Letter: The dangers of honoring discrimination

It may seem like a contradiction for someone who promotes inclusiveness and tolerance to speak out against honoring Victoria Cobb.

In order to be truly inclusive, people have argued that Jepson should overlook Cobb's political and religious beliefs and be able to award her as someone who has demonstrated effective leadership for a cause she cares deeply about.

Cobb has a different way of viewing the world and within her worldview, her actions are moral and ordained. I understand that in our society there are many moral views, and I acknowledge that Cobb is a good leader within her moral framework.

Nonetheless, I believe that her moral framework is deeply flawed and that when it is acted upon, it causes real harm to others, particularly gay and lesbian youth. Consequently, the Family Foundation brings considerable harm to society.

One of my research interests, which I explored in my Jepson honors thesis, was exploring how discrimination affects the LGBT community.

While researching this question, I uncovered numerous studies that provide empirical evidence to show that LGBT youth face higher levels of harassment, name calling and violence than their heterosexual peers. These young people have smaller social groups, greater levels of loneliness, higher rates of suicide and depression and lower self-esteem.

If you are not convinced by these findings, imagine that you are a homosexual adolescent attending a public school. Think about the taunts you might hear from your peers and think about how the Family Foundation's message affects your sense of self.

As a gay male, I know that hearing people say homosexuality, a large part of my identity, should not be supported in schools and that homosexuals were immoral, shattered my confidence and made me quite depressed.

Fortunately, there are buffers that protect against the negative effects of this type of discrimination. Studies show that being supported in schools fosters resiliency to poor mental health outcomes for LGBT youth.

The danger of Cobb is that she ignores the harassment that occurs in schools and actively works to remove the support that helps LGBT youth overcome the obstacles they face every day.

In 2006, she lobbied for a Virginia Bill to ban student groups that promoted sexual activity. She is quoted with saying, "Our public schools should not sponsor groups that are nothing more than taxpayer subsidized dating services."

Although Gay-Straight Alliances were not explicitly targeted, when asked for an example of an organization that would be banned, supporters of the bill named a GSA.

In 2007, when ROSMY, a local group to support LGBT youth, requested funding for their organization, Cobb made the same argument that a group for LGBT youth promotes sexual activity and funding these groups would be equivalent to funding a dating service.

Finally, when GLSEN promoted "Ally Week," a nation-wide event to end LGBT bullying and harassment in schools, Cobb spoke out against it, claiming that the week is about "indoctrination and misinformation."

Cobb spoke out against an event whose mission is to "encourag[e] people to be allies against anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools."

Cobb is willing to tolerate bullying in schools so that her beliefs can be upheld. She is sacrificing the well-being of Virginia's youth to promote her own narrow views about what is an acceptable family. Regardless of what we think a marriage should look like, most of us can agree that stopping efforts to protect children and allowing them to be treated negatively is despicable.

The judge of a good leader should not simply be whether he or she was effective in being able to organize a group of people toward a cause. The cause must be evaluated when judging the merits of the leader.

Cobb's cause is to promote her idea of what a family should be and use the government to support this image and prohibit the recognition of other types of families.

Should these values be included in our society? Yes. If we want to promote inclusivity, we need to respect the beliefs of people who feel this way.

People with these beliefs exist in our society and we have no right to make them change their beliefs. However, when they act on their beliefs at the cost of the safety of other members of our society, I believe that we have a right to resist.

Additionally, in this case, we should not condone their views. We can say that they are dangerous and that they lead to negative outcomes. I am not arguing that people with dangerous beliefs should be censored, but wanting to be inclusive should not require us to ignore the consequences of those beliefs.

Simply put, the Family Foundation's positions have the effect of increasing the ostracism directed at gay and lesbian youth.

Furthermore, awarding people who promote these beliefs would compound the danger. Awards validate the work of the recipients and sanction their behavior.

By rewarding Cobb, not only is Jepson saying that it is OK to work against initiatives that promote tolerance, but they are recognizing this type of work as an achievement.

As a past winner of the James McGregor Burns award, I find this discouraging, and also at odds with the supportive climate I personally experienced as both a researcher and an LGBT community leader in the Jepson School.

I urge the faculty and staff in the Jepson School to recognize that granting an alumni award to Victoria Cobb violates the tenets of the Richmond Promise and the lessons taught by Jepson professors about what contributes to a just society.