By Shelbi Smith and Kathrina Macalanda

Let’s set aside all arguments surrounding treating elections seriously and concentrate on one simple idea: take campus homophobia and discrimination against LGBT people seriously.

We are disgusted with the “Take election results seriously” piece.

Let’s start with SPECTRUM being the primary target.

SPECTRUM members advocated for the referendum, but did not write the legislation or the petition.

A little research would have revealed that Student Senate was behind both.

Calling the second vote an electoral disgrace is also misguided.

The petition for a second vote was conducted according to the rules outlined in the student body constitution.

Furthermore, by telling us to take the election results seriously, what the writer is really saying is that LGBT people should just sit back and accept homophobia.

Second, the student body did vote incorrectly. Of course, we are sure saying that will cause all kinds of controversy.

So be it. LGBT equality is right; voting against it is wrong. It really is that simple.

We can get over your lack of research and questionable interpretation of events though.

What we cannot get over is the blaming of LGBT activists for the referendum failing, and more importantly, the seeming insistence in telling us how to feel about the situation.

The writer had the audacity to say we treated voters callously. No.

Mr. McClain — and all those who voted against the seat, those who did not vote and those who have remained silent as horrific things have been said about us — treated the LGBT community callously.

But it didn’t stop there. He thought it was appropriate to tell us how we should feel about the situation.

He has no right to do so. No one should dare tell us how we should look upon the results of the votes, and no one should dare tell us what should make us proud.

Of course we recognize the progress that has been made at SMU in recent years.

We are happy to see a shift occurring; we are happy to know we won the majority both times.

But guess what? We still don’t have representation.

Toward the end of the piece, it said, “SPECTRUM might yet convince people like myself to get off the sidelines.”

We are happy to have it confirmed yet again that it is the responsibility of an oppressed group to get people to care about them.

Instead of telling us to respect the will and opinion of the student body, how about telling the student body to respect LGBT students.

Tell them to stop calling us d*kes and fa**ots.

Tell them to stop harassing gay students, following them across campus yelling derogatory slurs.

Tell them to stop being such cowards, hiding behind their computer screens.

Tell them real bravery is two women walking hand in hand across campus every day after someone threatened to rape them for trying to better the situation of LGBT students on campus.

The fact is the referendum failed because of homophobia.

In the true fashion of an oppressor, Mr. McClain managed to turn it on the oppressed and blame us for our own oppression.

Well done.

Smith is a sophomore majoring in philosophy. Macalanda is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.