As you walked around campus today, did you notice something different? Maybe it was the chalking all over the asphalt, or maybe it was the painting on the cannon, or the coming out stories displayed around campus. Now, before you check your calendars and get confused, let me tell you it's not National Coming Out Day, and there will be no big rally on the patio, and that's just the point.
Let me explain. The purpose of these actions today is to show that coming out and having pride in being queer are not confined to one day a year. There's no special meaning to today - it doesn't commemorate an event in queer history and it doesn't coincide with a nationally recognized campaign.
Today is a day just like any other, a completely ordinary day. And today there are people who walk around campus who are questioning their sexuality but don't know who to talk to. There are people who are trying desperately to come out to their parents, people who are telling homophobic jokes, and people who have to defend and explain their sexuality to their friends, their professors, and their classmates. But most of all, there are people today who are proud to be queer, and we want this campus to know.
There are people who may question our methods of making ourselves visible. Every year, both queer and straight people object to our use of certain language and phrases. I know that I couldn't possibly represent the views of the entire queer community on this issue, so I will simply speak for myself.
I see the messages we use as a way to take back the words that people use to degrade us. Once we take back these words and accept them as our own, we free ourselves from shame and fear. Instead of slurs, these words become symbols of self-acceptance and strength. When I'm walking down my street and someone shouts "Lesbian!" from a passing car, I can take it as a statement of fact, not as an insult.
Others, both those from outside our community and those within it, believe that we should not write messages of a sexual nature. They believe that by doing so, we are reinforcing a stereotype of queer people as being primarily interested in sex, and that this message both marginalizes queer people and de-legitimizes our status as a political movement.
Although I believe that these points of view are valid, I don't agree with them. For me, accepting my identity as a queer person means accepting me as a fully sexual being. All too often, queer people are told that we should deny or repress our own sexuality to fit in better with heterosexual society. Even in casual conversation, straight people will often declare, "I support gay rights, but I don't want to know about what goes on in the bedroom." To me, statements like that only reinforce the idea that queer people are supposed to be ashamed of their sexual desires.
Our messages are sometimes sexual because we seek to free ourselves from that shame. I challenge those who are offended by the sexual messages to ask themselves why it is that they feel offended. Is it because the messages are about sex, or because they are about queers? Are you as equally offended by a picture of a two men kissing as you are of a picture of a man and a woman kissing?
I encourage all of this campus to think about what they see today. Read our chalkings and our coming out stories around campus. Keep in mind that what you see does not represent one solitary viewpoint. Each phrase represents the thoughts of a queer person on this campus. Only by knowing us each as individuals can you truly understand what it means to be who we are.
Vanessa Dillen is a senior majoring in international relations. She is the political co-coordinator of TTLGBC.
