“”On the Spot”” extremely offensive

In the Oct. 8, 2009 Wildcat issue, I find your “”On The Spot”” by Brian Kimball to be offensive to women, distasteful, repulsive and unprofessional journalism in a university community. If some of your writers cannot think of something fun and mentally stimulating to write for the young readers and the university community, they are in the wrong business, I think they need to consider something else to do.

I expect more from one of the leading university newspapers in the country.

Have some class, and shame on you for printing this trash.

Hassan Hijazi

relations & development

Online commentators don’t understand severity of sexual assault

As a proud UA alumnus, I love to read the Daily Wildcat online. However, while perusing yesterday’s Police Beat, I was appalled at some of the online comments regarding the young woman who filed a police report after she believed she was drugged with GHB at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party.

Many of the comments dismissed the woman’s claims as part of the “”college experience.”” Others defended the fraternity. Still more claimed that the woman’s report made it harder for victims of “”real”” sexual assault to come forward.

It is a shame that the victim in this case continues to be victimized. To argue that she was not the victim of sexual assault based on her filing of a police report is careless, at best. It is surprising that in light of the recent crack down on inappropriate Greek Life behavior that Phi Kappa Psi (or any greek organization) continues to provide and endorse the use of alcohol by minors.

As a campus, instead of arguing the degree to which this woman may have been sexually assaulted, we should be discussing how to prevent these situations on campus. Of course, the simple answer is to eliminate alcohol at greek events where underage members are present.

Unfortunately, it is probably going to take someone’s poor daughter or sister being raped or killed before we stop blaming the victim and instead look at fixing the underlying problem.

Class of 2003

A call for LGBT equality for straight allies and rational thinkers

For the past year I have been out of Arizona pursuing career goals. Lo and behold as the economy worsened, I, like many others, decided to come back to the UA and get my master’s degree. I have noticed things have changed.

Tucson is way gayer than I ever remembered. Example: I was at The Buffet Bar with a friend and out of the corner of my eye caught a female couple making out. Yet nobody seemed to notice or care. A sign of progress! When I walk around the UA, I see people more open and expressing than they were when I was an undergraduate. When I open the Daily Wildcat, not a week goes by where I don’t see multiple letters either from writers or students expressing loud empathetic support for marriage equality. This is surely a major shift from 2004-2008 when the issue was more often avoided or given token attention.

However, we cannot take our eye off the ball. Even as our community has taken an official stance on this (we rejected Proposition 102 and Proposition 107) there are the forces of hate who refuse to let this debate die. The members of the Christian right, the Tea Parties and the National Organization for Marriage threaten our way of lives as people and as human beings.

Those who oppose same-sex marriage enough to campaign against it don’t simply want to stop at marriage. Ninety-nine percent of the time they oppose hate-crime laws, employment discrimination protections, HIV funding, and any law whatsoever that given an inch to LGBT Americans. It’s time to acknowledge this for what it is: hate. The far-right doesn’t just want to take our rights away, they want to see us disappear and/or die. This is the reason the Tea Party protestors are now going after openly gay officials in Obama’s administration. Using words like “”homosexual activist.””

It is time as students to disinfect the poison. Straight students can do more to show support for us. When someone joins your club who outwardly expresses hate or disdain, either educate them or kick them out. If somebody runs for student government and doesn’t show respect for all your fellow students be it sexual, racial, religious, etc., call them out and vote against them. We need to do more to marginalize the bigots and make them feel like the scum that they are. Over time, our generation will right the wrongs made in the past couple decades against LGBT Americans.

Public administration graduate student