All's fair in sex and speech
Anatomically correct ginger-bread cookies. A table of foods "guaranteed" to turn you on. Sex toy brochures and orgasm bingo. These all were part of Pennsylvania State University's Sex Faire, an entertaining and creative way to learn about safe and consensual sex. Some members of Pennsylvania's state legislature don't see it that way, however. They have condemned the fair, which was sponsored by the Womyn's Concerns group, as immoral, and they severely chastised Penn State's president for allowing it to be held. The state has no business preaching morals or trying to limit freedom of speech on Penn State's campus.
In what was supposed to be an appropriations hearing Tuesday on next year's state funding for the university, legislators instead grilled Penn State President Graham Spanier on the appropriateness of holding the Sex Faire. The hearing got ugly when state Rep. John Lawless, a Republican who wants to withhold funds from the university because of the fair, resorted to making personal attacks on the president.
Lawless' anger is completely out of proportion to the scope of the event. Sex Faire cost $50, which is taken from students' activities fees. It's a miniscule amount and ridiculous to suggest that even if these funds were misused - which they weren't - that it would warrant decreasing state funding. What's scarier than Lawless' essentially empty funding threat, however, is the willingness of several legislators to trample all over free speech rights. Pennsylvania state Rep. Curt Schroder, a Republican, said at the hearing that values should be more important to Penn State than free speech law. Lawless said the university had to begin to live within the legislative body's social standards. But the whole point of freedom of speech is to permit expression that may be controversial and to allow for alternate viewpoints. The law is clear, but ideas of morality and appropriateness may differ across groups.
Students on a college campus are more likely than legislators to be receptive to openness about sexuality. It's healthy for college students to have access to a variety of materials regarding sexuality, even in the form of games and snacks. No one forced Lawless to walk around Sex Faire with a video camera, and no one made him broadcast his recording at the hearing - he chose to expose himself and others to this event. Lawless had the right to make his own decision, as should Penn State students.
Since University students attend a state-funded institution, it is all the more disturbing to see another state's legislative body attempt to curb free speech at a university. Spanier should be commended for standing up for his students' rights, even when subjected to such ridiculous attacks from Lawless as, "We saw the Clinton-esque come out in this man today. He probably doesn't have any problem with cigars either."
At the University, we fortunately feel confident our administration would follow Spanier's lead in standing up for students' rights if they came under attack. We also hope our Commonwealth's elected officials would act in such a case with a degree of professionalism wholly absent from the Penn State hearings. To protest the actions of Pennsylvania's legislature, we invite University students to introduce a Sex Faire to Grounds this spring. We all could use a few gingerbread men and women in our lives.
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