Julinna Oxley (Coastal Carolina) and Diane Perpich (Clemson), both philosophy professors who head up the women’s studies programs at their respective universities, have written a brief editorial in South Carolina’s main newspaper, The State, raising questions for the State Legislature about the closure of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina – Upstate. The closure is seen by many as the State Legislature’s latest attempt to punish the school for assigning as its first-year reading selection the book, Out Loud: The Best of Rainbow Radio, by Ed Madden, which is about the first gay and lesbian radio show in South Carolina. The Center had also planned to host a production of the satirical How to Be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less, but had been forced to cancel it. The Legislature had already punished the school by subtracting the amount used to fund the reading program from USC-Upstate’s budget (doing the same to the College of Charleston, which also used a gay-themed book in its first-year reading program). It has recently restored the funding, but only on the condition that the school use the money to teach about the U.S. Constitution and other founding documents. See here for more of the story.