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The Kid Behind The Campaign To De-Queer Gustavus Adolphus College Is Soooo Not a Radical

Guess who read our post about Gustavus Adolphus College’s freshman orientation, where the incoming class is “forced” to watch a skit on sexual orientation and gender identity? Phil Cleary, the man who infiltrated orientation to bring you those secret clips of students acting all gay in front of each other!

Cleary, a Gustavus student himself who co-founded the uber-conservative student group Gusties for Restoring America, takes to his blog to identify Queerty as using Rule 11 of “Rules for Radicals,” which states: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.”

Which is totes what we were doing when we called out Cleary for attacking the college’s completely reasonable — and recommendable — attempt to familiarize students with all the types of queers they might encounter on campus.

Compare the way that they tell the story of freshman orienation at Gustavus, with a personalized, direct attack to the more subtle, non-confrontational method that I selected when simply addressing the seminars as an abstraction, without naming any individuals involved.

Don’t let their tactics suprise you. It takes less then minutes for them to turn you into what some call “a nationally syndicated “h8ter.”” Study them so you can anticipate what is coming. Then, you can learn to win on principle.

Suddenly I’m starting to feel all Andrew Shirvell in even mentioning Cleary’s name. Or I would, were it not for my core belief that bigots exercising their right to free speech, in an attempt to permit LGBTs to be terrorized, should be challenged.

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