I often shake my head and marvel at how people like Larry Craig and Mark Foley can continue to try to live closeted lives nowadays. When pop culture is replete with openly gay performers and characters, you naturally assume that we are living in a more gay-friendly climate and that most people should feel free to be themselves no matter what their sexual orientation may be (outside of the military, of course).
At the very least, some of us probably think that it must be very exhausting and oppressive to constantly have to hide who you really are. I would assume that, for a lot of gay people, college would be the perfect place to finally be exposed to a large world of open-minded, nonjudgmental people their own age.
Unfortunately, even in this day and age, college students can be every bit as bigoted as their parents. At Duke University, the former chair of the College Republicans, Justin Robinette has learned this lesson just recently.
Robinette had been serving as the chair for over a year and had just been re-elected in February and confirmed in March. Then the executive board met last week and unanimously voted to impeach him. When he accused them of discrimination based on his sexual orientation, the board denied it. Interestingly, the university's campus newspaper, The Chronicle, had this to say:
Many of the instances cited by the executive board to justify Robinette’s impeachment occurred prior to his March confirmation. Among other allegations, Robinette was accused of fixing group elections, neglecting to coordinate events with the College Republicans at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and exhibiting unbecoming conduct, according to the articles of impeachment.
The members of the executive board insist that everyone knew about Robinett's sexual orientation for months prior to their decision to oust him. However, the vice chair of the College Republicans disagrees with their claims.
"It was premeditated. It was set in stone before anything happened. These people, all of them, voted three weeks ago to re-elect Justin," Satell said. "And during the three weeks where it was discovered that he is gay... the next meeting that was held... he is impeached."
"Put it this way," Satell said. "If he wasn’t gay he would still be president."
According to The Chronicle, Justin Robinette is also the co-chair of the North Carolina Federation of College Republicans. It will be interesting to see if he is allowed to stay on after this.