The campus community at the University of Texas at Austin has found a creative way to protest the fact that soon they will be allowed to carry concealed guns—but not sex toys—on school grounds.
On August 24, 2016, soon after the gun law goes into effect, students and alumni will stage a Campus Dildo Carry in which they strap "gigantic swinging dildos to our backpacks in protest of campus [gun] carry."
"ANYBODY can participate in solidarity: alum, non-UT students, people outside of Texas. Come one dildo, come all dildos," states the event announcement. "You're carrying a gun to class? Yeah well I'm carrying a HUGE DILDO."
The "campus carry" bill, signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in June, mandates that, starting in August 2016, public universities will not be allowed to ban guns on campus.
In contrast, "obscene materials" are banned on school grounds, according to UT rules, which cite the Texas penal code. According to event organizers, this means "You would receive a citation for taking a DILDO to class before you would get in trouble for taking a gun to class."
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"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," the announcement continues.
This is in a state where, until seven years ago, the sale of sex toys was banned.
The protest appears to have struck a nerve. Since Friday, over 5,400 people have responded in the affirmative to the Facebook event announcement, and the protest has garnered international headlines. This attention can only grow, given that the direct action is nearly a year away.
UT alumna Jessica Jin told the Houston Chronicle on Sunday that she decided to organize the event because she "couldn't believe that people could still sit there and defend their own personal gun ownership while watching families mourn the loss of their children... When I discovered that it is indeed against UT policy to wave dildos around campus, I just couldn't help myself."
