Fomer Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is currently serving as U.S. Energy secretary in the Trump administration authored an op-ed Wednesday challenging the election of Texas A&M University's first openly gay student body president.
Perry wrote in his commentary -- titled "Did A&M Shun Due Process in the Name of 'Diversity'?" for the Houston Chronicle -- that Bobby Brooks's election at Texas A&M may not have been legitimate because he won after Robert McIntosh, another candidate, was disqualified after it was reported he may have intimidated voters and failed to report a campaign expense. McIntosh was later cleared of the voter intimidation charge, but the student government's Judicial Court upheld the charge of failing to report an expense.
The U.S. Energy secretary wrote that the election "made a mockery of due process and transparency" and "allowed an election to be stolen outright." Perry claimed that the administration at A&M would not have allowed the election to happen as it did if there wasn't a possibility of electing the first gay student body president.
"Brooks' presidency is being treated as a victory for 'diversity,'" wrote Perry, a longtime LGBT foe who is an alum of A&M. "It is difficult to escape the perception that this quest for 'diversity' is the real reason the election outcome was overturned. Does the principle of 'diversity' override and supersede all other values of our Aggie Honor Code?"
"I would say that we respectfully disagree with his assessment," Amy Smith, the university's senior vice president of marketing and communications, told The Texas Tribune. "And his understanding of the election rules of student body president elections doesn't reflect the facts."
Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of LGBT group GLAAD, criticized Perry on Twitter.
