ASU Advertises: "We (Queers) Are Everywhere"

and no more small classes for the West Valley

Have you seen ASU advertise that it is inclusive? If you keep an eye on the events and activities they promote, you will find they are more inclusive of some than others. Although all humans come from the union of a man and woman, looking at ASU’s events and warnings against heteronormativity you’d think Alfred Kinsey has taken over.

ASU West Valley’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (SHArCS) proudly claims to be an “inclusive” place to learn. They want parents in the West Valley to believe their children will receive a thoughtful and balanced humanities education under the guidance of objective and empathetic professors who give a voice to the voiceless, and with small classes no larger than 30 students.

But let’s take a look at the kind of material they actually promote.

This week, SHArCS web page advertised an event titled “We Are Everywhere: A (Con)Temporary Queer Visual Resource Center” celebrating the LGBTQ+ lifestyle, one of many such events and promotions for this sex philosophy held throughout the year. This is an ASU advertised event although you can get there through the SHArCS web page.

If ASU, or ASU West Valley, or SHArCS, are interested in being inclusive then you would see events advertised about other sexual philosophies as well. But you won’t. All you see is the promotion of Alfred Kinsey and John Money. No counterpoints, no alternative views, no critical thinking.

And don’t forget, the alternative view is the one on which all of human civilization and our future is based. Yet you’ll not hear about the moral and health benefits of monogamous heterosexuality. Instead, students are warned about the supposed bogeyman of “heteronormativity,” as though the fact that all humans come from the union of a man and women should be hidden.

I think they are heterosexual-phobic.

Here’s the irony: many of the same professors who teach this also subscribe to the common atheist confusion that “you can’t get an ought from an is.” They insist that just because something is the case (say, gravity exists or humans are rational animals), doesn’t mean you can conclude what ought to be done.

But let’s turn that logic back on them.

If we can’t get an ought from an is, then just because someone experiences same-sex attraction, or believes he is in the wrong body, or desires group sex, it doesn’t follow that they ought to act on those feelings. Nor does it follow they ought define their identity around these desires. We are much more than our sexual desires. In fact, it might be the case that someone has a same-sex desire and also believes that acting on it would be morally wrong or physically unhealthy. But at events advertised by SHArCS, you’ll find a different dogma: that desire equals identity, and identity demands expression. Anything less is treated as repression or bigotry.

And speaking of misleading appearances, consider this little detail: on their website, SHArCS includes a glowing quote from a graduate who says she never had a class larger than 30. The implication is clear: this is a cozy, small-class liberal arts experience. But that’s simply not true for today’s students. SHArCS now fills their 100- and 200-level classes to 60 students, twice the advertised size.

Why the change? Simple: money. It is the easy and uninspired solution for administrators. It’s easier to increase enrollment than it is to improve quality. So SHArCS quietly doubled class sizes and still markets itself as offering “small classes” to the marginalized and oppressed. But in reality, they’re not giving West Valley students the very kind of classes in humanities that they promise. How will the voiceless be given a voice?

Don’t take my word for it. Go look at the schedule of classes yourself. Count the seats. And ask: Is this the kind of “humanities education” we want for the next generation? Is ASU’s SHArCS really interested in being inclusive or do their adverted events say that they have decided to push one narrative alone?

What can be done? ASU can affirm and promote the fundamental truth that all humans have a mom and a dad, have the right to know their mom and dad, and to be raised by their mom and dad. It can stop promoting the Kinsey sex philosophy and instead teach about “safe sex” meaning the actual harms to health and one’s soul that come from such activities. If ASU really cares about a sustainable future like it advertises then this is the course it must take.