<p>I’m a little confused by the implication that it’s extremely important for a Christian student to be exposed to a “diversity” of views, but that simultaneously it’s imperative to engineer a college environment where a gay student’s view of the world will always be supported, accepted warmly and never challenged.</p>
<p>Apparently it’s important for the Christian student to have an experience in the “real world” where he will realize that (a.) the vast majority of college students think he’s a naive, boorish, uneducated idiot and (b.) that he has no “right” to hold the views that he holds. On many campuses, his views will be ridiculed by other students and his professors. Campus groups that might support this student will be denied funding, denied meeting space on campus, and administrators and faculty who might agree with the student will likely be encouraged to seek employment elsewhere. Any physical reminders of his beliefs (like a cross in the community chapel) will quickly be whisked out of sight lest they offend anyone, and he will be required to attend lots of seminars on tolerance where he will be exposed to sexual practices and information that makes him uncomfortable. He will be told that this is excellent preparation for the real world, since everyone in the real world is apparently a gay-friendly liberal. (Obviously, they’ve never been to my small Southern town.)</p>
<p>Simultaneously, however, it’s important for a gay student to have an experience in a “supportive environment” where for four years he will never have to explain his lifestyle choices to anyone who questions them, disagrees with them, or finds them troubling. He will never encounter literature which presents an alternate view of his lifestyle, in class or out, nor will quesitoning of his lifestyle be allowed in campus publications, on campus radio, campus television or at any forum by any speaker or in any religious venue. Recruiters who come to campus will all be preselected so that only the gay-friendly businesses can come. </p>
<p>It seems to me that if anyone’s being done a disservice here by the application of this double standard (where some individuals are forced to defend their views and made to feel unwelcome while others are coddled), it’s not actually the Christian guy. Instead, it’s perhaps the GLBT student who will then proceed into the “real world” only to discover that there still are realtors who don’t want to rent to him, adoption agencies that don’t want to give him a baby, articles in the mainstream press that question his lifestyle, and that in the real world employers do sometimes discriminate against him. Unfortunately, he’ll have no experience in defending his ideas since he’s been in a bubble for the past four years while others have matured and grown to adulthood.</p>
<p>I’m saying all this from the viewpoint of someone who went to a women’s college in the 1980’s where I was told that life was fair and fun and that gender discrimination was a thing of the past. Boy was I surprised when I went to grad school! I’m not sure that the so-called supportive environment really helps anyone in the long run. Perhaps it would have been easier had I learned how to defend myself earlier, rather than later.</p>