‘Queer at Patrick Henry College’ vexes school’s chancellor

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: LoudounTimes.com ; Loudoun Times-Mirror

Gay students at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville don’t exist. They can’t exist. So says Dr. Michael Farris, the college’s founder and chancellor.

It’s simple, really. Homosexuals can’t exist at Patrick Henry College because the students sign an honor code, Farris claimed. “[Homosexuals] could not sign our honor code,” Farris said, adding that he considers the actions of gay men and women “sinful.” “Part of the honor code is to be sexually pure,” he added.

So you can imagine the chancellor’s consternation when he learned of Queer at Patrick Henry College, a six-month-old, provocatively-titled blog operated by three pseudonymous writers – all of whom graduated from or have taken classes at the school.
....

Dr. Farris is not a fan. On Dec. 1 the chancellor sent a message to Queer at Patrick Henry through Facebook. “This page is in violation of our copyright of the name Patrick Henry College,” Farris wrote. “... you must remove this page at once. On Monday, we will began (sic) the legal steps to seek removal from Facebook and from the courts if necessary. In the process of this matter we can seek discovery from Facebook to learn your identity and seek damages from you as permitted by law. The best thing for all concerned is for you to simply remove this page.”





Read more: http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/queer_at_patrick_henry_college_vexes_schools_chancellor456/

---

Loudoun County is the county in northern Virginia in which Eugene Delgaudio is on the board of supervisors. His district, though, is to the east of Purcellville. Rick Santorum also lived in Loudoun County. Patrick Henry is, as the article states, a school for evangelicals. Expect Delgaudio to show up for a protest of some sort. As big a drama queen as he is, he won't be able to resist.

If I am not mistaken, the school eschews Federal funding. Their website is http://www.phc.edu/.

You can find Queer at Patrick Henry at http://queerphc.wordpress.com/.

Remarkable, this one. Really remarkable.

[NYC Liberal]

1. Maybe Dr Farris should move to Iran. Homosexuality doesn't exist there; just ask Ahmadinejad.

[RKP5637]

2. That, is really where individuals such as this belong. n/t

[ehrnst]

3. This school is also the farm where the GOP gets their interns:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0421-09.htm

"No, what makes Patrick Henry unique is the increasingly close - critics say alarmingly close - links this recently established, right-wing Christian college has with the Bush administration and the Republican establishment as a whole. This spring, of the almost 100 interns working in the White House, seven are from Patrick Henry. Another intern works for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, while another works for President George Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove. Yet another works for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. Over the past four years, 22 conservative members of Congress have employed one or more Patrick Henry interns. Janet Ashcroft, the wife of Bush's Bible-thumping Attorney General, is one of the college's trustees."

[mountain grammy]

6. Would make a good fictional story, scary that it's true. nt

[bucolic_frolic]

4. I'll bet they

have some Patricia Henrietta's there too.

[DetlefK]

5. Omg, the gays are infiltrating our schools!

Act now, before they get art and fashion!

[EC]

7. One doesn't' need to have sex

to be gay.

[coldbeer]

9. it depends on what the definition of "is" is?

[EC]

10. Nope,

don't have to have sex to be gay. The pledge just says they can't have sex. So okay, stick to the pledge and don't have sex. Does that change anything? No a person is still what they are, rather hetro or gay, just not having sex.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Um... No.

I was still classified as a heterosexual when I was a virgin.

Don't have to be sexually active to know your preference.

[Nay]

8. Mentioning the name of the college you attended is "a violation of copyright law"? Is this idiot

chancellor so stupid that he actually believes this? It goes to show just how dumb these people can be.

[hootinholler]

11. This is the fucking Chancellor?

Forget for a moment, that wordpress and facebook are two separate things. My god, the English skill is striking plus there is no arguing with his logic.

[Iggo]

12. Does that mean there's no heterosexuals, either?

[jtuck004]

14. The first thing the infiltrator does is sign your stupid pledge. In any org.

You run a school and haven't figured this out yet?

[DreamGypsy]

15. Evidently the chancellor has backed off the legal threats...

Last edited Wed Dec 12, 2012, 02:53 PM - Edit history (1)

From http://queerphc.wordpress.com/.

[Nay]

16. "litigation is not appropriate"? Nope, it's not, you moron, because the mere mention of the

school's name by people who attended it IS NEVER A COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT, no matter how much your panties got in a twist. And by the way, it also did NOT reflect the "inappropriate nature of the use of our trademarked name" either -- people are allowed to talk well or talk trash about you without a "trademark" infringement of any kind.

Now, if some people got together and wanted to name their new school "Patrick Henry College" THAT would be a copyright infringement.

This person is a chancellor??

[yellowcanine]

31. In other words he consulted a copyright lawyer and was told he didn't have a pot to piss in,

legal-wise. The guy is a lawyer himself, though, so he should have known better, as copyright law would have been covered in law school, and use of a school's name by former students of that school to distinguish their group would seem to be clearly a a permitted use. Otherwise every time a class wanted to advertise a class reunion on FB they would have to get permission from the school.

[progressoid]

17. Farris, you are...

[Sunlei]

18. nutter trainer college

..."Nearly all of the students at Patrick Henry College have been home-schooled by ultra-conservative evangelical Christian parents. At Patrick Henry these young people can complete their christo-fascist indoctrination before joining right-wing think tanks and media groups in Washington.

