Curious responses
 

As much as I love the discussions on eratosphere, the place does breed some curious hostility. In January, I posted a link to videos of students reciting poetry, a practice that I and others have always made a requirement of poetry classes. The fact that I posted the link was implicit praise for the professor's effort. A couple of days ago I received this email from a fellow eratosphere member:

By the way, are the rumors true that you two are gay for each other? Not that there is anything wrong with that. You should be proud, and paint your face with rainbow stripes on Facebook 'n stuff...

Since this comment was not posted here, there is no way Alex can censure the sender. But you should be aware of the true nature of some of the members of our little tribe with whom you may be dealing.

Perhaps you don't know, Sam, but was this perhaps intended as comedy? The ludicrous phrase "gay for each other" makes me wonder...

I think this one is sincere (if deranged), coming from a source that went on an unfriending spree after various people on Facebook did a rainbow flag motif on their profile pictures to celebrate marriage equality.

I could be wrong and I'm too lazy to look it up, but I think Alex does have rules against using the PM system of the Sphere to send abusive or inappropriate messages, so it's something you can report if you like.

Simon, I'm usually pretty good at picking up tone and humor. I don't find references to anyone's supposed sexuality--"That is so gay!"--very funny.

Oh, I agree. It's just so stupid that--after the SCOTUS gay marriage decision--it reads as self-parodic to me, rather than as "serious bigotry." You (and Quincy?) have context that I lack, so I'm sure you're right. I was just asking, and I didn't find it funny either.

I'm sorry this happened RS Gwynn. I hope everything else in your life is fine.

The message & remark are inexcusable. I particularly dislike when messages of hate are couched as parodic "tolerance."