he was even advised to refrain from certain kinds of congratulatory physicality with other members of a sports team

Ah, the athletic butt slap.

Ah, the athletic butt slap.

Really, I thought it was the more traditional Touchdown Salad Toss…

Nor, he says, was he to hug or shake hands with other men for too long….

So do you think they followed him around with a stopwatch and step in to physically separate him from whomever he was greeting when his handshakes lasted more than the prescribed Heterosexual Manly Contact time?

So do you think they followed him around with a stopwatch and step in to physically separate him from whomever he was greeting when his handshakes lasted more than the prescribed Heterosexual Manly Contact time?

It’s a good question. I think they just had an electro-shocker attached to his nads.

I wonder if a lot of the young men at JBU were sent there by their parents to avoid exposure to typical college life – because they were caught doing gay stuff when they were younger.
Having an out gay dude there would thow a monkey wrench into their whole plan to straighten out their boys.

Waitaminute: “John Brown University”? As in, an institution of higher learning named after a famed anti-South “good terrorist” and abolitionist martyr?

Tell me how this is not like an atheist liberal being told to put up and shut up at “Tom Paine College”.

Something about this is kinda weird…

OK, the last line of that Agape Press piece made me laugh:

Besides encouraging JBU scholars to eschew homosexual sin, he says the university asks its students to avoid practices such as the occult, any sort of sex outside marriage, and theft.

The university also requires students to sign an oath stating that they will not plagiarize, commit genocide or wear white after Labor Day.

I imagine he was also prohibited from playing as a pitcher, catcher, center, or tight end.

Other restrictions included:

no nancin’
no prancin’
no dancin’
no romancin’

Ah, well, guess he should have gone to “BJU”. Heh.

Why would any sane gay person even think of attending John Brown University.

Are you kidding? Aren’t these bins of repression and unrequited sexual yearning just a hotbed for the kind of nasty, furtive, dirty, guilt-ridden sex some people crave?

Ah, well, guess he should have gone to “BJU”. Heh.

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I signed one of my friends up to receive a bunch of Bob Jones literature? They have a telephone hotline for questions about the college: 1-800-BJ-AND-ME. I shit you not.

So is the guy transgendered or even inclined to transvestitism? Or are they just assuming that all gay men wear dresses?

No Grecco-Roman wrestling for YOU!

“Restrictions,” eh? It sounds like they locked away in some Medieval tower and strapped him into an iron chastity belt until he agreed to renounce the gay.

You only got half of it with the belt. You forgot about the chastity ball-gag.

The former JBU student states that he was also told not to reveal his sexual orientation to other students until he knew them well.

So despite all their worries, the JBU admins are still gonna let this guy hang with other students and “get to know them better”, wink wink, nudge nudge?

In all fairness to JBU, this is only part of the story. The student in question wanted to attend because his mother works there, and he wanted the tuition discount. JBU is a private evangelical college, they were quite upfront with him about their code of conduct, and most of these restrictions (including the dressing in drag) are based on the pictures and behaviors he himself brought to their own attention at his own website. He continued to violate the restrictions he had agreed to even after repeated attempts by JBU to work out a compromise, and they finally did ask him to leave school, but with the option of coming back at any time he agreed to abide by their code of conduct.

I’m not agreeing with JBU’s prohibitions against “homosexual conduct”, mind; I just think that if you’re gonna ask a private institution to pay the piper, you have a certain obligation to dance to their tune.

Lesley K. –

I disagree that JBU gets a free pass just because they’re a private institution. I agree that in principle pribate institutions should have more leeway in deciding ‘ground-rules’ than non-private universities, but they shouldn’t be able to discriminate on the basis of race or sexual preferences. Segregation (for example) isn’t okay just because it’s a semi-private institution {and how private is an institution that regularly takes thousands of enrolees from the general public anyway?)

no way Lesley – a tuition discount for children is a benefit of the job, and if they are going to offer it, they can’t take it away because someone’s son is gay, no more than the school should refuse to cover her family’s health benefits because of his homosexuality. whether or not he was paying the tuition in full is irrelevant.

plus what Random Guy said.

