Texas Conservatives Oppose Gay Center at UT

Apparently Texas conservatives are not content with merely outlawing gay marriage in Texas. Now they're attacking a student funded center at UT offers services to gay, lesbian and female students:

Now some Texas conservatives are targeting the Gender and Sexuality Center, saying UT students shouldn't have to pay $80,000 a year in fees for a center that "promotes a lifestyle" a majority of Texans reject – particularly when parents are struggling to afford college costs.

"They're obviously trying to promote an agenda on one side of the political spectrum," said Will Lutz, a columnist who wrote a scathing piece on the center for the socially conservative Texans for Texas group. "What we've created is a government-funded advocacy group for values a lot of Texans don't agree with."

The "agenda" that the likes of Lutz is opposed to is acceptance of gays. It's not good enough to conservatives like Lutz that gays can't marry. That a center at UT should offer services to gay students, paid for by all UT students, is unacceptable. That the UT students themselves approved of such a center is irrelevant to likes of Lutz and his ilk.

Defenders also include some lawmakers and students on both sides of the aisle who believe the students' decision to approve the center should be respected.

"The students should decide. That's really what's at stake here. It's not an issue of morality," said Brian Haley, a law student who was president of UT's student government when it allowed the center to use a small space in the Student Services Building.

"I'm not disagreeing with them on a moral basis," said Mr. Haley, a self-described conservative Republican. "But these processes were set up for students to decide, and I think our regents would support our students."

Of course it's absurd to say that the center should be funded solely by private donations. Students at all colleges fund programs that they may or may not agree with. If they don't like what their college funds, then they can elect to go elsewhere. Of course the real point is not to prevent the center from getting student funding; these conservatives would be happy to put the center out of business period. That gay students would have nowhere to turn for services as a result doesn't bother them at all.