Robert Oscar Lopez

Robert Oscar Lopez is an American former academic. He was most recently a professor of humanities at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Early life Robert Oscar Lopez is of Puerto Rican descent. Additionally, he is "the descendant of African slaves". He holds an English PhD from State University of New York at Buffalo. He received a master's degree in classics from SUNY-Buffalo in 2007.

In 2012, he published the essay "Growing up with two Moms", detailing his experiences growing up as son of a lesbian couple. This resulted in an immediate backlash in blogs, with some calling it hate speech.

Lopez was accused by two former students for creating a discriminatory environment. In October 2015, the CSUN provost wrote a letter informing Lopez that he was accused of intimidating students. Meanwhile, Lopez accused another administrator of comparing an event he had organized at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to a "KKK camp". The event that he had organized at the library was actually the initial meeting of his International Children's Rights Institute, and photos of the event were used for the web site.

Lopez founded the International Children's Rights Institute in 2014, and he served as its president until it quietly shut down in early 2017. He testified against same-sex marriage in Minnesota.

In 2016, Lopez resigned his position at CSUN and later became Professor of Humanities at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In November 2019, according to Southwestern, Lopez's position was eliminated due to changing program needs of Scarborough College. However, Southwestern's decision was undergirded by Lopez's actions, which included failure to comply with basic administrative policies, being the subject of regular complaints from students and faculty colleagues, and, in the end, refusal to attend meetings with his supervisors. In contrast, Lopez claimed that Southwestern administrators fired him for his refusal to cut back on his rhetoric after having reprimanded him earlier for talking almost incessantly about homosexuality.

Personal life According to Inside Higher Ed, he "identifies as bisexual". Lopez is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Colorful Conservative: American Conversations with the Ancients from Wheatley to Whitman, published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2011.

Articles Bloom, In-Humanities and the Gay Marriage Regime 2015 in Humanum Growing up with two Moms 2012 in Public Discourse Protecting Human Rights for All in San Diego Union Tribune 2015