University of Texas students wield sex toys to protest campus-carry gun law

Students at the University of Texas are protesting the implementation of a new campus-carry law by brandishing sex toys around the Austin campus.

Dubbed “Cocks not Glocks,” the movement points out students are now allowed to carry guns around on campus, but under university obscenity codes can be cited for taking obscene objects to class.

Disaffected students on Wednesday afternoon strapped dildos to their backpacks to “fight absurdity with absurdity,” the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.

“Starting on the first day of Long Session classes on August 24, 2016, we are strapping gigantic swinging dildos to our backpacks in protest of campus carry,” the protest’s website says.

Lynn Raridon, owner of Austin-based adult store Forbidden Fruit, said she donated dildos to students in support of their cause. The store also introduced a 50-percent-off shelf reserved for UT Austin students.

Other adult stores also got in on the action.

Shannon Molina, social-media manager for Dreamers adult store, said she saw the protest as an opportunity to advance the store’s sex-positive mission.

“What we saw in this is being able to destigmatize sexuality,” Ms. Molina told the Chronicle. “I post for our social-media page, and I find it very hard to engage people about sex when it’s something that’s commonplace. It’s the norm, as opposed to guns being carried in the classroom.”

In the days leading up to the protest, she said the store distributed approximately 1,000 dildos to UT Austin students who showed their student IDs.

The state’s campus-carry law went into effect on Aug. 1, permitting license holders to carry guns with them at UT Austin and other public universities. Under the law, schools have some discretion to regulate how students carry and store their weapons on campus.