I can’t believe that I’m in the position of defending JBU here, but here goes: JBU is not “semi-private.” They are a privately funded college with an explicitly
“Christian” mission. They were in fact NOT discriminating on the basis of sexual preference. They were discriminating on the basis of BEHAVIOR. Behavior, moreover, that is not legally protected either federally or by the state of Arkansas–unfortunately. Behavior that is contrary to their religious beliefs. Behavior that said student explicitly agreed not to engage in before he accepted enrollment (and financial aid.) Would you, for example, also require JBU to tolerate students performing public Wiccan rituals on the quad? (Stopping for a moment to savor the image) If progressives are going to trumpet tolerance and civil liberties, shouldn’t we take the ideas of “freedom of religion” and “freedom of association” a bit more seriously?

I suspect they chose the school name so their graduates can claim to be alumni of “Brown University” – they may even fool a few employers. At least until they have to speak…

Lesley –

a) What about the religious freedom of the Wiccans?

b) Discriminating against behaviour when it’s connected with the beliefs/sexual preferences of an individual is still discriminating on the basis of beliefs or sexuality.

I mean, if the school said he could enrol, but couldn’t have any sort of (homosexual) sexual experiences while he was a student, would you still be defending them? To me, it’s the same principle.

shouldn’t we take the ideas of “freedom of religion” and “freedom of association” a bit more seriously?

Only if they don’t receive federal monies.

Does the General know about this? What sort of manly sports do they offer and which of them was this young man restrained from? I can’t imagine that they’d have any problem with him joining the Greco-Roman Wrestling Team.

Ah, the athletic butt slap.

Posted by: Andrew A. Gill, SLS | February 2, 2006 04:54 PM

Wait, I don’t get it. Aren’t the butt-slaps, high-fives, group hugs, and other physical expressions of sport of a purely manly nature? It sounds to me as if the administration at John Brown University (motto: John Brown had a little soldier)
thinks that there might be something a bit, well, “gay” about such displays. Next thing you know they’ll be picking on the post-game shower-room toungue kissing.

So is the guy transgendered or even inclined to transvestitism? Or are they just assuming that all gay men wear dresses?

Well, Sidhe, it’s only because we all do. In fact, as I sit here writing this, I’m wearing my fave “little black dress,” a kicky Channel number, with a faboo string of cultured pearls, fishnet stockings, and 5″ Prada pumps. The wig? An exact replica of Teri Hatcher’s hair. Stunning! Ooh, and black-lace bra and panties! I gotta say, I’m fucking hot in this little getup, and put amateurs like Felicity Huffman to shame.
And it’s the same for all gay men–we really prefer women’s clothing. Of course, from time-to-time, you’ll see us in men’s clothes, ‘cos sometimes it’s impractical to wear our nice stuff. But what we’d rather be wearing is just so much more chic.

OK, I can’t keep that up any more. Wow, do I hate that drag stereotype. Drag is one of those things that I… Just. Don’t. Do.
Period.
Not that I have anything against drag queens–I barely bat an eye when I see one anymore. And they can be the cattiest/bitchiest people ever, which can either be amusing, or really annoying. But, sexually, they do nothing for me. “Cos, if I want something that kinda looks like a woman, I don’t really want it to have man parts beneath the frock. And, conversely, if I’m looking for someone who comes equipped with man parts under his clothes, I better not be able to describe those clothes as a frock. Me, I’m mostly into men who look and act like men–except for the fucking men part. And, even that can be an awfully testosterone-soaked affair, since it involves two or more, you know, men. But, if shemales are your cup-o-tea, there’s nothing wrong with that (though, please do keep in mind, she doesn’t look that much like a real woman, and nobody’s fooled when you two are out in public).
As far as the university v. gay kid thing goes, actually, as long as it’s a private university, they can set whatever rules and discriminate against any person or group they like, as far as I’m concerned. As long as they get no taxpayer funding. but, I also wouldn’t have too much of a problem if the more openly discriminatory institutions out there couldn’t get accredited, for instance, as a price for their bigotry.

Judging from my extensive (but purely academic) study of pornography, I’d wager that there are many more heterosexual than gay men who get their jollies from dressing in women’s clothing. Ladies, I don’t know how you do it. Those damned stiletto heals really make your ankles sore after a while!

Follow your dreams, you can reach your goals.