At this point it’s obvious.

Penn made a mistake in allowing alleged child-pornographer Scott Ward to remain on the Wharton faculty after his first two run-ins with the law.
But now, a Christian group has provided Penn with one more reason to regret its past decision. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania has begun a PR campaign urging universities to ban gay professors.

And the lynchpin of this new campaign? Why, it’s none other than Scott Ward and his deviant behavior.

“I think the University of Pennsylvania needs to learn from the Boy Scouts’ ban that that is what they need to do to protect their students,” said Diane Gramley, the head of the Association. “When you look at the small percentage of homosexuals in the country and compare that to the number of young men who are being molested by men, the ratio is just astounding.”

I’d hate to legitimize Diane Gramley’s words by actually analyzing them. Her group’s intolerance doesn’t merit that. But at the very least, Penn should further realize the liabilities it incurs when it allows faculty to get off easy. Sure, Ward embarrassed the Penn community. But worse, our community, which The Advocate named of one the nation’s 20 best for LGBT students, is now being used as fodder for bigotry. Just one more unintended consequence of ignoring someone’s past in this age of global information.

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