Despite objections from same-sex-rights activists, the College Republicans carried out plans for a campus lecture featuring gay conservative talk-show host Steven Yuhas, who spoke in condemnation of same-sex marriage. The April 22 event attracted approximately 40 people.
Activism talk:
Although gay-rights activists called for its cancellation and threatened to picket, the event took place as scheduled, without protests.
Vice-Chair External of the College Republicans Jonathan Israel said he invited the KOGO 600 AM radio-show host to speak on campus in response to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s April 11 visit, during which Newsom defended his decision to grant marriage licenses to more than 4,000 same-sex couples.
Israel said he decided to invite Yuhas to provide an alternative viewpoint on the subject of same-sex marriage. Israel also said he invited various campus LGBT groups to the talk in hopes that they would show up and engage in dialogue.
“We welcome people who disagree,” Israel said. “When you debate and disagree and you are able to work these things out, that is when people are able to come to their own conclusions.”
Off-campus critics have labeled Israel and the College Republicans as intolerant homophobes because of their decision to bring Yuhas to campus.
“I have received e-mails referring to College Republicans as the ‘College Hitler Youth Brigade,’” Israel said. “They compared Steve speaking at UCSD to Hitler speaking to a rally of Jews. Using personal attacks is a way for them not to debate the issue.”
San Diego gay-rights activist Natalie Brown sent an e-mail to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, Chief Diversity Officer Jorge A. Huerta and various campus organizations calling for the cancellation of the College Republicans’ event. Brown had also said she planned to hold peaceful protests at the talk.
Israel, who compared the criticism to that faced by blacks who oppose affirmative action policies, said he feels the protest threats have occurred because Yuhas’ opinions are different from those of his critics.
“I think Steve, as a gay conservative, is a real threat to this notion that gays do not have equal rights,” he said.
Brown unsuccessfully tried to use the campus’ anti-discrimination policies to force the event’s cancellation.
She stated in the e-mail that “this event violates in every way the spirit of the anti-discrimination policy of UCSD and [Yuhas’] bigoted anti-gay hate speech could incite violence against LGBT students on campus.”
In an e-mail response, Fox stated that all groups are entitled to free speech.
“As a university, we place a very high value on free speech,” Fox stated. “That’s vital to the life of the university in order for the students, faculty and staff in our community to form their own personal opinions after hearing varied aspects of an issue.”
In a separate e-mail, Huerta stated that as chief diversity officer, he is responsible “for promoting and maintaining diversity on our campus in all of its many facets, which includes a diversity of opinions on a variety of topics.”
“I hope that people on either side of these issues can be tolerant with one another, no matter how much they disagree,” Huerta stated. “If we cannot debate these very important issues in an atmosphere of tolerance on a university campus, where else can we discuss and learn from one another?”
Brown stated in her e-mail that Yuhas was an inappropriate speaker because of his harsh criticisms of the gay community, explaining that gays may become the target of violence because of his rhetoric.
“He says things on his radio show every week against [the gay community], and he does what he can to paint us all as freaks, then pretends that he is having a fair debate,” she stated. “UCSD is a place for learning, not a place to let someone who is no different than the KKK come and hold a rally.”
Same-sex-rights activist and Revelle College Senior Senator Ted McCombs stated in an e-mail that, although he supports the College Republicans’ right to free speech and believes that the group has the right to bring any speaker of its choice to campus, he wished that another speaker would have been chosen.
“I congratulate the [College Republicans] on their initiative, but I fear their association with Mr. Yuhas will only hurt them within the UCSD community, and reinforce the unfortunate stereotype of Republicans as being a bunch of intolerant extremists who rely increasingly less on reason, and more on snide appeals to hatred,” he stated.
