A South Carolina college cancelled a satirical play called “How to Be a Lesbian” because it was accused of being gay “indoctrination.”
You can’t make this stuff up, folks. “How to Be a Lesbian” is a satirical, fictionalized account of playwright Leigh Hendrix’s coming out experience coming out at the age of 17. Via the New York Daily News:
Hendrix was scheduled to perform her jokey “How to Be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less” at the University of South Carolina Upstate’s “Bodies of Knowledge” symposium this week — until southern-fried politicians called the play a form of gay “recruiting.”
[….]
“(The play is) not an explanation of ‘I was born this way.’ It’s recruiting,” Republican state Sen. Mike Fair told local NBC affiliate WYFF.
Fair has also said that same-sex relationships are “not normal” and should not be glorified. He’s not alone in his views.
“College should be about a wide variety of opinion, not just the agenda of the left,” added fellow Republican Sen. Lee Bright. “USC Upstate has become a place of indoctrination, not free inquiry.”
“I was really surprised,” Hendrix told New York Daily News. “The title is far more provocative than the piece. (Gay recruiting) is not even the premise at all.”
An ignorant, homophobic politician pressured a school and made them cave to bigotry. This is just depressing.
“There’s more than one way to be a lesbian, an artist, a partner or a daughter,” Hendrix said. “The take-away is that there are no identity politics, there are no rules about how to live only questions.”
The video below has Hendrix’s in-character response to the controversy, which is pretty funny. So—silver lining?