This past weekend, an Emory student was kicked out of a frat party. He also happened to be gay. Since this was a late night party, no one seems very sure on the details; the student may have called some frat guy gay, and got kicked out. A lot of people didn't understand what was happening, saw a scuffle, and cheered. No one was hurt, police were not called, and if the gay student hadn't said anything, very few people would know this even happened.
Yet because this incident occurred on the wake of an anti-gay bullying frenzy, starting with Tyler Clementi's suicide, the story is now in newspapers and online, and Emory is investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Um, I don't think being gay should get anyone kicked out of a party, ever, but the fact that this is "news" is a little much for me. This was a frat party scuffle that did not involve any injury; people getting kicked out of parties happens every weekend at hundreds of colleges. Granted, the student was kicked out because he called a frat boy gay. Hopefully one day "that's so gay" and derogatory connotations of the word will be gone, but today they very much exist. But that is something LGBT activists recognize as a societal problem - it is not necessary to publish in the news every case of every small scale wrongdoing ever. If that were they case, the news would also have stories about girls being called hos, etc., etc. To me, this is a small example of a societal problem - the problem should be written about, but probably not something as minor as this. Then again, maybe I'm being terribly insensitive.
What do you think? Is there a reason why this story is news?
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