COLUMN: Keep Your Sexuality Out Of My Face

From Adam Scioli's "The Old Boys' Club," Spring '94 From Adam Scioli's "The Old Boys' Club," Spring '94They're back! It's time once again for the annual Bisexual Gay Lesbian Awareness Days, a week in which everyone is encouraged to participate. And the methods of rallying support for the cause are most amusing. It was fun to hear all the clever little jokes that my friends were able to come up with. Basically, they came to the conclusion that since my name was on the cover twice, there is a one in five chance of my being gay, rather than the faulty government data that claims that there is only a ten percent chance of any one person being a homosexual. Really. ONE in TEN. In big, blocked, three-dimensional letters. Shocking data! The BGLAD editorial board claim they used the front page illustration to "prove a point. We are everywhere." The point was very well taken, and I'm quite sure by now that we're all sufficiently aware of the omnipresence of these self-proclaimed "fags" and "queers" -- friends, roommates, cousins, aunts, dogs, fish, cops, and robbers. Who cares? Enough already. Read a book. Drink a beer. See a movie. Take a nap. Anything would be more productive than the ever so banal, trite, commonplace, hackneyed BGLAD. There is no need to worry. We're not going to forget that you're here. But there's no need to dupe people into supporting your "cause" or antagonize the innocents. Look. Today is "Gay Jeans Day," if you didn't already know. It's the day to "strut your stuff in denim," according to the BGLAD calendar of events. It's a symbolic day to "show your support for civil and human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer people. Or else to show your phobia by your refusal." No matter how inadvertent that support, or lack of support for the cause may be. To think that a person's choice of clothing for the day, especially something as everyday as wearing jeans, should dictate his or her deepest personal convictions regarding human sexuality -- give me a break. At least come up with something that the average person would have to be a little bit conscious of doing -- say like, -- I don't know -- shaving one's head and inscribing it with the word "FAG." Yeah, that's much better. But instead, many of us woke up today and unconsciously either did or did not put on jeans. As a result, today on Locust Walk, we were either thanked by the LGBA for supporting their cause, or scorned for BLATANTLY ignoring it. Ridiculous. Pink triangles, condoms, poetry, dances, dinners, and diatribes. All this to prove to the world what it already knows: that there does exist a certain minority of homosexual and bisexual persons. A minority that tends to be either very quiet or very vocal. Often, disturbingly, members of their minority will will rant and rave about their sexuality -- in public. They'll write about, or sing about, or speak about how proud they are to be who they are. Isn't this a private matter? Why is it necessary for everyone to know about a person's sexuality? Isn't that something to be revealed through prolonged interaction with another individual whom a person confides in, or even knows for that matter? Then, sometimes, after the public is fed this unnecessary confession of "who" a person they have never met before "really is," we might find out that the "proud" and "outed" individual was really just a hypocrite after all. Maybe he or she wears a mask, or uses a false name, or doesn't even tell his or her parents. That sounds more like shame to me. And it's a shame, too, that there is such a detectable antagonistic tone attached to the BGLAD mission. Advertisements such as "fight the right," statistical bombardment, and lewd, flamboyant conduct together launch a military campaign against the "non-tolerant breeders," or straight folk. Take for example the group calling themselves "Queers Invading Penn." I wonder, right off the bat what this group is up to. What is their plan? Why do they need to invade? Do they apply to Penn and gain acceptance, or do they simply invade and sneak on to the course roster? The use of the word "invade" suggests an aggressive, forceful entry that aims to threaten society's stability. Is this the type of message the public is supposed to find comfort in? Such incessant rabble rousing, I have noticed, stirs the otherwise indifferent or complacent straight people into a defensive counter-frenzy. If the radicals would shift direction away from antagonism and toward peaceful coexistence I believe they would find society at large to be far more tolerant. Instead of people cursing "those damn faggots," we might hear more of, "Leave them alone. They're not harming anyone." Adam Scioli is a senior Political Science major from Rockville, Maryland. The Old Boys' Club appears alternate Wednesdays.