Last week, Dallas Voice online editor John Wright posted this blog (“Rick Perry killed the gay Jesus”), citing a note from Conservative Republicans President Steve Hotze thanking Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for pressuring Tarleton State officials into cancelling a student class project production of Terrance McNally’s play “Corpus Christi.”
John Jordan Otte, the student who was presenting the play for his project, suggested at the time of the cancellation that “jobs had been threatened,” and that’s why it was canceled.
School officials and representatives for both Dewhurst and Gov. Rick Perry, however, continued to deny Dewhurst and Perry put any pressure on school officials and reiterated their claim that the play was canceled over security issues in the face of planned protests.
But now Fort Worth Weekly has published a wire service article by Rachel Dudley with Texan News Service claiming Texan News Service has obtained phone records that appear to support the claims that elected officials pressured the school. Fort Worth Weekly reports:
However, records released this week show that, in the hours leading up to the cancellation decision, Dottavio received five calls on his cell phone from top officials in the Texas A&M University System, of which Tarleton is a part. …
Records reflecting the calls — but not their content — were released by the university in response to a request by the Texan News Service under the state’s open records law. The calls, totaling 35 minutes, were placed between 4:29 and 8:15 p.m. on March 26, the day Terrence McNally’s controversial play, “Corpus Christi,” was canceled. According to one person present, who asked not to be named, university officials met for about an hour during that same period to discuss the fate of the play, scheduled for performance the following morning.
Dottavio reports to A&M system Chancellor Dr. Michael McKinney, who, records show, placed one of the phone calls. McKinney reports to the A&M Board of Regents, whose members are appointed by the governor.
At the end of the lengthy article, Dudley points out:
Tarleton has also suspended student journalists’ access to its YouTube channel. Students had used the channel to post Texan TV News newscasts, including stories about the play and its aftermath. Officials said they were suspending access to the channel until policies governing its use can be promulgated. They later authorized the posting of a two-week-old news broadcast.
The university also temporarily suspended journalism students’ access to post Texan News Service print stories on the university web site but lifted that ban for the remainder of the semester.
Funny how karma works, by suppressing the play in Tarleton, it will now be show in its entirety in Dallas and possible Fort Worth.
What do you expect? Bunch of hatemongers. They go home, beat their dogs, kick their wives, then pray to jeebus.
Wow… Rick Perry behind anti-gay censorship? Say it isn’t so!!!
Who would ever have imagined he could stoop so low. But thanks for the digging up of that link and sharing the responsible reporting from a Ft Worth weekly publicatuion, freedom of records who would have thought it would work like that for phone records. Kudos to those that kept asking questions, and the Voice for printing this as I somehow doubt that I would EVER be reading a follow up on the story in the Star Telegram, or Morning News.
Suspending student access to “It’s/Tarleton’s?” YouTube channel? I can’t tell searching YouTube if Tarleton has their own branded set of YouTube feeds or not, but this sounds like the school has forbidden student journalists to post to YouTube it self. What a travesty as that very same media is full of reactive tripe from the right wing such as
“Blasphemy is NOT free speech”
and other anti-gay positioned commentary.
https://www.tfpstudentaction.org/get-involved/online-petitions/homosexual-jesus-play-at-tarleton-state-university-call-for-protest.html
Ahh well… Manufacturing and jobs goes off to China and Cold War style levels of censorship of arts and free speech come to the USA. More values system stuff getting turned up side down as out constitution and the very concepts of freedom get trampled. This is the real lesson here at Tarleton State, and I hope they are talking about it in the government classes, but I suspect not for fear of loosing jobs, teaching contracts, or even tenure.
One has to work after all, even if its in an atmosphere of fear of intimidation and censorship and risk of job loss and career impingement. After all these are tuff times so I bet the faculty up there is falling in line and not talking about any of it in the classes where it would be apropos.
Perry is the devil!!! One of these days he’s going to walk to close to an open flame (or flamer) and all the Aquanet he uses is going to ignite!