Lesbian Riot at Smith College!

Pundits may disagree with his claims, but not more than Smith College activists, who stormed Sorba's lecture and forced him off stage after 20 minutes. The queer Smithies clapped, stomped, screamed, and yelped till Sorba was silenced.

Ryan Sorba, a psychology student and author, is in the process of publishing and promoting his upcoming book "The Born Gay Hoax." The title of the book is pretty self-explanatory, Sorba seeks to discredit the idea of homosexuals being "born that way."

The queer college community has been up in arms about Sorba's brazen campus tour promoting his ideas; queer blogs are teeming with angry posts and comments. An Oasis Journal blogger writes:

"Ryan Sorba: unintelligble, plagiarizing bigot with a mission to make the "born gay hoax" a political phrase by introducing his hate-filled criticism of the gay rights movement across college campuses. Invited by the Smith Republicans, allowed and advertised by the administration."

Some "Smithies" were ashamed of the actions of their peers, as displayed by this Pam's House Blend post:

"As a Smithie who didn't attend Sorba's speech and didn't otherwise loudly protest, I'm extremely frustrated with the people who did. Many of them came back with stories of how fun it was, how great it felt to be so loud and obnoxious that Sorba had to sit down.

That kind of behavior makes coming to Smith worthwhile for Sorba. He must know that most of Smith disagrees with him, so he can't have come here looking to gather support. He clearly doesn't care much for logical argument, so he can't have come here looking to educate us or to start an intelligent debate.

The best thing Sorba could possibly have hoped for in coming to Smith was to raise a ruckus that would bring him publicity for his book. And what did my supposedly intelligent, politically aware, queer-friendly peers do? They gave him exactly what he wanted.

I'm a queer Smithie. I felt attacked by Sorba's presence on my campus. But the behavior of other Smithies and community members who went to the talk? That makes me feel betrayed. "

The campus conservatives are crying foul on this one. The Smith Republican Club contends that the campus is a safe space for queers, but not for Republicans on campus. In this case, I think the Smith queers were a bit too harsh on Sorba. Also, there's a little something called free speech -- no matter how acerbic the claims are, Sorba still has a right to say them.