Word: mansfield
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Professor Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. '53 has once again exercised his first amendment rights in a way that infuriates certain groups of students on campus. He claims that gay sex is "shameful," that gay love is "imperfect and stunted and frustrated," and that "gays eventually undermine civilization" because men and women civilize each other by living together. As in the past Mansfield makes sweeping generalization based not on any sort of systematic study or research, but on his personal opinion...
...debate sparked by what he said initially devolved into one over Mansfield's status as a professor at Harvard. The first response of BGLSA Co-Chair Dennis K. Lin to Mansfield's testimony in Colorado is a good example. "That remark is absolutely offensive and repulsive and we're ashamed he's a professor here...
This sort of remark only serves Mansfield's interests. It allows him to wrap himself in the First Amendment and forces people who disagree with Mansfield to defend him on the grounds of freedom of speech...
...more effective to counter Mansfield's ignorant arguments than to question his position at the University. Lin's initial response, "I think the University should look into this and react to this," was totally unproductive. It was disappointing that a potential voice of reason did not attack Mansfield's arguments on their own merits. Fortunately, the BGLSA has since defended Mansfield's freedom of speech and begun to focus on protesting the content of what he said...
...Professor Warren D. Goldfarb said, "It's not the University's concern. A professor is free to have whatever opinions he has and say them wherever he wants." Rather than ask for action from the University, it will prove more powerful for those who opposed Mansfield to home in on the inconsistencies of his position...