinuating homosexual sex is "foul" and homosexuals are clown-like. The shirt also read Sigma Phi Epsilon.

As a gay, male student here, I was both offended and infuriated.

Why would students go out of their way to make a statement that was so clearly heterosexist and homophobic? Not to mention the message they are sending to new students on campus, many of whom are freshman, just out of high school. The message I got was that Sigma Phi prefers and includes heterosexuals, while promoting the hatred and exclusion of gays.

At a time when hate crimes against homosexuals are quite common and at a time when gay people do not enjoy the same civil rights as heterosexuals (the right to legally marry or to openly join the military), I feel that ridicule of this sort is completely inappropriate, unacceptable and detrimental in promoting an atmosphere of open-mindedness, diversity and inclusion, which I thought was characteristic of CSULB.

This type of open bigotry does not belong in the university setting.

A Greek organization, or any other organization affiliated with the university should demonstrate better judgment and sensitivity when designing materials aimed at either promoting, or informing students about their organization.

If it doesn't, the Greek system tolerates open bigotry.

If the T-shirt image had been blatantly racist, depicting a person of color negatively, or openly anti-Semitic, would this too be acceptable?

Discrimination and intolerance in all of its insidious forms stands in the way of creating an atmosphere of learning, free thinking and inclusion, which I thought was one of the purposes of higher learning institutions.

­ James Thing

sociology major