Each week, Queerty picks one blowhard, hypocrite, airhead, sanctimonious prick or other enemy of all that is queer to be the Douche of the Week.
Have a nominee for DOTW? E-mail it to us at [email protected].
Today Queerty’s Douche of the Week is actually a group. Or is that “are” a group?
Apparently some unidentified Vanderbilt University students think it’s totes hilar to call their rival school, the University of Kentucky, gay. They even took to online peddler Cafe Press to make a T-shirt saying “UK2GAY” to wear at the schools’ upcoming basketball game this weekend.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Girlfriends, some real talk right here: that joke don’t even make sense.
GLAAD wagged its exceptionally manicured finger at the students, telling them that real live gay people were not ROFL-ing over their little homophobic T-shirt.
But wait!
The creators didn’t mean to be anti-gay. They even said so with a disclaimer on their online storefront: “These shirts are not meant to be offensive or derogatory. They are only meant to be humorous.”
GLAAD schooled the creators of the t-shirt a statement:
But whether they’re “meant” to be offensive or derogatory or not, the fact remains—they are.
These shirts are not meant to celebrate the fact that the University of Kentucky has a vibrant LGBT community. They’re not commending UK for its successful Gay-Straight Alliance. These shirts are meant to insult a rival. And the “insult” here is based on the assumption that being gay is bad.
Maybe they’re meant to be humorous, but what message do they send Vanderbilt’s LGBT students? How safe and welcome will they feel on campus when they see their fellow students using their identity to insult a rival? And what about the thousands of other students, who walk away with the idea that it’s perfectly fine to use sexual orientation as an insult? As is always the case, intent is important, but so are the messages being received.
We shouldn’t be surprised, really. Vanderbilt isn’t looking like any bastion of tolerance or diversity lately: In 2010, a campus imam said he supported the execution of gays. Then a Christian fraternity, Beta Upsilon Chi, asked an openly gay brother to resign, despite the school having a clear-cut nondiscrimination policy. When the school told campus Christian groups they couldn’t use freedom of religion as an excuse to discriminate, groups like the Christian Fellowship of Athletes had a hissy fit. In a recent op-ed in InsideVandy , writer Justin Poythress goes on at length about how “Christians can’t be gay.”
Let me point out bluntly something that should be crystal clear to all professing Christians: They can’t be gay. To be clear, this does not mean they cannot struggle with homosexual temptations; it means you cannot claim to follow Christ and at the same time actively pursue a homosexual lifestyle. The two are incompatible. This would indeed be an extremely narrow-minded and bigoted standpoint if it was based on any single opinion. But Christians are supposed to take the Bible as the word of God, and if God says not to do something, it doesn’t make any difference what anyone else thinks. “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions … the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men … ” (Rom. 1:26-27) And again: “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality … will inherit the kingdom of God.” (I Cor. 6:9-10)
I’m sorry if these words are offensive to some, but the reality is that much of what the Bible has to say is offensive to our modern culture. As Christians, we must decide whether we are going to follow God wholly or pick and choose which things we like. What’s truly narrow-minded and bigoted is to make and support a policy that says we need to tolerate everyone except those people whose beliefs go against the accepted, establishment, pluralistic, politically correct views.
Wow, maybe Poythress should reread his Bible passages. We’re pretty sure “sexually immoral” would cover most college kids, even at Vanderbilt.
All together now: What a douche!
JayKay
Meh. Don’t really care.
I would’ve given it to the idiot who got arrested trying to throw glitter on Mitt Romney again.
Price Waterhouse
You know, it really may be possible to be too gay.
ChattyKathy
This Justin Poythress guy is apparently a “fast food examiner”, whatever the hell that is. Hopefully heart disease will reunite him with his sky pals sooner than later.
Lexington
It refers to the UK basketball team being the first college team to win 2,000 games. The shirts also are not referencing that Lexington KY, home to the University of Kentucky, is headed by an openly gay mayor either. ; )
onnie
I’d love to see these t-shirts reclaimed by the LGBTQ Alliance on UK’s campus. I’d love to have a RU2GAY from my alma mater of Rutgers University (GO KNIGHTS)
divkid
well i’m from the uk and i can attest that it is not 2 gay.
but we *are* recruiting and soon will be up to full capacity.
Tom
Reason # 132 why I put little faith in what is written in the Bible
Both quotes were written by Paul The Apostle.
Paul the Apostle is really named Saul–and was born Jewish, and only took that name to have more credibility with non-Jews.
Paul was born 5 years AFTER Jesus died.
Those quotes were written when Paul was an adult
Why the heck would anybody put any faith in what Saul has to say about Jesus’s teachings 50 years AFTER Jesus was already dead when he himself was born after Jesus died,,,, the quotes are not the words nor sentiments of Jesus but Saul’s interpretation of his teachings,,,from a man he had never even met ??? And yet people use that quote as if it came FROM the mouth of Jesus. We have no reason to believe that these were the sentiments of Jesus at all, and frankly , I doubt they would have been as an all loving person that he was.
Quotes can so easily be twisted to suit anybody’s objective.
