The tradition continues. At yesterday’s Rice/Baylor football game, Rice’s band poked one of Baylor’s culture-war soft spots. Will it do any damage?

Take that, conservative Christianity!

It’s not the first time. Back in the 1920s, when Des Moines University in Iowa declared its allegiance to the fundamentalist movement, its football foes used to taunt the Des Moines team with chants of

Darwin! Darwin! Darwin!

Now, the Rice band has apparently updated that anti-fundamentalist tactic for the twenty-first century. According to the Houston Chronicle, the Rice band

played pro-LGBTQ song “YMCA” by the Village People as dozens of students and alumni rushed the field with rainbow flags at its football game against Baylor University on Saturday night.

The Rice band was protesting against Baylor’s decision to withhold official recognition for a student LGBTQ group.

Did it work? Well, not on the gridiron. Baylor trounced the Owls 21-13. In the long run, however, I wonder if increasing pressure on LGBTQ issues will force Baylor to change its tune.