Monolithic Sodomy scored another victory recently when it drove off an Asian scholar of civil rights and constitutionalism who had been invited to lecture at New York University. Anybody who believes that Big Sodomy is committed to tolerance and academic freedom has to account for incidents like this one, in which homosexuals and their allies in academia chased a meek foreign law professor out of the marketplace of ideas, for comments she offered while she was a member of her country's parliament.Singapore Legal Scholar Cancels NYU Visit, Driven Off by Homosexuals & Their Allies
A Singaporean law professor has pulled out of a teaching stint at New York University after her traditional views triggered a backlash on campus.
Richard Revesz, dean of New York University's law school, says Thio Li-ann informed him she will not be teaching during the fall semester because of "controversy surrounding her views regarding homosexuality and gay rights.
"She explained that she was disappointed by what she called the 'atmosphere of hostility' by some members of our community towards her views and by the low enrollments in her classes," he said in a press release Friday.
Thio - a former member of Parliament and a current professor at the National University of Singapore, which has an exchange program with NYU - could not immediately be reached for comment.
The 41-year-old was due to teach courses on human rights law and constitutionalism in Asia at NYU during the fall semester starting in September. Singapore's Straits Times said NYU students were outraged after learning that Thio had said in a parliamentary debate in 2007 that repealing a colonial-era law making sex between men a criminal offense "would subvert social morality, the common good and undermine our liberties." More than 800 members of the NYU community signed a petition against Thio after gay activists circulated copies of her speech, it said.
Revesz said he was not aware of the speech when NYU made the offer to Thio, and both courses have now been cancelled as a result of her pullout.
In Singapore, sex between men is still a criminal offense punishable by up to two years in prison, although it is rarely enforced.