USC Upstate Follows in the Footsteps of Columbia Campus in Promoting Same-Sex Relationships

On “Common Cents” we recently revealed the absurdity of a university-funded condom fashion show at the University of South Carolina’s main campus in Columbia; it now appears that USC’s Upstate affiliate is following suite with this cultural psychosis that is poisoning higher education in South Carolina.

“Preface” is a first-year reading program at USC Upstate that, according to the university, “introduces students to the joy of academic inquiry.” Apparently, however, this “academic inquiry” is primarily a promotion of homosexuality and the homosexual lifestyle. The school’s webpage promoting the “Preface” program features a header that reads “The Best of Rainbow Radio” with a microphone and rainbow flag as the backdrop. This page is designed to promote a reading assignment that is a collection of gay, lesbian and bisexual stories.

This fall, first-year writing students at USC Upstate are being required to read Out Loud: The Best of Rainbow Radio, a book edited by Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge and Dr. Ed Madden, which is a collection of stories from the state’s first LGBT radio program that was founded in 2005.

According to the university’s webpage the book features the stories of “Citadel cadets and drag queens, a slam poet from Columbia and a Spartanburg school teacher, a seminary student in Atlanta and a gay Army vet just back from the Middle East, West Columbia rednecks and rural Texas tomboys, as well as South Carolina’s first lesbian Congressional candidate.” Many of these stories are sexually erotic and have no place in a university setting, much less as required reading for incoming freshmen.

This is yet another example of how institutions of higher education across our state are ignoring the values held by the overwhelming majority of South Carolinians. To add insult to injury, these university-endorsed promotions of homosexuality are being paid for by tax money and / or mandatory student fees, effectively forcing the people of this state to support an agenda wholly opposed to our values. I half expect this kind of promotion of homosexuality and same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and California, but not at public universities in South Carolina. I also imagine that most of my fellow South Carolinians would be just as outraged if they were aware of such abuse.

In an effort to reverse this publically-funded promotion of homosexuality at public institutions in the Palmetto State, “Common Cents” and our policy foundation, the Palmetto Conservative Alliance, are working with our allies in the South Carolina House and Senate to introduce legislation that would forbid public universities from using public money and mandatory student fees to promote any sort of sexual agenda. This kind of propaganda doesn’t align with the view of most South Carolinians, and we shouldn’t be forced to pay for its promotion.

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