What is this, actually?

This afternoon from 4 to 6 pm in the Stephen Donaldson Lounge (in the Furnald basement), CQA is hosting their Ugly Sweater Holiday Party. Conveniently scheduled right after the Lit Hum and CC finals—built-in topics of conversation, mirite?—the sweaterfest includes “hot chocolate, eggnog, cider, milk, cookies, and other snacks.”

Inspiration via CQA

Love is in the air today, the first day that gay and lesbian couples can legally wed in the state of New York. In the city alone, 823 couples—including two of Mayor Bloomberg’s aides—are scheduled to be married. It’s all thanks to the Marriage Equality Act, which passed late last month. In honor of this historic victory for civil rights and love, Bwog reached out to pertinent campus groups to get their take on the passage of the Act. Also be sure to check out Cityroom’s piece on how young New Yorkers—that’s sort of us!—feel about marriage equality in New York.

Check out the statements after the jump!

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Tonight is CQA’s Last Friday, a drag pageant and First Friday-style dance combo. The drag pageant kicks off at 9:30 pm tonight, and the dance immediately follows at around 11 pm. Tickets for the dance are available through TIC for $5, but there’s an official loophole: anyone who attends the drag pageant can just stay for the dance without paying. Like most parties and dances in Lerner, Last Friday requires one ID to dance and two ID’s to drink, and all the fun ends at 2 am. But don’t fret, you’ll have lots of space to show off your moves. Lerner Party Space, First Friday’s usual home, would burst at the seams with all this fabulousness, so the classy affair will be held in Roone auditorium. Godspeed, party people.

Tonight at 8pm in 702 Hamilton, CQA is hosting Straight Up, a discussion on what it means to be an ally. Expect free pizza and refreshments!

Meanwhile, get classy at the CC 2012 class dinner. Head to the Lerner Party Space at 8 pm for (get this!) Dino BBQ take out! Chicken and mac ‘n cheese galore!

The Columbia Queer Alliance is hosting their final First Friday event in Lerner Party Space tonight, on the last Friday of the month. It features a Drag Pageant with Columbia students and Saharah Davenport from 9 to 11, followed by a party until 2. So if you’ve ever wanted to see CQA’s board in drag or if you happen to be a huge fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race you should probably check it out.

More info is available on Facebook.

photo via CQA

The sticker in question

While the official Census Day (April 1) has come and gone, it’s not too late to fill one out and send it in–civic duty, people! (And you should be getting Census materials from your RA any day now, anyway.) While you’re doing that, the Columbia Queer Alliance has asked you to consider–and protest–this Census’ absence of a gender/sexual identity question.

Working with a national organization called Queer the Census, CQA has distributed a number of pink stickers with that missing question that you can fill out and affix to the back of your Census. While CQA only has a limited number of these stickers, you can also head to the Queer the Census website to make sure your voice is heard. Below, the letter printed on the back of each sticker.

Dear Fellow Columbian,

Every 10 years, the U.S. government spends over $400 billion in order to count every resident of the United States through the Constitutionally-mandated Census. Logistically, the Census serves as the primary indicator for how federal funds are appropriated to state and municipal governments. Beyond this, however, the Census also provides extremely useful demographic data that helps all Americans understand the distribution of people throughout the country. Read more…

Now there’s a novel idea! The CQA will host another of their “Third Thursday” Speaker Series tonight. The event will focus on Religion and Sexuality, and speakers will include GS Dean Peter Awn and our very own Learned Foote, among several others. Free food happens at 7:30, and the discussion begins at 8, all in 313 Fayerweather. Full event listing here.

Stay tuned, also, for our announcement of the CC 2010 Class Day speaker, coming up in about 45 minutes.

Also, we’ve just gotten word that Hewitt is offering a cupcake decorating bar tonight with toppings galore. Sort of free if you don’t count the money your parents pay!

The National Marriage Boycott, a new offshoot of CQA, just staged an ‘Anti-Wedding’ on Low Steps to protest the Defense of Marriage Act. Anti-man and anti-wife were clad in suit and gown, respectively, and both exclaimed ‘I don’t!” The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

Sean Udell, Treasurer of CQA, has just announced that there will be an afterparty on Low complete with wedding cake, apple juice, and Pellegrino.

