U of M harbors a sitcom-worthy professor
By Tim Campbell
The University of Minnesota currently gives sanctuary to professor whose character could have been dreamed up by a drag queen for a late evening sitcom.
In a world where most professors are suspected, accused or known to be liberal, Communist leaning, co-ed chasing, heterosexual Democrats—in that same context—this professor presents as a conservative, Republican, homosexual expert on sexual orientation law. If that sounds pretty far left, poach this: The guy’s published e-mail name is “OutRIGHT.” Go figure!
I’m talking about Professor Dale Carpenter. I’ve seen him expounding on gay rights history and making negative predictions about Jack Baker and Mike McConnell’s chances of getting their 1971 same-sex marriage recognized by the courts in the Minnesota Daily and several publications elsewhere.
Carpenter pisses me off by repeatedly presenting Baker and McConnell as all around losers. The fact of the matter is, after getting married to a man, Baker won two elections and served for two years as student body president at the University of Minnesota. At the time, U of M had the largest student body in the country, about 40,000 students. Since the U is a state agency, this made Baker the first openly gay elected state office holder in the country, perhaps in the world.
Baker also won a battle with the Minnesota Board of Bar Examiners which sought to deny him a law license.
Baker won against the State of Minnesota when it asked a grand jury to indict him for actually getting a marriage license in Mankato while there was still litigation in process over his first attempt to get a marriage license in Minneapolis. That grand jury refused to indict. They saw no infraction of law.
Baker is still practicing corporate law in the State of Minnesota and has recently filed a suit in U.S. District Court, federal court, representing his spouse, J. Michael McConnell in a case against the Bush administration and the IRS. Baker is no loser. I don’t think he will lose this case.
But the most absurd theory Professor Carpenter espouses is articulated in a piece in the Standard-Times in south Florida on February 15. That article probably spun off the Minnesota Daily piece (January 29) in which Josh Verges quoted Carpenter.
Carpenter theorizes that the current popularity of gay marriage stems from three causes: AIDS, a lesbian baby-boom, and an op-ed piece by conservative gay journalist Andrew Sullivan in The New Republic. That’s all sitcom stuff.
One, I don’t know any gays who got married because of AIDS. AIDS is again on the rise among younger gay men. Nobody’s getting married young any more, least of all hot young gay men.
Two, it’s completely impossible to document any lesbian baby-boom. Nobody knows how many lesbian couples with children there were before 1970 or before AIDS. Not only that, there is a big scientific problem to overcome before real lesbians can have babies. Clearly those who imagine a lesbian baby-boom are calling a lot of bisexuals lesbians. The problem there is that bisexuals are like swing voters, you have to re-court them every election.
Three, Andrew Sullivan’s piece in The New Republic had no mass effect in the gay men’s community. I’d guess 99.5% of gays and lesbians never saw an issue of The New Republic. You, dear reader, probably never heard of it before. Am I right?
Carpenter’s bias seems to me to have this goal: he wants to steal credit for the impact of Jack Baker and Mike McConnell’s 1971 marriage and give it to lesbians and gay conservatives. That’s really sitcom stuff. Politically correct, perhaps, but still laughable.
The real cause of the obvious gay marriage boom is the death of closetry. Out of the closet gay couples now instinctively seek recognition for their relations just like lovers everywhere and through all times. Smell the coffee, Carpenter.
If there’s any oversight committee at the University of Minnesota that investigates allegations of unpoliced poop dropped by professors, let them pull out their scoopers now.
Tim Campbell
timcampbellxyx@yahoo.com
firstgaycouplefanclub@yahoo.com
www.timcampbellxyx@blogspot.com
Baker-McConnell info: www.may-18-1970.org
[Tim Campbell taught French at the U of M from 1970-72, i.e., while Jack Baker served as student body president here. He also published the gay oriented GLC Voice newspaper in Minneapolis from 1979-92. He now lives in Houston.]
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