The response below is in relation to a recent blog post by GVSU 教师 member, 蒂姆·潘宁, 目前由GVSU学生共享, 工作人员, 教师, 和校友. The response was penned by 指导委员会主席, 凯尔Felker, and supported by the rest of the 指导委员会. The original blog post can be found here: http://pierpoints.wordpress.com/2023/06/01/a-christian-perspective-on-rainbows-pride-and-love/

同性恋教师 & 员工协会回应

Professor Pennings' statements 是 familiar territory for LGBTQIA people.  我们大多数人一生中都听过这些话, sometimes from friends or family members who also professed to love us.  The pat assumption that our relationships 是 shallow, 纯粹的性, 不要涉及任何真实的感情.  The comparison of our relationships to pederasty, and ourselves to thieves and criminals.  The only real surprise to me was the allegation that the rainbow flag is “cultural appropriation,” and that we stole it from Christians because rainbows 是 mentioned in the bible. 这太荒谬了，我笑出声来.

Absurd or not, Professor Penning has every right to believe it if he so chooses.  He also has the constitutional right to say it in a public forum without fear of governmental interference-that is free speech.  What’s at issue here, though, isn’t freedom of religion or free speech.  It's the integrity of our work culture, and the safety of LGBTQIA 工作人员 and students.  Professor Penning's stated views 是 in direct contradiction to professed university values.  How 是 queer students supposed to see something like this and feel safe in his classes?  lgbtqia的教职员工呢, for whom professor Penning may have an evaluative role in their tenure hearings?  Or LGBTQIA 工作人员 members who may have to work with him?  那些人怎么可能有安全感, especially in situations where he may have power over them?

I wish I could say that I was surprised and shocked that a professor at GVSU not only holds homophobic and transphobic views, but also app是ntly feels comfortable sharing them with students, 同事, 以及整个世界.  遗憾的是，我不能.  Over the past five years I’ve become more and more concerned over multiple indications that GVSU work culture is much more hostile to LGBTQIA people, 尤其是跨性别者, 比任何人想承认的都要多.  Issues surrounding hostile workplace environments surfaced on a 焦点小组 FSA早在2019年就加入了会员.  我们最近的 气候数据 shows that 29% of 教师 and 工作人员 who responded and identified as trans or nonbinary experienced discrimination based on their gender identity, and 12% of respondents who identified as LGBTQ experienced harassment based on their sexual orientation.  最新的 报告 from the employee ombud’s office notes that LGBTQIA visitors to the office  “appear to be leaving the university due to their experiences. The LGBTQIA+ community felt they were treated differently because of their identity, 努力应付差劲的主管, described a lack of empathy and understanding within their departments, and possessed an increased fear of retaliation for speaking up or giving critical feedback.在后续报道中 焦点小组 去年在LGBTQIA员工中进行的, the facilitators noted in their final 报告: “trans people we spoke with had more challenging experiences both at GVSU and in the community. They described experiences that made them feel unsafe and exposed in the GVSU community.”(14页).

This is also only one in a string of recent incidents where this hostility to the LGBTQIA community has surfaced on campus.  4月, a conservative students group “Lakers for Liberty” invited Riley Gaines, 排斥跨性别的激进女权主义者, 来学校做演讲.  Their facebook page boasts that this was the “largest, most successful political speaking event at GVSU since 2016.在那次谈话之后, two students who had been attending attempted to crash the counter-protest put on by LGBTQIA students and 工作人员 in the form of a dance party, which was taking place two floors down from the Gaines talk.   Although there was copious security arranged by campus administration to shield the Gaines talk speaker and attendees from potential violence, 反抗议没有这样的保障.  It is only because two LGBTQIA 工作人员 members were present, and prevented these students from entering the event, 我们避免了一场非常丑陋的, 潜在危险事件.  This communicated very clearly to everyone involved who got to be safe on this campus, 谁没有呢?.  同一周的早些时候, a speaker invited to GVSU for a Transgender Day of Visibility event had to be moved to a new hotel because someone vandalized their car in the hotel parking lot.

再加上LGBTQIA的员工, 大多数都是反式的, I myself have personally known who have been bullied and abused, 谁的事业受到了威胁, whose well-being and dignity have been compromised.  Many of them have left GVSU, traumatized and disgusted.  我们失去了天才学者, 有才华的老师, and dedicated 工作人员 members who worked hard to educate and elevate students, 并丰富校园社区.  与此同时, 那些实施歧视和虐待的人, 以任何形式, 是,  比如潘宁教授, 还在这里.  To my knowledge, most never faced any disciplinary action of any kind.  有些人甚至得到了晋升.  

So, as I see it, the issue here is not “we have a homophobic professor.“我们可能已经走了很远, 太多恐同和恐跨性别的教师了, 工作人员, and students who 是 far more comfortable here than their LGBTQIA counterparts.  Our lived commitment to diversity is uneven at best, despite what we may profess.  This is merely one more visible symptom of a deep underlying sickness.  How many more will it take, I wonder, before we do something about it?

凯尔Felker

同性恋教师 & 员工协会

指导委员会主席