College-Sponsored Porn Abridged

Should taxpayers subsidize the screening of pornographic films on state university campuses? You don’t have to be all that conservative to answer an emphatic “No!” But believe it or not, this became an issue last week at the University of Maryland.

A California porn studio has been marketing its products to student activities offices around the country. The midnight Saturday showing of a pirate-themed porn film in Maryland was to be preceded by a talk on “safe sex” by, naturally, Planned Parenthood.

Fortunately, State Sen. Andrew P. Harris threatened to hold up the university’s budget if the show went on, so the original showing was canceled. Liberal groups on and off campus exploded in outrage over the alleged infringement of “free speech” (while the porn purveyors laughed all the way to the bank over the free publicity).

In the end, a group of students hosted a discussion of the issue last night and aired 30 minutes of the film in a lecture hall, not a theatre.

Gail Dines, a Boston sociology professor, declared in an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun, “Showing porn movies on campus creates a hostile and dangerous environment for its female students; it distorts how students think about sex and it debases both men and women.”

She’s absolutely right—and Sen. Harris deserves kudos for demanding a clear university policy against state-sponsored porn.

Tony Perkins heads the Family Research Council. This article was excertpted from the Washington Update that he compiles for the FRC.