Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 00:38:55 +0300

Subject: Re: Reaction towards "Please Me At Any Price", by Mohamad Sibai
From: AUB Outlook <outlook@aub.edu.lb>


Dear ----------,

We have been receiving several complaints on behalf of this article. It is
within every AUB student's right to respond with a "Letter to the Editor",
though I believe the LGBTQ community in AUB would like to issue a response
themselves, which we will be giving priority. The writer in question is
responsible for his own views, and Outlook maintains that every staff
writer has the right to publish their own viewpoints, which are not meant
to be edited unless for grammatical and stylistic error. As stated in our
bylaws, we do not reflect any of our staff writers viewpoints, and remain a
secular, independent newspaper.

We will be publishing an errata about the comment on Russia's jail cells,
as Russia legalized homosexuality in 1993.

Please let me know should you have any further questions.

Lojine Kamel
Editor-in-Chief

Outlook 2011-2012

On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 11:54 PM, ---------------------------- wrote:

> Dears,
>
> I could not help but react to a certain article I'd read on your newspaper
> Outlook,"Please Me At Any Price" by Mohamad Sibai, targeting homosexuality.
> My initial reaction was outrage, firstly at the title suggesting
> homosexuality is a mere pleasure, not an actual state of emotional, and
> sexual orientation and preference, and secondly at the extremity the
> article's subject matter in condemning people's sexuality and freedom
> through performing what he believes is his own right of self-expression.
> But is it really? Is targeting minorities and seeking their elimination
> through the power of words a self-contained right?.
> My reaction then tended towards sympathy at the writer's ignorance, lack
> of research, unreasonable comparison between sexuality and marijuana, not
> to mention the faulty diagnosis he had given that homosexuality can be
> cured "according to psychologists".
> Normally I would not react to homophobic comments, or articles I
> fall across, but the implications of this article's publication in the
> newspaper of Lebanon's leading university which boasts with cultural
> diversity, are major in their influence, and being an English Literature
> graduate, aiming at starting my Master's program in AUB next year, I would
> not by any means sit by, and allow such ignorance spread through
> my community, and the community of my friends and family. This is not a
> culture I would take part of. A culture of hate, and intolerance. And I
> urge you not to encourage it by publishing such ill-written articles.
> I would suggest this article, or any article that targets any part of our
> social structure, to be reconsidered and re-assessed, in the hopes of
> working together in our community to spread a culture we truly believe in,
> which is one of love, understanding and acceptance.
>
> Best regards,
> -------------------------
>