University of Texas at Dallas beautiful Richardson campus (via UTD website)

Timothy P. Farage, a computer science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, asked on Twitter, “Can we at least try to find a cure for homosexuality, especially among men? Homosexual men have anal sex, which can lead to a variety of diseases.”

May we stop for a moment and point out that sexually transmitted diseases have been known to spread through heterosexual sex as well, but Dallas Voice is not calling for a search to cure heterosexuality. Well, a member of our art department is, but the rest of us are just fine with straight people. Some of our best friends are straight. Some of us even have heterosexual family members.

And, before I continue with the tweet, I want to point out we have this story because of great reporting by UTD’s student newspaper The Mercury. Go read their much less sarcastic version.

Now, to continue with Professor Farage’s tweet: “NYC reveals that 95% of monkeypox patients in the Big Apple are men,” he writes with a link to a related story about cases in New York.

Why, yes, monkeypox is spreading primarily among gay men. Most, if not all, the cases right here in Dallas County are among gay men as well. Gay men in Dallas: be warned and be careful.

However, monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease. It’s spread through close contact. It can be transmitted through direct contact with an infected person’s clothing. In many cases, gay men tend to associate with other gay men, so monkeypox is spreading mostly among gay men.

It’s like when I was a kid and chicken pox spread through a classroom. Kids in the class associated with other kids in the class and we all got it. Turning those of us who were gay kids into straight kids wouldn’t have prevented chicken pox from spreading throughout the class.

And the stats Farage is quoting says the sexual orientation of the men in 39 percent of the cases listed is unknown. Those may be gay men. They may not be. Gay people do come into close contact with straight people. Ever been on a New York City subway? It’ll spread. The “anal sex” Farage is obsessed with is not required for monkeypox to spread.

The Mercury broke the story and published the professor’s tweet. So seriously is the school taking the irresponsible comments of its professor and the concerns of its LGBTQ students that the computer science school has responded by offering extra sections of all of Farage’s classes with other professors so LGBTQ and allied students can take required classes safely and not fall behind in course requirements. Great job by the student newspaper and wonderful response by the dean who affirmed that the school will be a safe place for all LGBTQ students.

In its letter, the school points out — hopefully mostly for Farage’s benefit — that Alan Turing, the father of computer science, was gay. How ironic that a homophobe owes his successful career to a gay man. Below is a copy of the school’s letter via The Mercury.

— David Taffet