Why the right wants to ban Plato: It's part of their war on being human - LGBTQ Nation

"Texas A&M University last week banned a philosophy professor from teaching about Plato's Symposium because it's too gay, and, while obviously philosophy classes should be allowed to teach about Plato and state lawmakers and administrators shouldn't be interfering in curricula... they are right that the specific texts that they banned are pretty gay. If the legislators' and administrators' goal is to make LGBTQ+ people feel more isolated and alone as a way of getting them to conform and pretend to be cisgender and heterosexual,"

"I grew up in the '90s in a conservative part of central Indiana, and I went to college on the other side of the country, determined to get away from everyone I knew and to live my life as I wanted. One of the classes I had to take in my first semester at college as an 18-year-old freshman was a survey of Western civilization-type class that included Symposium as one of its readings."

"I still remember the professor warning us in the class prior to reading Symposium that the text was about "love" and that, for Plato, that very much included love between two men. This was 2001, pre-September 11, just a couple of years after Ellen DeGeneres came out, and at a time when homosexuality was illegal in many states, so, yes, we got a "trigger warning," and the potential trigger was a discussion of homosexuality."

Texas A&M University prohibited a philosophy professor from teaching Plato's Symposium on the grounds that the text is "too gay." Lawmakers and administrators targeted specific classical works that portray same-sex love, a move that contributes to isolating LGBTQ+ people and encourages conformity to cisgender, heterosexual norms. A personal account recalls growing up in conservative Indiana, leaving for college to live openly, and encountering Symposium in a Western survey course. The professor warned that the text treats love between men. In 2001 many states still criminalized homosexuality, and the class received a "trigger warning" about discussing homosexuality amid memories of slurs, religious condemnation, and threats.

Read at LGBTQ Nation