Senate bill does not speak for all students

Wednesday, the Texas A&M student senate voted to support SB 63-106, the so-called "Sexual Education Equality in Funding Bill."

The bill supports Texas State Rep. Wayne Christian's (R-Center) amendment to the state budget bill, requiring university GLBT centers to provide matching funds to "traditional sexual education," whatever that means.

In the bill, the authors purport to voice the "opinion of the students of Texas A&M University" in support of this measure. To be perfectly clear, the authors and Senate do not speak for me.  I hope other Aggies agree.

I do not believe in divisive, dubiously defined, dog whistle terms such as "traditional values education." The cowardice of the bill's authors is quite evident when they neglect to define what these "traditional values" are, or who gets to decide on what they are. The divisiveness is obvious when they imply a cleavage between "traditional" and "alternative" sexual education, as if homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism are not "traditional" and do not fall under the umbrella of "traditional values."

The necessity of GLBT resource centers, Aggie Allies, and other support groups should be obvious to anybody who follows current events. Institutionalized homophobia exists, and accordingly, suicide rates among GLBT youth are significantly higher than the population as a whole. Bullying led to the suicide of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, whose roommate at Rutgers University streamed a sexual encounter over the Internet without his consent. Bullying led to the suicide of 13-year-old Ryan Halligan, who was threatened and attacked by classmates who accused him of being gay. Bullying led to the suicide of 13-year-old Asher Brown, who was picked on for being gay while school administrators turned a blind eye. Asher was a student in the Cypress-Fairbanks school district, a scant 70 miles southeast of Texas A&M.

This rash of suicides led to the creation of the It Gets Better Project, where people created videos to reassure GLBT youth that their lives will get better in the future. Among the contributors are President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. At the highest levels of government, we understand that GLBT youth face increased discrimination, and we recognize that supposed authority figures in our schools turn a blind eye to this. This is why a GLBT resource center is necessary.

To claim the need for a "traditional values" center, with equal funding as the GLBT center, is an utterly shameful ruse to cover up homophobia under the mantle of preaching equality, as well as the goal of damaging the ability to help GLBT students.  Let us be clear: "traditional values" is a dog whistle for conservative, religious, and heterosexual values, and none of these groups face the discrimination and bullying that homosexuals do. Kids have not committed suicide because they were bullied for being heterosexual.

I am a graduate student at A&M, having attended undergrad elsewhere in the state, and I knew that the University had a conservative reputation. In my two years here, I've encountered nothing but great, friendly people that are willing to engage in respectful and well-reasoned debate. I've whole-heartedly bought into the Aggie ethos, and felt incredibly proud to receive my Aggie ring last week.  I've defended the University to those who thought this was a closed-minded, non-inclusive institution; unfortunately, after the passage of this bill, I can no longer do so.