The following responses were selected from many the Sundial received after publishing a letter to the editor on Monday concerning an article about CSUN’s possible new queer studies program. The letter to the editor in question can still be viewed on the Sundial’s Web site, www.sundial.csun.edu, where additional comments and letters can be read concerning this subject.

I want to thank you for running the story promoting the upcoming queer studies minor, as well as the accompanying negative opinion.?The queer studies minor is seeking to influence such misguided points of view with some honest information.?After all, being a member of the LGBTQ community, or the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning community for those unfamiliar with the acronym, isn’t admitting to having a psychosexual or psychological disorder, as your last opinion tried to link the two.?To be a member of this community is to admit to being a person, whose only difference is in the choice of their partner, and possibly realizing that your sex and your gender aren’t the same thing.? Thank you for helping to aid this department in their attempt to mitigate the damage created by ignorance and misconceptions. And for those who are interested in learning about psychosexual disorders such as pedophilia, necrophilia, mother complexes and Oedipal complexes, there’s already a course for that. It’s called “abnormal psychology.”

– Justin Roberson

I recognize that not everyone at this campus is supportive of the LGBTQ?community, but to have?a?gay bashing?editorial?printed in the newspaper only reinforces the idea that more people need to take?courses in queer studies.?I believe these courses should be mandatory, along with ethnic and gender studies?courses. Other universities have these requirements in order to introduce all students to courses in which they examine their prejudices, the prejudices that are ingrained in our society and the effects of these biases. If this student was to take a course in queer studies, he might find out that heterosexuality may be perceived as normal to some, but homosexuality is just as normal to others. And?it has only carried a social stigma at certain times in history and in certain places. For example, the Greeks, the people our society praises for inventing democracy, were openly homosexual, and it wasn’t viewed as deviant behavior. This student would also be introduced to the fact that just because someone is gay, it doesn’t mean this person is a pedophile. And just because someone is straight, it doesn’t mean this person isn’t a pedophile. Thinking otherwise isn’t only very offensive, but also very incorrect. Ignorant claims that gay people are attracted to dead bodies, children, or their parents need to be confronted at this university.?A university is?a place where people are supposed to learn and grow. CSUN students?can and should do better than that homophobic?editorial.

Thank you, Cynthia Rodriguez

As a member of the LGBT community and a student on this campus, I was appalled by the letter printed in the opinion section of the Daily Sundial on Monday. I found Mr. Victor’s remarks to be completely ignorant and offensive. I’m not a sexual deviant. And for the last time, it’s a life, not a lifestyle. I feel sorry for Mr. Victor’s equation of LGBT issues with those of the mentally ill. The argument that gay and lesbian people are sexual deviants is absolutely absurd these days, as the idea has been moot for decades. A 1998 article in The Journal of the American Medical Association noted a study determining that 90 percent of pedophiles are men, and of that 90 percent, 98 percent are heterosexual. According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Web site, “two other major studies that examined the sexual orientation of convicted child molesters found that less than 1 percent in one study and none in the other were lesbian or gay. These studies were published in Pediatrics and Archives of Sexual Behavior respectively, two peer-reviewed and widely respected academic journals.” Also, as stated in the original cover story, the minor is called queer studies in homage to the Queer Nation/Act Up movement of the early ’90s. “We’re here! We’re Queer! Get used to it!” Therefore, the absolute vulgarity of his comments that such illnesses like pedophilia and necrophilia should be included in the coursework because they too are queer isn’t only rubbish, but incredibly juvenile. My outrage stems not only from his remarks, but also from the fact that his opinion was the only one that was printed. I thought to myself, why was there no balance here? I feel that the Daily Sundial editorial team ought to take responsibility before publishing such bias without an accompanying counterargument to balance the playing field regardless of which section in the paper it appears in.

Thank you, Mykel Jay

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