Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Volume 121, Issue 19
VISTA The
Rubix Cubes Page 5
“OUR WORDS, YOUR VOICE.”
Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022
Volume 119, Issue 19
‘Brother Matt’ preaches hate, student threatens to jump off ledge Jake Ramsey Managing Editor
Matthew Bourgault, a member of Kansas City, Missouri-based Consuming Fire Campus Ministries, protested outside the Nigh University Center at UCO on March 11, sparking a counter-protest from students seeking to remove him from the university campus. One student even threatened to jump off a ledge if campus police were not called. Bourgault, or “Brother Matt” as he referred to himself, is a traveling evangelical who goes to
college campuses to protest what he believes to be a Godless society. The 64-year-old man, according to James Madison University’s newspaper, The Breeze, originates from Missouri and currently has no relation to Oklahoma, nor UCO. His goal was to preach, “for the glory of God.” This included yelling at students walking by, telling them that they cannot, “f— people in the ass.” Bourgault also called counter-protesters pedophiles and claimed they will go to Hell. A protestor holds a sign that read “God Loves Everyone except for people like This” while Bourgault Cont. on page 4
speaks. (KYLER LANNING/FOR THE VISTA)
Opioid use is up: UCOSA says Narcan saves lives Cameron University becomes first campus to provide Narcan vending machines Jake Ramsey Managing Editor
7.1% of students self-reported the use of non-medical opioids across the UCO campus in the Spring of 2023 according to the Center for Counseling and Well-Being, which has now sparked the conversation of Narcan vending machines on campus. “It’s trying to navigate how to have these very serious and sometimes emotionally charged conversations, while trying to understand what would be best for the university on the administrators’ side of view,” said Izzi Barry, Chair of the UCO Student Association (UCOSA). Barry, as well as many others at UCOSA have been meeting regularly with students, where she says one of the most discussed concerns amongst the student body has been getting Narcan on campus. “Narcan saves lives, that is one thing that is not debatable,” said Barry. When discussing overdoses and drug-use across Oklahoma, Mark
Graph made with data from the Oklahoma Department of Health shows the steep increase in overdose deaths. (TESS PETERS/THE VISTA)
Woodward of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics said, “Certainly opioid, especially fentanyl is our fastest rising drug overdose death category.” Combining the fact that there has been a rise in opioid-induced overdoses across the state with the rise in campus opioid use, Barry and other members of UCOSA, as well as many in the student body feel that narcan vending machines are a necessity on campus. “It is helping people, it saves lives,” said Barry. “If this can save one student’s life, it is worth having it.” According to data collected by the Oklahoma State Department of Health, the number of fentanyl overdose deaths increased 12-fold in the year of 2022, from prior years. Oklahoma saw 50 fentanyl induced overdose deaths in 2019, compared to 2022’s 609. “17-27 is a large percent of them, not all of them certainly,” said Woodward when discussing the age-range of victims of fentanyl overdose. Cont. on page 4
Author of “Slapping Leather” to speak on queer rodeo at UCO March 29 Sam Royka Editor-in-Chief
On March 29, UCO will host a talk by Elyssa Ford, shedding light on the stories of gay rodeo. Ford, associate professor of history at Northwest Missouri State University, will share her latest research, exploring nuanced expressions of masculinity and the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the gay rodeo community. Ford’s research stems from her latest co-authored book, “Slapping Leather: Queer Cowfolx at the Gay Rodeo.” In the book, Ford shows how the AIDS crisis reshaped the landscape of gay rodeo. Between fundraising
efforts and community resilience, the book tells a story of solidarity. Equality has always been ingrained in the ethos of gay rodeo, with all events open to men and women though they compete in separate events and are judged separately. However, despite intentions of across-theboard equality, female participation has never exceeded 25%, Ford explained. This imbalance leads to larger prize pools for men because of higher contestant numbers, perpetuating a “male-dominated, masculine-focused environment” that may exclude lesbians or less masculine presenting gay men,
Ford said. Transgender participation in the rodeos is complex, and Ford notes there has been some rule evolution over time. “One of the things they’re not as comfortable about are people like, repeatedly changing gender identities for the events that they compete on,” Ford said. This is intended to keep participants competing in static categories but could present problems for people who are nonbinary, genderfluid, or transition multiple times throughout their lives.
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Book cover for “Slapping Leather,” Ford and Scofield’s new research on gay rodeo. (PROVIDED)
Super Tuesday means a rematch: a look at Biden, Trump platforms in 2024 Sam Royka Editor-in-Chief
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump emerged as the frontrunners following March 5’s Super Tuesday primaries. As Nikki Haley drops out of the Republican race, the stage is set for a presidential rematch. A stark contrast in platform keeps the stakes high, with Biden prioritizing climate action
and racial equity while Trump doubles down on deportation and divisive policies. As the nation braces for the upcoming election, contrasting platforms highlight the gulf of an American ideological divide. Biden has sent both weapons support to Israel and food to refugees in the Gaza strip, who are now largely displaced to Rafah in man-made famine conditions. The president said on a hot mic after his State of the Union ad-
dress that he and Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu need to have a “come to Jesus meeting.” The Israel-Hamas conflict has killed more than 30,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and captures world attention as a humanitarian crisis. On Israel’s involvement in Gaza, Trump has said that “You’ve got to finish the problem,” appearing to support the continued bombing and not
distinguishing between Hamas and the people of Palestine. In other news, Biden’s current platform pledges to “take swift action to tackle the climate crisis,” by reducing pollution. The goal is to “put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050,” according to a White House document.
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