Joseph Sabia is a well-regarded economist and professor who teaches at San Diego State University. This week, he was called by Republicans in Congress to speak about the effects of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Everything was all set to go… until a blog post written by Sabia in 2002 in which he advocated for taxing “homosexual acts” surfaced.
The post was titled “Tax Gay Sex” and appeared on the site “No Shades of Gray,” which was billed as “The Ivy League’s Premier Conservative Column.”
In it, Sabira wrote:
How about we take this to the next level?
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Homosexual activity has been responsible for devastating health outcomes–deadly HIV, hepatitis B, and various other sexually transmitted diseases.
When two random men get together and choose to have sex, there is not an insignificant risk of infection and death. And if these infected men then go on to have sex with women, then you have women–and possibly children–who will be stricken with AIDS.
In another post titled “College Girls: Unpaid Whores,” Sabia raged about loose women who have sex “when they feel like it” and said gay men are to blame for straight people’s promiscuity:
It should surprise no one that sexual activity has historically been more frequent among gay men than among heterosexuals. This is because there is no civilizing female force in the gay community.
Whenever men want to have sex, they just go ahead and do it. Neither of the partners has much of an incentive to refrain from sex since monogamous relationships and traditional families are generally not the final goals of these partnerships.
Recently, the behavior of young heterosexuals has begun to resemble that of gay men because young women are imitating men in their sexual promiscuity.
To add a level of absurdity to the whole thing, Sabia is openly gay.
In a statement to Politico, he says he wrote the blog posts in college and that they were meant to be satirical.
“I regret the hurtful and disrespectful language I used as a satirical college opinion writer,” he writes. “As an out gay man in a long-term committed relationship… accusations of homophobia stemming from college nonsense I wrote nearly 20 years ago are hurtful to my family today.”
We get it. We’ve all said and done things in our pasts that make us cringe today. But Sabia’s old blog posts read a lot more like self-hating homophobia than satire, if you ask us. Even by 2002 standards.
After Sabia’s post surfaced, Republicans decided to delay his testimony, which was probably a wise move. But in an interview with CNBC, Rep. Mark Takano, the ranking Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee committee, said it was an “absolute shame and a disgrace” they ever invited him as a witness in the first place.
“Instead of simply postponing this hearing, which would have been the first hearing on the federal minimum wage that Republicans have held in eight years, my Republican colleagues on the Committee should have issued a strong rebuke disavowing this witness and let the hearing go on,” Takano said.
Meanwhile, San Diego State University rushed out a statement distancing itself from Sabia’s comments and affirming the university “unequivocally rejects any sentiment which seeks to undermine or devalue the dignity of any person based on their gender, orientation, ability, or any other difference among people which has been an excuse for misunderstanding, dissension or hatred.”
Related: Local residents in an uproar after learning their tax dollars might fund a gay fisting festival
PinkoOfTheGange
Read the entire thing it is self deprecating satire to any Economist and most B-school grads. Well at least those born prior to 1985.
jim18901
I am an economist, b school grad and born prior to 1985. (Also prone to satirical writing in college.) Sabia’s nonsense is just really dumb, sad self-loathing. I hope he’s matured. It wasn’t funny then and not funny now. This guy is teaching? Much strength to his students to know BS when they hear it.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I’m actually more interested in finding out his economic reasons as to why a $15 min-wage would not be viable.
His ridiculous “satirical” pieces are just that, ridiculous.
PinkoOfTheGange
Loathing the glass is half empty Deprecating it is half full. Tomato tomato (does that joke work written down?)
To me it comes across a satirical comment on load pricing, not social commentary of man on man sex worthy of our local church lady.
PinkoOfTheGange
Jim
As an economist you would then recognize a Freshwater argument against using consumer tax policy to instigate social change.
(Sorry I mixed up 10 year old memories of his posts, I should of gone and looked 1st, mea culpa.)
Hussain:
There are multiple article on his views of using minimum wage as a fight against poverty.
For the record I disagree with both of his positions.
Geeker
He looks like someone you find out has bodies buried under his house.
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PinkoOfTheGange
Graham did you even read the original post.
No economist against using minimum wage to fight poverty is defiantly not going to advocate using consumer taxation to effect social change.
jkthsnk
I’m disgusted by the “we’ve all” BS. I’m far from perfect but I’ve never been motivated to say stuff like this, or any of the “I was young” bigots.
jkthsnk
I’m disgusted by the “we’ve all” excuse. I’m far from perfect but I’ve never been motivated to say something like this.
jim18901
I don’t think that a discussion about serious economic policy can be intertwined with regrettable, offensive humor. (Humor at best.) My assessment is that this gentleman is neither good at economics nor humor. His best play … apologize and move on. The “wah-wah this criticism hurts my family” is equally childish.
PinkoOfTheGange
didn’t even read the original blog post did you?
Aires the Ram
As someone who made it through the ‘plague’, when many of my friends & acquaintances did not, I read this article, and come away with a different perspective of it. Many reading this were either not born by 2000, or were still young children. In the very early 2000’s, among gay men, there was still a huge fear of HIV, there were yet to be the drugs, and drug combinations we have today, that are keeping many alive. Younger men, 20 years ago and before, were very scared of contracting HIV. It was still stigmatized in the gay community itself, and a horrible scarlet letter in the rest of society, and your prospects for living a long natural life were not what they are today. It wasn’t a death sentence by then, but those living as younger adults at that time still had a legitimate fear of contracting it. This fear, which is what I got from what this guy wrote in 2002, was real, it affected our behaviors and our attitudes. It still wasn’t a very fun time to be a gay man and be, or want to be, sexually active. Perspectives change as time wears on. It’s easy to look back and criticize what someone said or thought 20 years ago, but it’s not so easy to put aside the attitudes of the current day and walk a mile in our shoes all those years ago, in context of where we were 20 or more years ago.
greybat
Well put, Aires!
georgiagrad81
Yes! I completely agree, Aires. I am not nearly as eloquent as you but would like to add my two cents. I was in Dr. Sabia’s class at UGA in 2006, and while he was a tough professor (I learned about true academic rigor in his class), he was fair and kind. The little bit I knew him, I would have never thought he was homophonic. I’m gay, and he made every effort to help me as well as countless others during scheduled office hours, before and after class, and via email. In my opinion, he made a poor choice in writing his satirical piece, but it should not haunt him 16 years later AND after deleting the post and blog many years ago. I lived in the closet for many, many years and employed some embarrassing tactics to hide my sexuality. I’m not saying that’s what he did here, but we shouldn’t be so quick to label and judge someone especially when it can ruin someone’s professional and personal life.