University Official Defends Homosexual Pride Exhibit
by Jim Brown
June 14, 2004
(AgapePress) - Some students at Mississippi State University (MSU) are offended by a "National Gay and Lesbian Pride Month" display in the school's main library.
The "Gay and Lesbian Awareness" exhibit at Mitchell Memorial Library contains two rainbow flags and two large glass display cases filled with homosexual magazines. Sponsored by the Holmes Cultural Diversity Center and the MSU Lambda Professionals, the display purports to "dispel with plain facts" the so-called "myths surrounding homosexuality and gay life."
Joe Farris, director of University Relations, says the exhibit is not intended to promote homosexuality, but rather to foster "educational awareness" and encourage "the free flow of ideas" on the Starkville, Mississippi, campus. "We're not promulgating a viewpoint," he says, adding, "What the university is doing through the exhibit is simply providing a forum."
However, students like senior horticulture major Daniel Stewart were shocked by the display and want it taken down. "My first thought was 'I can't believe this is in Mississippi, in the Bible Belt,'" he says.
Stewart feels that by hosting the exhibit, the school is supporting the homosexual political agenda and the immoral, unhealthy lifestyle it glorifies. The student says he and several of his friends were offended by the display, and he remarks, "I was just wondering how in the world did this manage to get through the university to end up being displayed to everyone that walks through the library."
Mississippi State's president Charles Lee was unavailable for comment. Farris, who is assistant to the university president, says MSU is a place that welcomes the free exchange of ideas and that the "entire point" of the display is "not that we are picking and choosing" but that the school is "not trying to suppress some viewpoints and promote other viewpoints."
The exhibit of items and images reflecting homosexual pride and culture will be on display on the second floor of Mitchell Memorial Library throughout the month of June.
