Notre Dame's Cartoon Gay Bashing FAIL

by Michael Jones · 2010-01-15 08:40:00 UTC
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CartoonDo you know how to turn a fruit into a vegetable?

Just ask University of Notre Dame's student newspaper, The Observer. The paper ran a cartoon this week while the editor was taking a day off that mixed some traditional homophobia with a little gay-bashing. Ready for the punchline?

You turn a fruit into a vegetable with a baseball bat.

Funny? No. Making light of the thousands of hate crimes committed each year on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity? Yup, you bet.

The paper issued an apology today, with the editor telling the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) that she was offended by her staff's decision to run the cartoon. In an apology appearing today, The Observer writes, "There is no excuse that can be given and nothing that can be said to reverse the damage that has already been done by this egregious error in judgment. ... Allowing this cruel and hateful comic a place on our pages disgraced [university] values and severely hurt members of our Notre Dame family -- our classmates, our friends. For this, we sincerely apologize."

What makes this story even worse? That the cartoon in question was actually edited to make it less offensive than the original version.

See, the original version didn't say you turn a fruit into a vegetable with a bat. It said you turn a fruit into a vegetable with AIDS.

And everyone thought Pat Robertson said the most offensive thing this week when he blamed Haitians for bringing the earthquake on themselves. But I don't know ... Notre Dame and the cartoonist behind this drama are certainly giving him a run for his money.

The second this thing hit the newspaper pages, The Observer and Notre Dame knew they were in hot water. Cue an epic FAIL when it comes to maintaining quality in their newspaper pages. But at least the folks behind this mess -- sans the cartoonist -- made an immediate mea culpa, saying that moving forward they won't allow such hatred to be printed in their pages.

Photo credit: GLAAD

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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