A professor at Marquette University has reportedly told a student that if he does not support gay marriage, he should drop out of her class.
Ethics professor Cheryl Abbate was lecturing about applying philosophical theories to modern political controversies such as gay rights, gun rights and the death penalty when she said that class all agreed that gay rights were not an issue. An unidentified student disagreed with Abbate and spoke with her after class in a recorded conversation.
"Are you saying if I don't agree with gays not being allowed to get married that I'm homophobic?" the student asked.
"I’m saying it would come off as a homophobic comment in this class," Abbate answered in the recorded conversation.
The student said that his beliefs were not homophobic and that disagreeing with gay marriage was his “right as an American citizen."
Abbate said, "Actually, you don't have a right in this class, especially [in an ethics class], to make homophobic comments."
"You can have whatever opinions you want but I will tell you right now—in this class homophobic comments, racist comments, sexist comments will not be tolerated. If you don't like it, you are more than free to drop this class."
The student dropped the class after these remarks were made but wanted to warn others about his experience.
Marquette University is a Roman Catholic university in Milwaukee.
Publication date: November 24, 2014