UMissouri Deletes Facebook Page with Anti-Gay Comments Over E. Patrick Johnson Visit

By Rod 2.0

University of Missouri administrators decided to delete an entire Facebook page after students' complaints about anti-gay comments. The Facebook page alerted students to this week's visiting performance by E. Patrick Johnson, the popular Black gay academic, author and performance artist. Johnson is the chair of the department of performance studies at Northwestern University.

The thread included at least one negative comment by an anti-gay Republican state legislator, reports The Missourian.

The presentations were titled "Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales" and "In Search of Countess Vivian: Queerness and the Making of Southern History." The events were presented in conjunction with MU's Pride Month and co-sponsored in part by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Resource Center, among other campus groups and organizations.

"Some of the comments were offensive to Mizzou students and fans. Comments that violated our posting policy — those that contained profanity or personal attacks, for example — were removed swiftly. Those that did not, remained on the Facebook page for more than 24 hours," the message stated.

One such comment that sparked a heated response was from Missouri state Rep. Kathie Conway, R-St. Charles. "Really?? This is educational?," Conway wrote. "Just what is the percentage of the population that this could possibly apply? .0001%?" Conway could not be reached for comment.

Mizzou administrators say "many of the comments" violated the university's posting policy.

Administrators also add the page was thread was ultimately deleted because the event was over.

"Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales" is a critically-acclaimed and commercially successful stage adaptation of the Johnson's oral history Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South. The one-man show has been staged across the country.

Zolra's Corner: The Good Things About Journaling

I spoke about this before, and since I have been feeling extremely creative for the past couple of days, this week felt like the best week to talk about this again.

One day, I began to remember my terrible childhood. Most things I can't even tell you in one blog post. If I had to tell you guys all at once, I will have to write a book about it instead of one blog post. The one thing that always cleared my head was journaling. There are some people that still call it diaries, but I call it a journal. When I was writing my feelings down, I was also drawing sketches in it. It was like writing my own book with pictures in it.

At the end of every night journaling, I felt strong enough to survive the next day. Because of it, I decided to share to you guys what are the good things about journaling. It's not just about writing a burn book. There's more to that.

Journaling came into our lives for many reasons. One way people journal is to help get rid of their depression. Sometimes, life brings us down in a way that we never felt before. We hold in so much sadness, the one decision we choose is writing. Once you start writing, you can feel your sadness going away as you continue to write one word at a time. Sometimes, you might start crying. Even if you do, keep on writing till you let everything out. Then once you finish writing that entry, I guarantee that you will feel a lot better. Even if the entry is long (probably five pages or more), the good thing about it is that you let everything out.

Another reason why people journal is to help get rid of anger. Holding anger inside is actually worse than holding in sadness. When it comes to holding anger, you don't know when you are going to let it out. You might even aim it to the wrong person. Journaling is considered a great way to relinquish your anger.

In some ways, writing about your daily life can be a part of journaling. Sometimes, you might wanna look back at your life to see how things have changed since then. That's an amazing way to do it. As long as it is used for good reasons only. In the movie Mean Girls, they created this thing called "The Burn Book". You don't want to create something like that.

If journaling is going to be a part of your life, make sure that you are using it for good reasons only. Turn negative into a positive. And remember to keep it to yourself. Unless you have friends that you know so well, you can trust them no matter what, I recommend you keep your journal to yourself.