Gay 101

by Jennifer Vogt

Des Moines, Iowa (Jan. 31, 1997)--

GAY 101. Life-long credit Introductory course to enable students to gain a heightened awareness of issues affecting homosexual, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. Students will be evaluated on how well they use this information in their daily lives. Prerequisites: students in Gay 101 should be familiar with the terms homophobia and heterosexism.

The above course description was taken from a hand-out given to an audience during "Gay 101" Monday night as B-Glad continued its Pride Week for gays and lesbians.

"Professor James Poohbear Simmons" (JO1) led a medium-sized group through a "course" covering topics on homophobia and heterosexism. Simmons surprised his audience with a "pop quiz" to begin B-Glad's program. The quiz pinpointed stereotypes within society about gay/lesbian lifestyles.

Graduate student Tom Butler (BN, GM) voiced his opinions concerning these stereotypes. "Stereotypes are labels perhaps, and they create barriers. People need to be educated," Butler said.

Member Travis Tu took the program from there and performed a skit entitled "A Day in the Life of a Gay Person at Drake." After the skit, Tu opened the doors for discussion over what the audience saw and thought of not only the skit, but of the purpose of the program. Encouraging students to be a part of the discussion, Tu offered his own views. "There are no textbooks for this topic. It's personal experience and opinions, so volunteer your information," Tu said. He posed questions such as "why do you feel we have Pride Week?"

Audience member and student Felicia McCarthy (JO3) said she felt everyone in any group needs to be recognized. "Pride Week is like Mother's Day. Everyone gets their day and everyday someone is being glorified," McCarthy said. "History is being taught. Weeks like these say, 'I have history and I'm proud of it.' It's about self-love," she said.

Tu continued the program with a hands-on experiment. Same-sex members of the audience were to sit next to each other and follow his instruction to their comfort levels. The experiment began with looking into the eyes of the person sitting next to you. Then, audience members were supposed to compliment the individual on any given feature. Lastly, the partners, at their discretion, were to engage in physical contact.

Next in line was a game show consisting of three audience members answering jeopardy-like questions. Contestants to answer most accurately received a B-Glad T-shirt. To end the program, student allies Kristan Shawgo (AS1) and Andy Swanson (AS1) discussed what it meant to be an ally of B-Glad.

Swanson said, "As an ally, you have to take workshops, go to meetings and be supportive. You gain awareness, knowledge and education."

"You have to take action because that's the only way you're going to effect change as a whole," Shawgo said.

Simmons ended the evening's program by encouraging people of all sexuality to attend B-Glad meetings held every Tuesday evening at 9 p.m. in the Women's Center at Morehouse residence hall.

"There's always going to be gay people around you. You need to be inclusive of everybody. We should learn as a society to be open," Simmons said.

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