Anti-gay hatefest at U of Texas, Austin

On November 21st 2019, a right-wing student activist tied to anti-gay Republican Texas politics launched an effort to fire a tenured, openly gay University of Texas, Austin, classics professor for his academic work on Ancient Greek and Roman sexuality. In short order, her campaign was hijacked by violent left-wing radicals, who attacked the professor at his house. There was a brick thrown his window, slanderous graffiti spray-painted on his Austin home's facade, and a mob attack that forced him from his home under police escort. [...]

The press contact for "Students for Safety" was given as sophomore Sarah Blakemore. Anyone who looked up her Facebook page saw that she lists her interests as "Republican politics, gun rights, and modelling," and posts a picture of herself with a high-powered rifle and dead deer. Her father is a prominent Republican political operative close to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick; Lt. Gov. Patrick is well-known for his aggressive anti-LGBT agenda, as exemplified in his quickly withdrawn tweet after the 2016 Orlando gay bar massacre that "God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." [...] The initial right-wing effort to get Prof. Hubbard fired was hijacked and escalated by left-wing "Antifa" vigilantes.

The attacks on Prof. Hubbard from both the anti-gay right and left "Antifa" vigilantes point to the perilous state of academic freedom on today’s campuses. "Universities have the job of taking the long view and the big picture, testing questions of vital social import against evidence from specialized and maybe unexpectedly relevant fields," said one gay academic who didn't want to give his name. "Vigorous disagreement is absolutely allowed - but descent into harassment, slander, stalking, and assault threatens the possibility of free inquiry on which universities - and a democratic society - depends."

source: Article 'Anti-Gay Hatefest at U of Texas, Austin' by George Williard; baltimoreoutloud.com/wp/anti-gay-hatefest-at-u-of-texas-austin/; Baltimore Outloud; 20 December 2019