BY MARISSA CASTANOS
On Tuesday evening, a Fort Hays State class of 1991 graduate gave an enlightening presentation on LGBT politics and religion. The Student Philosophy Club, FHSU’s Gay-Straight Alliance, and Us4U were able to have Dr. Kent Brintnall visit campus to reconnect with past professors while speaking about what he now teaches at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Dr. Brintnall began his presentation by talking about various thinkers and their philosophies. These thinkers ranged anywhere from Cathy Cohen to Sigmund Freud. Brintnall compared his own philosophies with the philosophies of these thinkers, before moving on to the next.
The beginning of Brintnall’s presentation was more informative, while the later of his presentation had a more personal tone, in which he asked members of the audience to ask any question they would like.
Brintnall went around the room from person to person, sharing his answer to each question with the audience. This was the longest part of Brintnall’s presentation, as various members of the audience were intrigued by what he had to say and wanted to hear more.
As a Fort Hays graduate, Brintnall was ecstatic about being able to come back and give a presentation at Fort Hays, but he was most excited about giving back to the philosophy department that he says trained him very well and made him feel well cared for while he was in school. Brintnall also mentioned that he had not been back to Hays in thirteen years, so he was curious to see what the atmosphere was like today. Brintnall is currently in his 10th year of teaching religious studies at UNC Charlotte.
“My favorite part about teaching what I teach is that in a given semester, there’s no student that isn’t challenged at some point,” Britnall said. To further explain, he says that “having, however, they perceive the world, having that challenged in some way” is his favorite thing about teaching his subject.
When asked what was the one thing he would like students, faculty, and community members to take away from his presentation, Dr. Brintnall stated that “I think that human beings are very inventive in finding ways of marking people as ‘other’ and harming them because of it, and I think we need to get better at that.”