A computer science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas has caused a firestorm. On Saturday, Timothy Farage has tweeted about curing homosexuality in response to a Daily Mail article stating that 95 per cent of people affected by monkeypox in NYC are men; Farage has called homosexuality a “medical disorder”.
Can we at least try to find a cure for homosexuality, especially among men? Homosexual men have anal sex, which can lead to a variety of diseases.
Farage has all but detracted his comments, even going as far as to say that he has gay friends who wish they were straight.
“First, it should be noted that this tweet was in response to an article about monkeypox, a disease that is mostly confined to men who have sex with men,” Farage said. “This is true for some other diseases as well. So, I was being compassionate by asking if a cure for homosexuality could be found. I don’t know if it can, but I’d like to see research about it. I have had four homosexual friends (3 men and 1 woman) who wished they were heterosexual. There must be many others who feel the same way. Again, this shows a need to do research about homosexuality.”
Timothy Farage’s tweet has caught the attention of Queer and Trans People of Color at the University of Texas at Dallas (QTPOC at UTD) and the UTD Rainbow Coalition.
Psychology major Chase Mueller, president of Pride at UTD, said he felt “disgust and horror” when he first learned of Farage’s initial tweet.
“The idea that a cure for homosexuality is something to be researched … is homophobic. It is proven false,” he said. “So, the fact that it was being promoted by a professor at the university I attend was something that just hit like a ton of bricks. It was startling.”
"A lot of what they've been saying is, 'We've heard about a tweet from a professor.' But this is a lot more. This tweet has shown that students know he has a pattern of behavior in the classroom that makes people uncomfortable. That has been reported for years," Mueller said. "And this is just a big point in time where because of the tweet because of the current climate around LGBTQ+ hate. We can show all of this and say, 'No, we are not going to let this continue happening.'"
The University of Texas at Dallas made some statements in light of Farage’s comments.
Many students are charmed by his humour and knowledge in geek culture, but the fact that Farage shared his problematic views on Facebook and Quora has provided ammunition on the claim that Farage is providing a less welcoming environment for some of his students in class.