Gay teen suicides are an act of radical activism. Really.

Baylor College is a evangelical university in Waco, TX. The students there would like a collegiate version of a gay-straight alliance. The university will not allow it. (As a private university, they have substantial leeway on issues of speech). From Change.org:

Need proof for why students on campus ought to have an outlet like the Sexual Identity Forum to discuss issues in a safe space free from rabid rhetoric or language that denies LGBT any sense of dignity? Take a look at an email Professor Francis Beckwith sent students about the Sexual Identity Forum, where he compares the idea of recognizing an LGBT group on campus with recognizing the work of Klansmen or Skinheads.

"The freedoms of speech and assembly to which you appeal are legal rights in relation to the government. Baylor is not the government. So, its policy on the proper use of our sexual powers is no more impeding your right to speech or assembly as it is impeding the rights of Klansmen and Skinheads to speak and assemble on campus," said Professor Beckwith.

Don't you just love how a group like the Sexual Identity Forum -- which really wants to just create a safe space for students of all walks of life to talk about things like bullying, suicide, and harassment -- all of a sudden magically becomes this political group capable of overturning Baylor's religious history? Prof. Beckwith continues in the note, suggesting that terms like "LGBT suicide" and "bullying" are actually political terms meant to push a radical gay rights agenda.

"Although you describe your forum as 'respectful,' the terms you employ for discussion are not respectful. They reveal a deep hostility to those who believe that homosexual conduct is disordered: 'hate crimes,' 'homophobia,' and 'LGBT suicide.' Each of these terms has been employed numerous times in the public square to intimidate and marginalize many of my brothers and sisters in Christ who as a matter of conscience cannot cooperate with the approval of homosexual conduct, since they believe such conduct is deleterious to the good of the human person," Prof. Beckwith adds.

Wow. Just wow. So it's not the bullying by people who hate gays, or the physical violence that some do in the Lord's name against LGBT people that deserves condemnation, according to Prof. Beckwith. Its gay rights activists who, in simply talking about hate crimes or suicide, marginalize Christians.

Prof Beckwith's entire email is a piece of work. He's a devout Catholic, by the way. Love how he co-opts the term "Christian", once again suggesting that all Christians are monolithic on this subject. But along with Change.org, I'm really amazed that LGBT suicide is a act of homosexual radicalism. I'm still shaking my head over that one.