Hello. My name is Matt Adler. I’m a 19 year old sophomore from Rockville, Maryland. I like hanging with friends, running in forest park, and eating Asian noodles. I speak Spanish, Hebrew, and a little bit of Arabic, and love listening to all sorts of international music. I’m not quite sure what my major is yet (suggestions are welcome), but I’m thinking about Near Eastern Studies, Spanish, Linguistics, or Environmental Studies.
This year, I’ve been mentoring inner-city youth, African dancing, and leading services at Hillel.
And I’m gay.
What does that mean to you?
Am I a hot topic for debate? Am I like the pros and cons of the Iraq war, or the need for welfare reform? Am I the benefits of non-fossil fuels over petroleum? Or am I the need to build new refineries to keep the economy going? Am I a way to get votes? Am I a civil union, a marriage, a threat?
I am no more a political “issue” than calling blacks inferior, Hispanics stupid, and Jews moneygrubbers. These are not political issues, they are pure hate. I, Matt Adler, am not debatable. I am a human being. I am not a theoretical argument, a debate, or a “free exchange of ideas.” Look me in the eyes and see that I’m a person, a classmate, a suitemate, maybe even a friend. Not a dispute, not freedom of speech, not a “point of view”.
But you talk about me like I don’t even exist. Guy, girl, liberal, conservative, yankee, redneck, midwesterner, Christian, Jew, atheist.I’ve heard you. You’ve said “freedom of speech.” I say “discrimination” and “harassment.” You’ve said “it’s just an opinion.” I say “so is Nazism, so is racism.” You’ve found the perfect solution: DIALOGUE! DEBATE! Why don’t we just listen and hear all sides of the story? Maybe we can even debunk his theories! I say why don’t you just make Blacks, Jews, and Hispanics go to coffee with the KKK Grand Wizard? Maybe they can show him how Hitler’s thinking was flawed. You’ve said “personal Web site” and “University Web space” and “just make him take it down” and I say: it makes not one bit of difference.
What does make a difference is the fact that Jonathan I. Katz is a professor. And Mr. Katz crossed a red line. In making his hateful views public he has compromised his academic standing. As an authority figure at this university, he “[can]not discriminate in access to, or treatment[.]in, its programs and activities on the basis of[.]sexual orientation,” according to official school policy. He has made it clear on his site that gays are immoral and destructive human beings. We can only logically assume that he applies this philosophy to gay students at Wash. U.; that he applies it to me. He need not say one word in class to make it abundantly clear that gay students are rather “unwelcome.” And while you, Joe (or Jane) straight student, can afford to ignore Professor Katz’s public hate because he doesn’t mention it in class, I don’t have that luxury.
While Katz has every constitutional right to slander me in his private domain, he consciously decided to publicize his hate as an employee of the university. As soon as he made his “views” public, the damage to his classroom was done. The academic integrity of his class is no more, as I and other gays now feel far from comfortable enrolling in his class, as you can imagine. Let’s just say that I sure as hell wouldn’t ask him for help on a problem set, or trust that my test was graded fairly. Therefore, it wouldn’t have mattered if he wrote his articles on a Wash. U. site, Yahoo Web space, or the moon. Wash. U. has allowed him to get away with the de facto exclusion of your gay classmates from his courses, hardly befitting of a university that prides itself on equal opportunity and diversity.
So, what to do? I say: fire Professor Katz. Wash. U.: take a stand for all students’ right to an education without fear of discrimination. And next time you, my classmates, see me on campus, say hi to me. Look at my face and decide if you feel comfortable excluding me from your classes.
Matt is a sophomore in Arts & Sciences.