Uh…not congratulations! Bwog’s Alternative Forms Of Marriage correspondent, Alex Boyce, sent in this picture.

CQA, the OMA, and the Alphabet Soup Commission are teaming up once again to welcome students back with the annual Queer Sushi event in Lerner.

CQA president Bryan Reid has assured us that there will be vegetarian “sushi” as well.

It starts at 7:00 PM in Party Space and lines have been long in the past, so get there soon!

Photo via The Scream Online

CQA and company are sponsoring tonight’s midnight snack for you Butler-ites and friends.

The follow-up to last semester’s Queer Sushi is Queer Cupcakes, and it’s in the Satow Room at the strange time of 11:45 PM.

The tasty cakes in the CQA-sponsored picture look delicious.  Their real life counterparts are from the Buttercup Bake Shop.

Queer Cupcakes is partially geared towards this weekend’s Days on Campus groups that probably have little else to do so late at night.  Always the welcoming host, Bwog recommends that you get there before they do.

It may not have equaled the original Big Kiss — or even Big Kiss II — but the Queer Alliance and QuAM’s today’s Kiss-In got its point across.

“When we’re organizing around sexual identity and you say we’re talking too much about sex — it’s ridiculous!” said Activism and Service Chair Peter Gallotta, spreading his hands wide. He was referring to Spectator‘s editorial yesterday that faulted Queer Awareness Month for emphasizing revelry over education.

At the appointed moment, about 20 assembled members joined in slightly awkward group embraces, with one couple making out passionately under the Spectator’s shingle. Read more…

Late-night news in “Giant Inflatable Penis-gate,” as the queer community has moved quickly to respond to the controversial editorial published in Wednesday’s Spectator. In addition to the factual errors, the editorial is also attracting controversy for alleging that Queer Awareness Month “must be sure to focus on awareness and education before revelry.” The “revelry” in question was Genderfuck, the underwear-only party held this past Saturday night.

Word of the editorial spread quickly through queer organizations on campus. About 20 students (including several leaders of the queer community) commented on the original editorial, and the Spectator uploaded Thursday’s letters to the editor before the rest of the site was updated. In addition, seven student groups have sent a letter to the Spec editorial board, calling the editorial “inaccurate, sensationalized, misinformed, and malicious” and demanding “sufficient space be given in the immediate future to concerned groups and individuals to offer editorial responses.” Finally, plans are already in place for a “kiss-in”/protest at the Spec‘s offices tomorrow at 12:15 PM.

In addition to publishing Thursday’s letters early, the Spec is considering a meeting with queer groups on campus, and a source tells Bwog that editor-in-chief Tom Faure will be penning an explanation of the editorial process in the same issue. The letter from the student groups to the Spec editorial board is posted after the jump.

UPDATE 3:26 AM: Faure’s aforementioned letter is also posted after the jump.

Read more…

Like the candidates’ commitment to service, Bwog’s commitment to free food never wavers. Here are just some of the events this evening for you to fill your stomachs at:

• Last night’s Jumbotron extravaganza not enough for you? The College Dems are having a “debriefing” barbecue from 5-8 in front of Hartley and Wallach.
• If you like to eat later, CQA is holding its “Queer Sushi” event from 8-10 in the Satow Room (5th Floor Lerner).
• If you want some art to go with your food, head over to Postcrypt instead from 8-10 for its Summer Photography show. There’ll be live music as well, with free wine and snacks (2 IDs to drink, of course). (Update: the Postcrypt show is next week, not tonight. Bwog will now be signing up for a calendar-reading course…)

Now go feast!

UPDATE 4:44 PM: Everyone seems to value staying dry more than free food. 

Tonight, the CQA, Columbia’s Queer Alliance, celebrates LGBT rights and fights for everyone’s right to party with the First Friday Dance. On Saturday.

Nothing sets the atmosphere for a dance party better than torrential rain, right? How lucky we are to celebrate the First Friday Dance of the semester on this diluvial Saturday! If you’re not a fan of going out in hurricane weather and are considering taking a rain check on “the hottest dance on the Upper Westside,” according to the CQA, live va Queer Prom last spring to see all the Kate Perry pumped fun you’ll be missing.  

More love in the club after the jump.

Read more…