Students at University of Texas at Austin are hoping to keep guns off their campus with a good ol’ fashion dildo protest.
A Facebook event for Campus (DILDO) Carry has been organized to protest the campus carry bill that was recently signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The law will allow students with concealed carry permits to walk around public campuses with guns starting in August 2016. Participants in the protest are planning to strap dildos to their backpacks on Aug. 24, 2016, the first day of classes for the semester.
Jessica Jin, the organizer of the event, writes in the event’s description:
The State of Texas has decided that it is not at all obnoxious to allow deadly concealed weapons in classrooms, however it DOES have strict rules about free sexual expression, to protect your innocence. You would receive a citation for taking a DILDO to class before you would get in trouble for taking a gun to class. Heaven forbid the penis.
In terms of the citation, Jin refers to a UT Austin rule that prohibits being in public with something deemed “obscene.”
Jin invites anybody to partake in the protest, from alumni to non-UT students, as well as people outside of Texas, in a show of sex-toy solidarity against the law. As of Sunday evening, there were already more than 2,000 people RSVP’d as attending. The event also has a hashtag, #CocksNotGlocks.
The Houston Chronicle points out that the event was created the same day as a shooting at Texas Southern University, which left one student dead and another wounded. Shootings in Oregon and Arizona added to the tally of deaths by gun on college campuses.
Sadly, as Jin’s event has gone viral over the weekend, she’s started to get threats online. She told the Chronicle on Sunday:
It has been absolutely fascinating that some folks seemingly feel threatened or angered at the thought of people carrying dildos around with them. They’re incredibly offended! So much outrage! They’re calling for my head.
People want me dead for a dildo.
Aware that dildos can be costly, Jin noted on Facebook that she’ll look into a supplier sponsorship if there are enough participants for the protest. Maybe the ones hanging around Portland earlier this year can be shipped over to Texas.