13Zeroither
Fuck religion. It needs to die. But it would take a miracle if someone had a huge army to overthrow the governments of the world to create a global culture suicide to start all over (in order to murder religion. Fuck it into the depths of time). In its place would be the new world with each country having its own unique food, clothes, language, culture, etc. BUT ALL of the countries in the new world will be not racist, sexist, and homophobic.
A person can dream… 🙂
PTBoat
@Tom: Any bible scholar, or anyone moderately intersted in the texts, knows that the Pauline texts are written by mulitple, unnamed, authors just as some other texts attributed to apostles are.
Chad
Don’t they know that trick doesn’t work? “men who practice homosexuality” is not what the Greek word “arsenokoites” means. One need only look at the Latin Vulgate to see the original separation from what Paul ACTUALLY said to what the church tried to make it LOOK like he said. The Latin Vulgate has for ” arsenokoites” “synn of Sodom”. Clearly, Paul was not refencing Sodom or any city for that matter as the etymology of the word ” arsenokoites” clearly shows. The Greek word for the city of Sodom is nowhere to be found within that word. But today in ” Christian” concordances if you look up the word arsenokoites, it uses the the man-made word “sodomite” along with its man-made definition as its defense for defining arsenokoites as ” homosexual”
One need only to look at the history of the word arsenokoites to see that it does not reference homosexuality AT ALL! let alone, female homosexuality. At one point, arsenokoites was even used to refer to a sin that men commit with their WIVES!!! Martin Luther, the Catholic and later the father of Protestantism used this word to refer to “CHILD ABUSERS”. Even the German Jerusalem bible has for its translation of ” arsenokoites” at 1Cor6:9 “CHILD MOLESTORS”. Furthermore, Paul wrote Romans AND Corinthians. And nowhere in ROMANS 1 did Paul ever use the word ARSENOIKOITES anywhere. Even more telling is that OUT OF ALL THE CATHOLIC CHURCHES documents that reference homosexuality by the church fathers, NOT ONE of those references EVER use 1 cor 6:9 as a reference. It’s not until centuries later,after the rip between scripture and church teaching grew did the manipulation of “arsenokoites’s” meaning later evolve via the man-made Sodom reference to be a reference to homosexuality.
So don’t blame Paul, don’t blame God, and don’t blame the bible. This is the work of Babylon the Great the empire of FALSE RELIGION of which the Catholic Church is a part of. God clearly stated that anyone who added or took away from his word would be punished. And their fate will soon be carried out.
ChristopherM
It’s amazing what you’ll spend money on when that money is from daddy produced with no effort of your own.
C.A.R.D.S. Go CARDS!!!
NO Actully Louisville is more GAYER.. Hurray for Lextionton to have the first openly gay mayor for entire state, but Louisville is where its at!!! ( insert bias here)
University of Louisville
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE2wBK4REp8&feature=related
Highland neighborhood church
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS_kJjYWHf4
The main gay club in the city
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPqV7Hmq5WU
So Vandervilt get your facts straight.. no pun entended and rep better t-shirt in particularly the one that says “LOUISIVLLE THE GAYEST CITY IN KENTUCKY”.
Go CARDS!!!!
Shannon1981
“Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool.” – Mark Twain
Bronk
@Shannon1981: LOL. (Yeah, but Mark Twain could be vicious..!)
Shannon1981
@Bronk: But he was right on the money on this one!
Campus Pride
Queerty: This was apparently a HOAX.
Please subscribe to our RSS feed on our blog at http://www.CampusPrideBlog.org
http://www.campusprideblog.org/blog/uk2gay-shirts-do-not-represent-vanderbilt-we-know
On Friday, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) reached out to officials at Vanderbilt University after a University of Kentucky sports blog brought attention to anti-gay T-shirts allegedly being sold by Vanderbilt students.
The T-shirts, which said “UK2Gay” in reference to Kentucky’s 2,000 basketball game victories, were on sale at CafePress.com. The storefront has since been taken down.
University officials have said the T-shirts were an apparent hoax and, according to GLAAD, there was no “evidence of a broad campaign among students to wear these shirts to Saturday’s game.”
Campus Pride commends GLAAD for their quick action in reaching out to Vanderbilt officials on Friday.
We also commend Vanderbilt for their quick response, as we know the school to be among some of our most LGBT-friendly colleges and universities. Campus Pride has a long relationship with Vanderbilt University, where we have hosted past Camp Pride Summer LGBT and Ally Leadership Programs. We will host Camp Pride there again this year in July.
Vanderbilt has also participated in our LGBT-Friendly College Fairs and volunteered to take our free assessment, the Campus Pride Index, on LGBT campus inclusion and safety. According to the assessment, Vanderbilt received four out of five stars for their work in LGBT Policy Inclusion (4.5/5), LGBT Support & Institutional Commitment (5/5), LGBT Academic Life (4.5/5), LGBT Student Life (5/5), LGBT Housing & Residence Life (3/5), LGBT Campus Safety (1/5), LGBT Counseling & Health (5/5) and LGBT Recruitment and Retention Efforts (4.5/5).
CARDS
@Campus Pride: GREAT JOB!! 🙂