Over 120 students, faculty and staff gathered to listen to Dr. Christopher Wolfe, a professor of political science at Marquette University, lecture on “Why Gay Marriage is Impossible,” last Tuesday evening.
Wolfe began his talk by acknowledging that the topic he would be discussing was very emotional and could evoke many emotions from the audience. He asked that everyone think about the statements he made and consider their “reasonableness.”
Wolfe then said that being gay was an “affliction” and compared homosexuality to alcoholism. He said he wanted to see clinics set up to make gay people straight.
He addressed the title of the lecture by saying that gay people could not marry because of the need to consummate a marriage. Since gays don’t have sex to produce babies, they can’t consummate a marriage, he said.
Wolfe said that he has 10 children, and believes that the planet can sustain enough children for people to have as many as they want. He said that birth control has brought down American values.
Within the first five minutes, about 15 people walked out and some people started protesting outside.
The protestors made noise so that people couldn’t hear the speaker inside, until authorities cleared them away.
One student who was in attendance, who did not wish to be identified, said that those who walked out early should have listened to both sides of Wolfe’s story.
“If they don’t listen to him, they’re just as ignorant as those with beliefs like him,” he said.
Wolfe continued by saying that gays and lesbians were capable of love. However, he then compared a man telling his family that he is marrying another man to a man telling his family that he is marrying two women.
By that rationale, he said that polygamy would never work.
He said he based his theories on “western perspective and reason.”
Wolfe addressed other subjects that had the audience whispering under its breath, such as the role of women in the family.
He said that women should take care of the children at home.
He also said that men have bigger sex drives than women and he said you could find evidence of this belief in Cosmopolitan and “Dear Abby.”
At this statement, one girl got up and said, “I’ve heard enough ignorance for one day, I’m leaving.”
Wolfe went back to the subject of homosexuality by stating that he wouldn’t want his children to be taught by gay teachers or gay-friendly teachers.
Throughout Wolfe’s lecture people chose to leave the room. One student said that his statements verbally upset many of those in attendance.
“It seemed like he thought everyone would see his moral way as the right way, and I think his moral way is bulls***,” Peter Marino, A&S ’03 and a student in attendance, said.
“I was very offended at how he said gay people were an affliction and I was wondering, along with a lot of people there, why BC had a bigot speak. I can’t see how anything productive could have come from it. Was BC advocating it? I don’t’ know. They might as well have the KKK come next week,” he added.
Marino said it was annoying that Wolfe shot down what people had to say in reaction to his theories and then didn’t back up his beliefs.
“And if anyone agreed with him,” Marino said, “they didn’t say anything.”
Marino said he was most angry that Wolfe is raising ten children to think like him. “I can’t believe people like that still exist in the world.”
The lecture was co-sponsored by the St. Thomas More Society of BC and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
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