I met with Lojine and Ian (who contacted me as the Board) from The Outlook today to discuss the horrific article written by Sibai in last week’s issue of the publication. Below is a summary that I tweeted immediately after the meeting. I will be writing a post about it at some point this weekend. I’ve changed the tweets slightly to make it easier to understand.
Disappointed in my meeting with Outlook, but then again, I was expecting to be. Double standards suck.
Lots of things discussed in meeting with them. Their main points:
1. This is not hate speech.
2. This is not bigotry.
3. Everything Sibai said can be argued to be true.
4. STDs are highest in LGBT community.
5. This does not lead to violence.
6. They would publish anything that they consider up to the standards of the newspaper (and yes, they think Sibai’s piece is up to standards).
7. They think they are responsible for creating great debate and have taken ‘the end justifies the means’ approach, though they don’t agree that they have.
8. In regards to my article where I switched gay with Christian, they stated that it would not be published because it advocates violence. They feel that if it targets Christians it will advocate violence because of the history of the country. When i pointed out, the history of violence against LGBT, they felt it did not compare. When I pointed out double standards, they did not agree.
9. They will not meet any of the demands.
10. I pointed out that the apology from the editor doesn’t even mention the name of the article. They argued that it did not need to (“everyone knows what we are talking about”). Lojine later agreed that this should have been included.
11. They believe they have been more than fair and impartial.
12. They are not too pleased about @TheOutlookLeaks.
13. They bought me coffee
14. Sibai was nowhere in sight.
15. They questioned my educational background (which I really did not appreciate).
16. Lojine was much more apologetic face to face than in her editorial. Ian was not apologetic whatsoever.
17. The last issue was approved by the Office of Student Affairs.
ohmyhappiness 
Tagouga
May 11, 2012
Given that they never really issued an apology, this was expected. But still it is very disappointing. And if the article is considered up to the standards of the newspaper then they really should recheck and raise their standards. Such a shame really.
Raynbow Blog
May 12, 2012
Number 3 is just not possible!
Hala J.
May 13, 2012
I can only do a major facepalm in the face of this information. Wow. I was on the verge of applying to become editor-in-chief of Outlook this upcoming Fall but decided against it because I’m not likely to have the time to dedicate to it. But if this kind of ignorance is what’s running Outlook I probably should have reconsidered. So freaking frustrating!
ohmyhappiness
May 14, 2012
Oh you so should have applied. 🙂 It’s OK. It seems more and more like absolutely no one reads Outlook.
witchylisa
May 13, 2012
I think it’s safe to say, Raja, that you shouldn’t bother yourself with a woman that… well…you shouldn’t bother yourself with that.
Alloush
May 15, 2012
This is just CRAZY!