Forgoing an opportunity to ask a likely 2016 presidential candidate about his policies, Dartmouth University students instead pelted Rick Perry with questions about anal sex during his speech on campus.
Perry spoke to a group of students about the midterm elections and the future of the Republican Party Sunday night, but when he opened the floor for questions the topic quickly switched to his beliefs on homosexuality.
Senior Emily Sellers asked if Perry would have anal sex in exchange for campaign contributions of $102 million and freshman Timothy Messen accused the governor of comparing homosexuality to alcoholism, according to the campus newspaper The Dartmouth.
These questions came from a list of 11 derogatory questions passed out by sophomore Ben Packer before the event began.
Not all of the students wanted to be a part of the offensive questioning of the Texas governor.
“They were phrased in incredibly insulting ways, and I’m horrified,” College Republicans president Michelle Knesbach told The Dartmouth. “We allow people to ask policy-driven questions, but when they’re phrased in an insulting manner, we try to avoid that, because it just detracts from the overall political discourse we can have on campus.”
College Democrats president Spencer Blair said that while he understood the concern over Perry’s stance on gay rights, he thought the questions were “disappointing.”
“I think it’s really disappointing that anyone would undermine a serious political event with sexually explicit questions, and neither I nor anyone from College Democrats would ever condone such behavior,” Blair said. “We appreciate Governor Perry visiting campus, as we encourage any sort of political engagement and discourse here at Dartmouth.”
Packer told The Dartmouth that Perry’s views were more offensive than his questions.
“People that are opposed to this act are opposed to it because they think that it hurts their political discussion,” he told the paper. “I think the desired effect was to point out that their political discussion is not meaningful.”
