OPINION:
Summer is over, the school year has begun, and untold parents from across the nation just mortgaged the family farm and dropped tens of thousands of dollars on the barrelhead to send their children to college.
After spending nearly two decades “training up their children in the way they should go,” good moms and dads from coast to coast rolled up this week to their children’s respective campuses with the U-Haul in tow, They moved little Suzy or Sam into their new dorm room, loaded the fridge with snacks, cried a bit at this new stage of life and how quickly children grow up, and then handed their precious progeny off to the current leaders of the Ivory Tower.
The goal here is presumably a high-quality education that will lead to good marriages, successful careers and responsible citizenship. What mother or father wouldn’t sacrifice everything to see their child succeed in all these areas of adulthood? Isn’t this what raising our children right is all about?
But, with the importance of such dreams and corresponding sacrifices assumed, wouldn’t it be wise to ask what the school you chose for your child is teaching?
As you drive away from campus and leave your 18-year-old in the school’s care, what values does it promote? What vices does it discourage? What ideas do the faculty consider most important?
As it turns out, researching all this isn’t that difficult. All you need to do is go to the freshman orientation brochure of the college that now holds your sons’ and daughters’ heart, mind and soul in the palm of its hand.
For example, let’s consider the University of Oklahoma.
In its new student orientation program, called Camp Crimson, which is “an orientation experience designed to assist undergraduate students as they transition into their first year at the University,” the school promotes several helpful activities, including the following: The university’s “Queer Tour, Neath the Western Sky” is “a guided adventure through campus that connects students to resources, allies, and queer-friendly spaces” that the school champions.
If you forgot to give your daughter a Starbucks gift card before you left her in the care of the University of Oklahoma’s intelligentsia, there’s no need to worry. She can have coffee and chat with the staff or LGBTQ student leaders about her college experience or class assignments. After all, this is a place that celebrates “community,” and these people have what’s best for her at heart.
If the Queer Tour isn’t your son’s thing, the university’s new freshmen are encouraged to take in an evening of “Drag Bingo, Pride on the Prairie.”
The university describes this activity as “a signature event during Camp Crimson.” It includes things such as “cool prizes and free drag performances featuring local/student performers with a celebrity host from RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
This year’s celebrity is Kornbread Jete, a Black man who recently posted two photos of himself on X, formerly Twitter.
In the first photo, he’s wearing male attire while holding a black chicken. In the second, Kornbread is in drag. The caption to this tweet (referencing the photo where he is dressed like a woman) says, “But I still carry my big black c—- around. Ya just can’t see it.” (Hyphenation not in original.)
But what if your son or daughter is more introverted and would rather attend a seminar or be in a quiet place where he or she can get to know some other new students? No need to worry. The University of Oklahoma offers a workshop called “Pride and Politics: Knowing Your Rights.” This, of course, comes with a free meal.
There’s also a meet-and-greet sponsored by the “OU LGBTQIA+ & Allies” where your homesick and anxious freshman can enjoy “arts and crafts, free food, and more.”
This garbage, you say, is just happening in the backwaters of Oklahoma, “where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.”
Well, think again. The same stuff is going on at Tulane University, which is celebrating its annual “Drag Brunch” featuring “food, fun, glamorous performances, mocktails, and musical acts from such noted New Orleans drag queens as ’Debbie with a D.’”
Or there’s Louisiana State University’s “Divas’ Live 4: A Drag Show,” which is “collaboratively hosted by the school’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, Residential Life, Louisiana Transgender Advocates, and the LGBTQ+ Project at LSU.”
And let’s not forget the University of Michigan’s Naked Mile, or the “sex weeks” that are pervasive from Berkeley to Brown that feature workshops with porn stars and various and sundry booths promoting sex toys, sex videos and flavored condoms.
Ever wonder why our nation is lost and morally bankrupt? Look no further than our institutions of higher education.
Then ask yourself why you’d ever send your child to one of these propaganda mills, and why you continue to support this debauchery with your taxes.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.
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