Daily Archives: September 9, 2014



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AAUP Condemns Trigger Warnings As A 'Threat To Academic Freedom'

AAUP Condemns Trigger Warnings As A 'Threat To Academic Freedom'
The American Association of University Professors, one of the nation’s leading college faculty groups, announced this week it formally opposes the use of “trigger warnings” in classrooms and on class syllabi.

In a lengthy statement outlining the AAUP’s position, the group called trigger warnings — whether mandatory or voluntary — a “threat to academic freedom.” The use of them by faculty in a classroom setting could skew the choice of course materials and teaching methods, AAUP said, and would prove “counterproductive to the educational experience.”

Trigger warnings have existed for decades in some form, but grew in popularity online from the days of LiveJournal a decade ago to today’s Tumblr and Twitter age of the Internet. As the Associated Press noted in April, the trigger warnings have now made their way into classrooms at some of the most prestigious colleges in the country, sparking a debate about what limit, if any, should be placed on their use.

AAUP took a swipe at Oberlin College in Ohio for issuing a guidance of topics like “heterosexism, cissexism, [and] ableism,” that professors may want to use caution when discussing for fear of “triggering” students. AAUP stated:

The presumption that students need to be protected rather than challenged in a classroom is at once infantilizing and anti-intellectual. It makes comfort a higher priority than intellectual engagement and—as the Oberlin list demonstrates—it singles out politically controversial topics like sex, race, class, capitalism, and colonialism for attention. Indeed, if such topics are associated with triggers, correctly or not, they are likely to be marginalized if not avoided altogether by faculty who fear complaints for offending or discomforting some of their students. Although all faculty are affected by potential charges of this kind, non-tenured and contingent faculty are particularly at risk. In this way the demand for trigger warnings creates a repressive, “chilly climate” for critical thinking in the classroom.

AAUP went on to discuss the cons of trigger warnings, noting one about suicide ahead of literature like “The House of Mirth” or “Anna Karenina” could prevent students from overlooking “the other questions about wealth, love, deception, and existential anxiety that are what those books are actually about.”

The AAUP, mind you, is not oblivious to the intense focus on campus sexual violence taking place over the past couple of years, and the unprecedented federal crackdown on colleges mishandling cases.

The group writes trigger warnings are not going to fix things around that issue:

It is probably not coincidental that the call for trigger warnings comes at a time of increased attention to campus violence, especially to sexual assault that is often associated with the widespread abuse of alcohol. Trigger warnings are a way of displacing the problem, however, locating its solution in the classroom rather than in administrative attention to social behaviors that permit sexual violence to take place. Trigger warnings will not solve this problem, but only misdirect attention from it and, in the process, threaten the academic freedom of teachers and students whose classrooms should be open to difficult discussions, whatever form they take.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/09/aaup-trigger-warnings_n_5792358.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

MISC

You’re Invited To The Stoli Guy NYC Finale With Betty Who & Blake Skjellerup

You’re Invited To The Stoli Guy NYC Finale With Betty Who & Blake Skjellerup

Screen Shot 2014-09-09 at 1.46.36 PM

The 12 Stoli Guy finalists are coming to New York City on Thursday, Sept. 18  for the dazzling nationwide finale, where they will all take the stage at the brand-new Space Ibiza NY and compete for a chance to win $10,000.

Pop sensation Betty Who, openly-gay Olympian Blake Skjellerup and designer Andrew Christian will judge the Stoli Guy finalists on their talent, personality and stage presence. NYC drag staple Sherry Vine will join Patrik Gallineaux, Stoli’s national LGBT ambassador, as guest co-host.

New York Queerty readers are invited to come watch the high-energy conclusion to the summer star search tour produced by GayCities. Cocktails will be included for everyone who RSVPs.

What: Stoli Guy National Finale
When: Thursday, September 18 at 8pm
Where: Space Ibiza NY, 637 W. 50th Street (at 12th Ave.)
Who: Stoli Guy finalists from across the country, Betty Who, Sherry Vine, Blake Skjellerup, Andrew Christian and you!

Click to RSVP to the Stoli Guy Finale

Featured Photo: Betty Who Facebook

Oscar Raymundo

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MISC

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka marry and the "angry itch" takes over social media

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka marry and the "angry itch" takes over social media
2014-09-09-nph1024.jpg
Over the weekend, Neil Patrick Harris and his partner tied the knot with their two young kids attending. Harris confirmed on Twitter: “Guess what? David Burtka and I got married over the weekend. In Italy. Yup, we put the ‘n’ and ‘d’ in ‘husband.’ ” In case you missed the joke, that’s “N” for “Neil” and “D” for “David.”

Within hours of Harris’s tweet, news of the actors’ nuptials quickly became a trending topic on Facebook, going viral in the process. Not surprisingly, congratulations and “Likes” poured in, much like those for other married same-sex couples over the years. I’m thinking about celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Portia Di Rossi, for example, as well as Elton John and David Furnish. Not to be overlooked this weekend, tennis champion Martina Navratilova’s proposal to her girlfriend at the U.S. Open also garnered strong crowd approval – both in the stands and on social media.

As a columnist who covers LGBT issues, especially same-sex marriage, I posted a photograph of the two husbands on my site, each holding one of their children. The caption:

“Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka are married. Join me in wishing congratulations to the happy couple.”

Simple enough. Seemingly innocuous. No doubt the editor at People.com thought the same thing in posting the story with this headline:

“Neil Patrick Harris Marries David Burtka”

An hour or so later, though, I realized much more was at stake than a mere congratulations. I found myself witnessing a vociferous and widespread backlash against the newlyweds on both social media services and sites like People and E! Online. Virtual smack downs were taking place all over the Internet, with little regard for civility much less respect. In short order, the Harris-Burtkas were called out as “sad and sick,” “disgusting perverts,” “sodomites,” “trash,” and some anti-gay slurs that can’t be reprinted here. Two posts in particular summed up the newlyweds’ detractors:

“This is evil and we must condemn it no matter what, where or who
is involved.”

“This is NOT marriage. This is a perversion of marriage…. Disgusting & immoral.”

I mentioned in an email what was occurring to a colleague, who immediately wrote back: “HONESTLY, who does not LOVE Neil Patrick Harris deep down inside.” That’s right, the star of “Doogie Howser, M.D.” and “How I Met Your Mother” had become a pariah to those opposed to same-sex marriage.

That’s when the light went off on in my head: Optimists like me look at the most recent Gallup Poll (which showed support for gay marriage at an all-time high of 55%) and tend to forget about that other 45%, who most decidedly do not. Among those over 50 and those in the South, in fact, majorities remain firmly against. According to the poll analysis: “[T]he older an American is, the less likely he or she is to support marriage for same-sex couples. Currently, adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are nearly twice as likely to support marriage equality as adults aged of 65 and older.” As for the year-long string of court wins, I’m reminded of the wisdom of philosopher Edmund Burke: “Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in great measure, the laws depend.”

Court victories aside, the newlyweds’ detractors provided a focused snapshot that the road to marriage equality is not without its speed bumps — and its opponents not without their loud voices. If anything, yesterday’s free-for-all was a powerful reminder of “the angry itch” that persists when it comes to same-sex marriage rights and rites.

www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-petrow/neil-patrick-harris-and-d_b_5793486.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

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