The University of Oklahoma has caved to student demands–and is building a sexual orientation-segregated study lounge in its student union.
The university is, as one of Oklahoma’s largest public schools, funded largely by taxpayers.
The study lounge, which will begin construction soon, was backed by the student group, Queer Inclusion on Campus (QuIC) and will be for the exclusive use of the “LGBTQ” community, which includes students who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.
QuIC asked for the study lounge to give the gay community on campus a so-called “safe space” where they can study unfettered by those pesky heterosexuals. Apparently, the thought of even having straight people studying in the same room is enough to make a space “unsafe” for gay Sooners.
However, despite QuIC loudly cheering their latest victory, in getting a study lounge built, their logic seems way off.
Namely: how on earth is segregating a group of people (in this case, gay men and women) away from the rest of the student body at all going to lead to “inclusion” on campus? Wouldn’t a private, exclusive study lounge not only breed resentment, but further hide away the gay community from the mainstream student body?
And, if gays get their own study lounge, shouldn’t other minority groups get one too? A blacks-only study lounge? A females-only study lounge?
QuIC and the University of Oklahoma represent the very worst of liberalism: a belief set that preaches tolerance and unity, when they really seek to calcify the lines that divide us, and keep people sectioned off into discrete little groups that think a certain way and believe a certain way. They seek to create perpetual victims–and you can only do that if you keep demographic groups thinking a certain way.
There’s a reason why the Left goes collectively bonkers whenever an articulate minority celebrity, politician, or pundit drifts to the conservative side. Funny how there was no “War on Women” when the Left was savaging Sarah Palin in 2008. Or how there was no outcry of “Black Lives Matter” when they threw (and continue to throw) every obscenity they can at black conservative Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court. The Left doesn’t want independent thinkers: they want people who move in lock-step, and see themselves completely as victims, who require special accommodations, like a gay-only study lounge.
It’s sad to see the gay community at Oklahoma throwing in their lot with the small-minded liberal Left. Rather than join mainstream society–to live regular lives without letting a minority status wholly define them–QuIC and the University of Oklahoma would rather have gays study in their own “safe” lounge, separate but equal.
