Slog Tipper Oliver just sent us this post from the Dallas Observer about Texas A&M—a university the post’s author, Patrick Williams, calls “the intellectual center of bubbadom.” Take it away, Williams:

One week—one!—after the U.S. Supreme Court heard hopeful, moving arguments in cases that could advance gay and lesbian people one step closer to full personhood under law, the university’s student senate is poised to take a symbolic leap backward in bigotry with a bill that would allow students with religious objections to opt out of paying the share of their student fees that fund the school’s GLBT Resource Center.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the student bill was originally called “The GLBT Funding Opt-Out Bill,” but was rewritten a bit (after an outcry) to the “Religious Funding Exemption Bill.” The school’s student senate finance chairman, Fernando Sosa, says that since after the rewrite, it “doesn’t target any specific group… I now support it” because “students should be able to decide where their money goes.” Brilliant logic, my friend! Student fees should be completely à la carte. For example, if I were a Texas A&M student, I’d definitely want to make sure none of my student fees funded Mr. Sosa’s work with the school senate, since I have a religious opposition to bigotry. Actually, I have a religious opposition to the systematic underfunding of our education system that makes school fees and tuition so high in the first place, so I’d like an exemption to paying for any of it in the first place, thanks so much.

Thankfully, if the student bill passes, it looks like it won’t actually be mandatory for the school’s administration to enforce it—it’s more of a recommendation from the student senate. Unfortunately, a Republican state representative wants to take the issue to the state level. From that Chronicle story:

Zedler, a Republican from Arlington, filed an amendment to the state’s general appropriations bill, SB 1, that would prohibit public colleges and universities from using state funds to fund “Gender and Sexuality Centers”. Zedler’s bill alleges these campus resource centers “support, promote, or encourage any behavior that would lead to high risk behavior for AIDS, Hepatitis B or any other sexually transmitted disease.”

Zedler’s office did not return call for comment. Zedler first gained notoriety for leading a grassroots blockade against a Hooters restaurant set to open near his neighborhood in Arlington and was subsequently elected to the Texas House in 2003.

Fuckers.