Students are taught to kneel before images of Jesus and Ronald Reagan; they attend lecturess on how America can waterboard its way to global dominance. Professors are dismissed if they actually teach science, since students are taught that the earth is only 6000 years old and baby Jesus frolicked with dinosaurs....."
by Downeastdem, Daily Kos, 11/23/2012

[sakabatou]

19. Where did you get that sescription?

I want the link to read it myself.

[Hydra]

20. Patrick Henry rolling around in his grave

Mind you, he has been almost since the beginning of the country, but a private college carrying his name that grinds out christofascists for the purpose of destroying personal freedoms...

Just...wow. Who says irony is dead?

[tanyev]

21. Because anyone who violates the honor code instantly dissolves in a puff of smoke?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

23. Yes, and wow, do I hate it when that happens. nt

[Andy Stanton]

22. This is why

The conservative movement in the US is in so much trouble. They live in their own fictional world, completely divorced from reality. Who wants to be associated with a movement that suffers from psychotic delusions?

[greiner3]

24. "Who wants to be associated with a movement that suffers from psychotic delusions?"

Me thinks those who are already so deeply entrenched within them, are in denial they are.

Those who don't believe that they could possibly be the ones who could be 'pulled' into the brain washing necessary are just a few Jeebuses short of joining these ranks.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

25. The Washington Post has picked up the story.

Homosexuality at Patrick Henry College? Never! New blog says otherwise, college not pleased

Posted at 05:22 AM ET, 12/13/2012 Dec 13, 2012 10:22 AM EST
TheWashingtonPost
By Tom Jackman

A new blog launched this past summer called “Queer at Patrick Henry College,” written anonymously by several former students of the Purcellville-based institution for home-school grads. Without any notoriety, the blog might have toiled in relative anonymity, exploring the idea of homosexuality at a Christian college where it is, uh, frowned upon.

But then the president and founder of the school, Michael Farris, sent a threatening note to the bloggers, saying he would sue if they didn’t stop the unauthorized use of the college’s name. And now, Queer at Patrick Henry College is out there, blogospherically as well as sexually.

Trevor Baratko in the Loudoun Times-Mirror has the full story, and he spoke with both Farris and the anonymous bloggers. Farris told him homosexuals can’t exist at Patrick Henry and that he thought the blog was a hoax. The site apparently is blocked on the Patrick Henry wi-fi network. Baratko then met the bloggers and saw at least one genuine Patrick Henry diploma.

[DanM]

26. Farris is one of the pseudonymous writers and . . .

. . . just stirring up publicity to get more eyeballs to his blog.

That's my theory.

[denverbill]

27. I'm surprised relatives of Patrick Henry don't sue the school for using his name.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

29. I've heard that Thomas Jefferson detested Patrick Henry.

Last edited Thu Dec 13, 2012, 01:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Not that that's the gold standard. Anyway:

For Religious Freedom Day: What Jefferson Really Thought of Theocrat Patrick Henry

For Religious Freedom Day: What Jefferson Really Thought of Theocrat Patrick Henry
Categories: Uncategorized
by Chris Rodda

So, today {January 16} is Religious Freedom Day, the anniversary of the passage of Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. No, I’m not going to post Jefferson’s statute; I’m going to post something cooler than that — one of my favorite lines ever written by Jefferson.

The background: Jefferson drafted his religious freedom statute in 1777 and introduced it in 1779, but it didn’t go anywhere. It wasn’t until 1786 that Jefferson’s statute was passed. Jefferson was in France at the time, so it was Madison who reintroduced the religious freedom statute. This was right after James Madison defeated Patrick Henry’s bill to tax everybody in Virginia to support teachers of the Christian religion.

Jefferson couldn’t stand Patrick Henry and his theocratic agenda, and made this quite clear in one {of} his letters to Madison while Madison was battling Henry’s bill for a Christian religious tax. When Madison wrote to Jefferson asking what they should do about Henry, Jefferson replied:

“While Mr. Henry Lives another bad constitution would be formed, and saddled for ever on us. What we have to do I think is devoutly to pray for his death …”

Of course, the Christian nationalist history revisionists either ignore this line from Jefferson, or claim it is made up by evil secularists to impugn the character of our very Christian founding fathers.
....

{This is} from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to James Madison on December 8, 1784, and can be found on pages 353-354 of The Republic Of Letters, The Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison 1776-1826, Volume I.

Patrick Henry was the first governor of Virginia, and Thomas Jefferson was the second. We really got off to a great start, didn't we?

[yellowcanine]

32. Oh noes! Don't tell the tea baggers that James Madison did not like PH either.

The theocratic wing of the Tea Bagger Party will not be pleased.

[MrYikes]

28. patrick henry was the name of the college in Atlas shrugged

but it was Dr. Ferris that oversaw the torture (spelled with an "e&quot

[yellowcanine]

30. "Dr." Farris? He has a J.D. yes. But most lawyers do not use "Dr."

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/lawyers_are_doctors_too/

Particularly in a university setting it is a little weird because most university professors who use "Dr." have a Ph.D. - and this use actually precedes the use of Dr. for professional degrees, including M.D.s

[mahatmakanejeeves]

33. The article has been picked up at DCist.com.

Queer at Patrick Henry College? Impossible!

It adds this:

In related news, earlier this week Catholic University denied official recognition to a gay student organization on campus.