Gay Quote Removed from Starbucks Cups in Texas

A Starbucks at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has pulled coffee cups featuring an author’s quote about growing up gay.

The quote comes from novelist Armistead Maupin, who gained critical acclaim and literary fame for his Tales of the City series.

The quote on the cups reads: “My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too damn short.”

Aramark, the dining contractor for the Starbucks, pulled the cups from the campus store after an e-mail said the quote was inappropriate at a Baptist university.

“My understanding is it was a decision made by Baylor dining services staff, and I’ve not yet been able to trace it back to any Baylor administrators telling them point-blank to pull the cup, Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley told the Associated Press.

“I think they were trying to be sensitive. Obviously, Baylor is a Baptist-affiliated institution, and Baptists as a denomination have been pretty outspoken on the record about the denomination’s views about the homosexual lifestyle.”

In August, Baylor University ranked as one of the worst schools for LGBT students in the Princeton Review. And in February 2004, Baylor was accused of stripping student Matt Bass’ scholarship to its theology school after discovering he was gay.

After students rallied to support him, the school cracked down on organizers. CNN noted student leader Darrin Adams was threatened with expulsion just days before his graduation.

“It’s the same way Baylor deals with any issues – just remove them,” Adams told the PlanetOut Network Wednesday. “Their whole attitude of non-confrontation not only provides them with more problems, but is also an un-Christian approach to dealing with life.”