Gender Neutral Pronoun Insanity at the University of Oklahoma

A few decades ago when I was at the University of Oklahoma, there weren’t a bunch of snowflakes on campus demanding a ‘safe space,’ nobody was protesting anything and campus politics were pretty benign. Probably the most important concern shared among the students was if the Sooners football team could win another national title. Fast forward to 2017 and while the football team is still contending for another title, it appears campus politics are now anything but benign.

The OU Gender + Equality Center, which did not exist when I was there, has an ‘Ally’ program which is “an LGBTQ cultural and awareness training that allows participants to focus on understanding LGBTQ concepts and issues, developing an awareness of biases and recognizing heterosexual and cisgender privilege, and exploring their own all journey and ways to become an advocate to create an LGBTQ-affirming campus.”

This Ally program has a 40-page resource guide that includes a ‘Gender-Neutral Pronouns Chart’ for students to use when addressing their classmates. I don’t know how people can present something like this and expect it to be taken seriously.

While scanning through the resource guide I noticed something interesting in the section called ‘Religious Views of LGBTQ.’ The guide goes through different denominations and describes their current positions. Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Mormons, Jews, and Presbyterians are all listed. The section on Baptists is wrong, as it starts by saying, “Considers homosexuality a sin, but officially lets openly gay people join.” There are different denominations of Baptists ranging from conservative to liberal, each with their own positions on homosexuality. Some support homosexual marriage and some do not. Some will let openly homosexual people join and some do not.

Whoever wrote this guide obviously has great disdain for Southern Baptists, writing that the “Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) even goes so far as to express antipathy not only for gay and lesbian people but also for any individual or institution that acknowledges, accepts, or supports them.” Resolutions passed by the SBC do not support that statement, saying just the opposite.

SBC – Be it finally RESOLVED, That we affirm that while the Bible condemns [homosexuality] as
sin, it also teaches forgiveness and transformation, upon repentance, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

SBC – Be it finally RESOLVED, That we maintain that while God loves the homosexual and offers
salvation, homosexuality is not a normal lifestyle and is an abomination in the eyes of God
(Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:24-28; 1 Timothy 1:8-10).

The resource guide then goes on to list local places of worship that are “LGBTQ friendly.” The most curious thing about the entire section on religion is that there is not one mention of Islam or any local mosques, and I know from my time at OU that the Islamic Society of Norman is located just off campus across from the duck pond. Perhaps the guide’s author was of the belief that Muslims would not want to learn dozens of new pronouns. Yes, that must be it.

The University of Oklahoma is hardly the first university to advocate for ‘gender-neutral pronouns’ and it certainly won’t be the last. This latest fad in our cultural insanity will find support in other institutions of higher learning and I’ve no doubt it will eventually find its way to high schools, junior highs, and elementary schools, if it hasn’t already.

The motive behind this pronoun nonsense is control. Demanding others use your ‘preferred pronoun’ is a demand that others acquiesce to whatever your personal delusion is about your gender and/or sexuality. I, for one, will not submit to this farce. You’re either a man or a woman and demanding someone call you ze, zie, per or ey won’t change basic biology or modify facts.

In William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the male protagonist, Petruchio, attempts to assert his dominance over his betrothed, Katharine. He tells her the midday sun is the moon and forces her to agree with him. Her agreeing with him did not change the fact that it was the midday sun, but it did mean that Petruchio was now the one behaving like a shrew.

Basic biology doesn’t change. Joining someone in their insanity doesn’t make them sane, it just makes you a willing participant in their delusions. Count me out.