Bias Alert: Activist – This story includes activism statements from various rights groups, though largely groups that represent the interest of various peoples who ascribe to a queer lifestyle and are demanding action of some form be taken. The story also revolves around the opinion of one person, and unsupported claims they have made, which we have attempted to identify as such. We have done our best to remove any bias towards either side of this issue and present only the facts of the isssue so our intelligent adult readers can draw their own conclusions and opinions. When this was not possible we did our best to annotate it
University of Texas at Dallas professor Timothy Farage wondered out loud and online why we aren’t looking for a cure to homosexuality and angered students on the campus – with many demanding he be fired over the tweet which Twitter has removed.
The professor is a decorated member of the Computer Science department at UTD where he has taught since 2000 earning both the President’s Outstanding Teacher Award and the Computer Science Excellence in Teaching Award during his tenure so far.
Mr. Farage’s tweet was about homosexual sex among men spreading diseases and a claim that 95% of Monkeypox cases in NYC were men. We should take a moment here to let you know that Mr. Farage is not a healthcare expert but has degrees in computer science and mathmatics. According to his profile on the UTD website he also maintains a Christian-based blog about building and running a society based on God’s laws (he likely means the Christian God, but we are only speculating). Mr. Farage also never cited his sources on either of these claims (and we are not posting them here as fact but as reference to Mr. Farage’s comments).
Mr. Farage sent a statement to the Dallas Observer (see credit below) where he defended his stance as being one of compassion and not homophobic. He was also defended by the group FIRE in a statement to the Dallas Observer who said that he should not be fired for using his First Amendment right to freedom of expression.
UTD has determined they would add other instructors for courses Mr. Farage teaches and allow students who might be uncomfortable with him to take a class from a different instructor.
The news of Mr. Farage’s tweet and stance generated a debate in Richardson, TX where the college is located especially in the neighborhood directly adjacent to the University known as “Northrich”. The debate, sent to us in screenshots, somehow included discussions about critical race theory and to what extent cancel culture should be involved.
Some of the commentors (two to be exact) thought Mr. Farage should be fired and others thought he might have a point, that the various portions that make up the queer spectrum should be scientifically or medically investigated, or at the very least that the professor and his teaching qualities should be separated from his tweet or opinions.
As the editor’s for the Dallas Observer point out in notes throughout their article (see credit below) homosexuality hasn’t been considered a mental illness since the 1970’s and there are examples of gay sex among wild animals. Of course, none of that means there isn’t a medical / biological / physiological explanation for it and this is the contentious issue Mr. Farage appears to have brought up, though again we stress he holds no educational qualifications for having done so.
The student group pushing for Mr. Farage’s firing is claiming that even mentioning that there could be a medical or physiological explanation for their queerness is bigotry.
Here are some of those comments:
[Editor’s note: all names are redacted for privacy and to keep us from propagating cancel culture]
This user had strong feelings towards Mr. Farage and others who think like him.
Mr. Farage has deleted his public Twitter account it seems.
Thanks Y’all:
This article is partially based on facts and data gathered by Simone Carter at the Dallas Observer who did a really great job of trying to include the full story instead of the one-sided rants typical of stories like this one. Read her article here “https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/timothy-farage-ut-dallas-professor-tweets-spark-investigation-homophobic-tweets-on-monkeypox-outbreak-14434026”. Note: The Observer Editorial team frequently interrupts this article to give their opinions.
While it didn’t contain anything new to us, you might also consider reading this article from the Daily Caller, a conservative publication: https://dailycaller.com/2022/07/19/ut-dallas-professor-investigation-tweet-homosexuality/
Editor’s Note: As a reminder our publication does not take sides in any matter. Our goal is to give you all of the facts on a story and to help you find articles published largely with facts. We’ve done our best to cover this story evenly and hope you found it useful as you make up your own mind about it.
Featured image via Pexels
