Reader M.H. writes in about our post on gay porn director Chi Chi LaRue’s tuition subsidized speech at Johns Hopkins University (see “Gay Porn at Johns Hopkins,” May 19). The university swiftly cracked down with sanctions–not against the administration idiots who agreed to pay for LaRue’s appearance complete with bag of free porn to hand out to JHU students, but against the conservative student newspaper, The Carrollton Record, for daring to report about the tuition-subsidized pornfest sponsored by the hilariously named Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance (DSAGA). Copies of the Carrollton Record were confiscated by campus security guards, and the paper’s editor, Hopkins senior Jared T. Ede, who wrote an article about the dustup for Human Events, is now under investigation for alleged sexual harassment.
Here’s what the seized issue of the Carrollton Record reported about the speech by LaRue, who announced that he “always loved looking at naked boys”:
“LaRue turned to the audience at the end of his speech and began answering questions. One Hopkins professor proudly announced that he was ‘pan-gender’ and seeking advice.
“‘Pan-gender,’ inquired LaRue, ‘what’s that?’ The professor replied that it was a little bit of everything.
“‘Is there a room somewhere I can get him in,’ LaRue asked sensually. When the moment passed, LaRue answered the professor’s question. ‘Keep your zippers down,’ was his advice.
“Other questions were more of confessions, such as one attendee who stood up and exclaimed, ‘Hello, my name is ____, and I’m a porn addict,’ and the crowd erupted in applause turning the room into a veritable meeting of ‘Pornographers Anonymous.’ The addict asked LaRue how he could get into the adult film industry.
“The porn director looked at the eager student, and replied, ‘I knew you were going to ask for a job.'”
Writes M.H.:
“I…. thought you might appreciate knowing a couple of things that Jered Ede conveniently DIDN’T mention in his article.
“No one with any experience with Johns Hopkins administration can honestly deny that it’s heavyhanded, but it wasn’t the article that got them all riled up. It was The Carrollton Record’s poorly-thought-out cover image. It read ‘The DSAGA Bunch: why Hopkins is using your money to pay for porn.’ and it included a big picture of LaRue, along with pictures of a bunch of members of DSAGA, the Diverse Sexuality And Gender Alliance, who brought Chi Chi LaRue to campus.
“These weren’t pictures of the group leaders or the people responsible for choosing guest speakers. These were pictures taken from Facebook, a private social networking site for college students, of people who had simply listed an affiliation with the group in their profiles. Of course, if I’d been responsible for blaming people for decisions they didn’t make, forcibly ‘outing’ them, AND violating copyright, I might not want to admit it either.”
Well, M.H., I don’t know whether or not the Carrollton Record used random photos–but I sure do know that if I didn’t want the whole world to find out that I belonged to a group called Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance, one of the things I would not do is post that tidbit of information on Facebook. For the life of me, I can’t understand how people who put up personal information about themselves on the Internet can fly into fits of rage when someone else uses that information on the Internet or elsewhere. I don’t see how people who post their sexual orientation on the World Wide Web (note the name, please), can then turn sround and complain that they’ve been “outed” when someone else takes notice.
Here is Johns Hopkins’s own warning to its students about Facebook:
“More than ever before, potential employers are using Facebook to collect information on candidates. Students are surprisingly unaware that the photos they post from that beer funneling contest may break the deal on a summer internship or post-graduation job….
“In the meantime, remember:Facebook is more public than you think. If you’re currently looking for a job, post with caution. Cut out the expletives. Watch out for addiction-insinuating posts on your wall. And for God’s sake, delete the lap dance pictures.”
And here’s what Facebook itself says:
“If you post personally identifiable information in areas of the site accessible to other users, you should be aware that such information can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums….”
So I don’t understand what the Hopkins people are complaining about.