Penn State Sex Faire
Penn State's student newspaper, the Daily Collegian, collects its complete Sex Faire coverage on this page.
Daily Collegian
John Lawless, a Republican state legislator in Pennsylvania, is protesting the campus Sex Faire held at Penn State on February 3. Missy Mazzafero, a Penn State senior and co-director of Womyn's Concerns, which co-sponsored the event, said the annual Sex Faire offers a "pro-woman look at sex and sexuality." Lawless complained that games played and literature distributed at Sex Faire contained graphic language demeaning to women; he also claimed that an orgy would have broken out if he hadn't been there to stop it. "The issue is where does freedom of speech meet exploitation and when does it cross the line into pornography?" Apparently free speech applies only if that speech couldn't possibly offend anybody. Of course, Republicans also love to complain about political correctness stifling free speech on college campuses. Lawless wants to eliminate the state of Pennsylvania's annual $350 million contribution to Penn State pending an investigation.
Times Herald (Feb 2001)
Danielle Grote covers last weekend's campus Sex Faire event, sponsored by Womyn's Concerns. Conservative state legislator John Lawless showed up to protest the event, trailed by his own cameraman and several reporters. One Sex Faire participant, a women's studies major working one of the informational tables, said of Lawless, "I think he's making a major media spectacle and trying to gain publicity from a tiny event that a few girls put together with $50." Members of the oddly named campus group Young Americans for Freedom joined Lawless in calling for government censorship of the event. ... The Daily Collegian editorial board criticizes Lawless's campaign against Sex Faire. "His thinly veiled threat of impeding state funding for the university is grossly unfair, and not in the best interest of a free and open learning environment."
Daily Collegian (Feb 2001)
Penn State students Lynn Thompson and Missy Mazzaferro, co-directors of the student organization Womyn's Concerns, respond to the sensationalistic furor by describing what actually happened at Sex Faire. Thompson and Mazzaferro defend the event's purpose in distributing information, promoting safe sex and challenging people's ideas about sex.
Daily Collegian (Feb 2001)
The Sex Faire Affair rages on, thanks to a Republican state legislator who desperately wants to be the next Ken Starr. Several Penn State University professors held a press conference to defend Sex Faire as constitutionally protected free speech and to criticize state Rep. John Lawless for "glomming" onto the issue. One professor argued, "The Supreme Court has made it well settled law that bad taste is not a sufficient reason to censor speech." . . . On Tuesday, several other conservative state legislators joined Lawless in grilling university president Graham Spanier, who argued the eminently reasonable position that the university can't and shouldn't suppress free expression by students, even if some find that expression offensive. The committee had arranged for Dr. Laura to make a live statement via videoconferencing, but she backed out and sent a written statement instead. Lawless denounced Spanier afterwards, revealing his own inquisitorial fantasies and scintillating wit: "We saw the Clinton-esque come out in this man today. He probably doesn't have any problem with cigars either." According to the article, Lawless "also hinted that he might travel to Nebraska to investigate something about Spanier's past, but refused to elaborate." Scary.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | Daily Collegian (Feb 2001)
The Penn State "Sex Faire" controversy has just about fizzled out, but psychopath state rep. John Lawless managed to win a symbolic victory against the University. He pushed through an amendment to deduct $9520 from the state's $300 million annual appropriation, which will supposedly cover the amount Sex Faire cost the state. Debate over the amendment wandered into controversies unrelated to Sex Faire. Some black lawmakers voted for Lawless's amendment to protest racial hostilities at Penn State, while other lawmakers brought up a campus riot last month following Penn State's loss to Temple in the NCAA basketball tournament.
Daily Collegian (Apr 2001)
