Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, or CVMBS, has responded after a faculty member sent an email expressing his disapproval of the LGBTQ+ community.
The email was from program director Vincent Hardy in response to a student who was announcing a Pride Month event within the college.
“As a Christian and a pastor of churches, I do not promote or celebrate sexual perversions,” Hardy said in his reply. “Rampant sexual perversion and the killing of poor innocent children (and the nation’s acceptance of these sins) are two things that lead to God’s judgement upon a nation and its demise.”
Dean John August of the CVMBS, said in a facebook post that the college does not condone the speech used in Hardy’s email.
“The highly offensive email sent recently to faculty, staff, graduate students, interns and residents in the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS) has undermined years of commitment and hard work to create an environment in our college in which everyone is welcomed and supported, including the LGBTQIA+ community,” August said.
Despite Hardy’s words, August said the college welcomes and supports the LGBTQIA+ community. Additionally, the student who received the email has received much support from CVMBS students and staff.
“After that email was sent, many emails were exchanged between members of the CVMBS community that are overwhelmingly supportive of LGBTQAI+,” August said. “So, too, are the roughly 130 kind notes that have been sent directly to the author of the original email announcing the event. I am not surprised that our faculty, staff, and students are offering not only an outpouring of love, but also their time and resources to support our LGBTQIA+ community—including almost $9,000 for The Trevor Project, a national 24-hour toll free, confidential suicide hotline for LGBTQIA+ youth.”
August said the college supports the First Amendment, however, it does not support hateful speech. This includes Hardy’s email, as well as more recent emails to the program director after the news of this incident broke.
“Our commitment to maintaining a welcoming, supportive, and safe environment for the LGBTQIA+ community has been strengthened by this difficult incident. We are deeply hurt when one person’s voice does not represent our sincere aspirations,” August said.