News

By Michael Baggot

  NORTHAMPTON, MA, May 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” cried a group of lesbians at Smith College Tuesday night in the midst of a riotous protest that met little resistance from on-looking police and security officials and forced scheduled speaker Ryan Sorba to prematurely end his “The Born-Gay Hoax” talk.

  Shortly into his speech, the protesters tried to drown out Sorba’s words with loud chants and clanging of pots and pans.  As Sorba strove to continue his lecture, protesters invaded from a back window, flooded the podium, and began noisily dancing and clapping in front the speaker.

  A Smith College official told Sorba that he needed to leave, while two police officers and a security guard watched the protesters continue in triumphant chants.

  Because protesters remained in the room, Sorba was not able to return to conclude his talk.

  The conservative organization Mass Resistance decried the Tuesday night fiasco as an example of “how the homosexual movement views free speech and civil rights in their march to force their social and sexual agenda on others and intimidate and terrorize anyone who would criticize or disagree.  Truth and freedom become subjected to the whims of thought police and rioters.”

  Mass Resistance argued that the protesters clearly violated the Massachusetts Civil Rights statutes by interfering with Sorba’s constitutional right to free expression.

  According to the statues, “No person, whether or not acting under color of law, shall by force or threat of force, willfully injure, intimidate or interfere with, or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with, or oppress or threaten any other person in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the constitution or laws of the commonwealth or by the constitution or laws of the United States.”

  Wednesday morning, Smith President Carol Christ issued a statement expressing her disappointment “that some members of our community chose not to uphold our own commitment to freedom of expression.”

“We are investigating possible violations of college policy, including the policy on the conduct of demonstrations and protests,” Christ assured the Smith community.

  Kristen Cole, Media Relations Director of Smith College, told LifeSiteNews.com that no protester has yet been punished, but that there is an “open-ended”  investigation into any possible violations.

  The Smith Republican Club had invited Sorba to speak on his soon-to-be released book debunking the claim that homosexual orientation is genetically determined, and hence, worthy of social acceptance and legal protection.  Homosexual activists routinely use the notion of the “gay gene” to argue that any opposition to their lifestyle is unjust discrimination.

  In a March 31 presentation of his “The Born-Gay Hoax” lecture at Framingham State College, Sorba noted that the notion of “homosexual” did not begin until the middle of the 19th century.

  Sorba traced the “born-gay” strategy to the 1980s propaganda efforts of Harvard graduates neuropsychiatry researcher Marshall Kirk and public persuasion expert Hunter Madsen.

  Sorba added that many researchers attribute homosexuality to environment causes, such as sexual abuse during youth.

  See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

  Eminent Psychiatrist Says Homosexuality is a Disorder that Can be Cured
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08050110.html

  Search for “Gay Gene” Is “Bad Science” Says Nebraska Professor
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07080805.html

“Homosexuality Is Not Hardwired,” Concludes Head of The Human Genome Project
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07032003.html

  Watch footage from the Smith College fiasco:
  https://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/08a/born_gay_hoax/smith_0329/index.html#part_one

  Learn more about Sorba’s “Born-Gay Hoax” talk and book:
  https://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/08a/born_gay_hoax/index.html

  Contact the president of Smith College:
  Carol T. Christ, President
  Smith College
  Northampton, Massachusetts 01063
  (413) 585-2100