Letter: Encouraging gay pride
Despite ripped-down flags, campus still place of tolerance.
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
It’s been suggested by some that the University of Kansas has a gay-friendly campus.
“Gay U” isn’t an uncommon nickname, nor is calling us the “Gayhawks.” It’s true that KU’s queer community is blessed in many different ways, with advocates on the faculty and staff, supportive resources and a surrounding town which is an anomaly in the state of Kansas.
A week ago, Queers & Allies hosted its annual Pride Week, a celebration of LGBT culture and the progress made by our movement since the Stonewall riots of 1969. Unarguably, the most visible elements of Pride Week were the rainbow flags hung up and down Jayhawk Boulevard. To many of you, these flags symbolized the accepting environment of our campus. After all, there’s a reason we’ve garnered those nicknames.
However, the flags were repeatedly torn down. KU Public Safety caught several of the perpetrators, including the five young men who had enough remorse and courage to write an apology. Sadly, the motivations of others were not so innocuous. Another person carried a ladder through campus in order to cut down our flags. When the police caught him, he stated that he didn’t want us “pushing our beliefs” onto him. You also might have seen the tattered remains of flags torn down by people who were fortunate enough to not get caught.
It doesn’t stop with the flags. It was suggested by one student that we should be lynched next to our flags. Another man raged in his class about the wrongs of the “fag lifestyle.” And as usual, Fred Phelps wants us to burn in hell.
For these reasons, Queers & Allies is sponsoring for the first time the National Day of Silence, a day of action in which students take a vow of silence in order to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment (in effect, the silencing) of the queer community and its allies.
This year’s Day of Silence will take place, April 25. Participants are requested to maintain silence wherever possible (excluding activities such as classes or work). The silence ends at 5 p.m.
On Wescoe Beach at 7p.m. Queers & Allies will be hosting a memorial for Lawrence King, a 15-year-old boy murdered because he was “effeminate.”
For more information, stop by the Queers & Allies table in front of Wescoe from April 23 to April 25. We’ll have handouts about Day of Silence, along with a fresh batch of “Gay? Fine by Me” T-shirts.
We urge all of you to take a stand. Show the world why KU is known as a place of tolerance.
—Ryan Campbell, Executive Director, Queers & Allies
—Megan Vail, Activism Chair, Queers & Allies
Discussion
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I'm cool with gay pride parades as long as we can do some straight pride parades too.
What about bestiality pride parades? Why can't they have one too?
Come on coreyo, if the gay community wants to have a pride parade, they deserve to have one. Since when were we, straight males, oppressed or forced to express ourselves differently than we saw fit. Our community embraces diversity more so than any place in this red state of ours, I think it's more appropriate to celebrate that during Gay Pride week.
If you want to throw a straight pride parade, go ahead, but don't expect the same level of support.
Until I hear of a heterosexual man being dragged behind a truck by redneck bigots, I think we can do just fine without a "straight pride" parade. Aside from a few excessively angry persons (Catharine MacKinnon comes to mind), I have yet to see anyone from the LGBTQ community launching a serious attack against heterosexuality.
Pride parades are shows of solidarity. Solidarity is necessary when a community is under attack. Despite what the Religious Right wants you to believe, heterosexuality is not, and never has been threatened. Until you have parents shipping their kids off to be tortured with electroshock therapy (read "The Last Time I Wore a Dress", and be disturbed) for being heterosexual, I think we can do without "straight pride" parades.
As a former Jayhawk now living in SoCal, I'd just like to point out that according to most news reports in the Los Angeles area, Lawrence King wasn't shot in the back of the head in class for being "effeminate," but specifically for being gay.
It's true that heterosexuals don't face a lot of persecution, and I'm not interested in seeing a straight pride week anytime soon.
Since these writers are speaking against intolerance, I wonder if Mr. Campbell and Ms. Vail would be fine with Christian flags being put up all over campus. The 20th century saw 45 million Christians martyred (OxfordJournals.org). Numbers vary, but sources put annual Christian martyrs higher than 150,000.
Why don't Ryan Campbell and Megan Vail do a special on how many homosexuals are martyred. I know it happens. They cite the horrible incident of 15 year old Lawrence. Run the numbers. I honestly would like to know
Great posts! In the name of tolerance I would like to see the Christianity Day on Campus, flags and the whole thing. Further, I would like to see a bit more tolerance for the views expressed by coreyo. It seems there is a lack of either general tolerance for that view or at least so in the gay bi lez community. Further, homersexual awareness has come along was since I was in Lawrence. Whatever happened to "wear blue jeans if your gay day" I mean flags and t-shirts? Wow!
Tolerance cannot be overrated!! As a former KU student, I applaud KU's gay tolerance, and hope that it remains so. Acceptance of others is moving forward, the opposite is moving backward. There is no one way of living one's life. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect. To read stories of acceptance of the gay life, please visit www.beautobeau.com.
I'd like to add that I know a few people who actually took a flag because they just like gay pride and wanted a flag. I know that seems counterproductive, but at least it wasn't a hate-driven crime.
In addition, I absolutely love KU's Pride Week. Despite the hatred of some individuals, I think the message of tolerance is well-communicated on campus to the student body and in the community. Keep up the good work, Q&A!
Straight, gay, bestiophile, do whatever the hell you want.
Just don't use your own money to do it.
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