What you're missing out on

Queer Awareness Month brings you more food! It’s happening right now till 7.30 pm in Broadway Room. Make your way over there to see if you can get your hands on some delicious Ethopian. Extra points for anyone with a colorful plate.

Plate that’s too pretty to eat via Flickr

At 6pm, there will be Free Pizza at the screening of “A Civil Action,” a film about groundwater contamination issues that stars John Travolta, William H. Macy, and Robert Duvall. Head to Lerner 569 for environmentalist fun, and/or if you are hopelessly in love with one of the aforementioned actors. 

Also at 6:30, Queer Awareness Month marks the end to the festivities with a Closing Ceremonies event in Lerner 555, complete with some more free food.

But once you’ve had your dinner and fill of activism, get serious about where you really want to be on a dark and stormy night. All we have to say is Ghostbusters, Lerner Cinema, 7pm.

A number of free food events fill this Wednesday evening, so many that we’re going to split the listings into two posts. Starting in right now in Lerner Party Space, QuAM is hosting “panelists from across the political spectrum” to talk about LGBTQ issues, with chips, soda, and cookies to help the discussion go down easily.

Later, at 7, Stressbusters are offering free back rubs and food in the Broadway lobby, to help you get over all those midterm-related repetitive motion injuries. More study breaks to come soon.

Also, adding a dose of free controversy, controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders is speaking tonight at 8:30 in IAB, though GOPers tell us to get there early. His speech last night at Temple was cut short due to crowd trouble, so though Wilders has agreed to focus his talk on free speech, fireworks are not exactly unlikely.

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…

An amused tipster — who has thoughtfully already coined the phrase “Giant Inflatable Penis-Gate” — has just pointed Bwog in the director of Spec‘s recent correction to this morning’s staff editorial on Queer Awareness Month. The correction reads:

“Because of an editorial mistake, the original version misstated that Columbia Queer Alliance was responsible for Queer Awareness Month. While CQA and QuAM collaborate on some programs, QuAM is its own unique group. The editorial also misstated that a giant inflatable penis was part of QuAM’s opening tabling. It was in fact part of a different campus event.”

Well, the conservative media was right—the gays are taking over.  October is Queer Awareness Month—QuAM, for short—and in honor, the Columbia Queer Alliance is leading all kinds of events around campus.  Today’s offerings: chalking, in honor of National Coming Out Day (today!), and an all (or mostly) gay reincarnation of last year’s Big Kiss. 

A little after 1 PM, a group of about 5 or 6 couples emerged from the path from Earl Hall onto Low Steps, waited for a whistle to blow to signal time, and started making out on cue.  Those who has no partners, life or otherwise, made out with (read: ate) apples.  Three minutes later, after the whistle blew again, the participants all walked away as if nothing had happened.  All in all, by the most liberal of estimates, the event was about 10% as large as last year’s.

Read more (and see more pictures!) after the jump…

Read more…

Today is the first workday of Queer Awareness Month, and the works are certainly in progress. Alma is bracketed by a floating balloon-rainbow and several students are seated at a table in front of her, handing out treats. Skip along to Low Plaza to get free Skittles (Taste the Rainbow) and condoms from our campus queer organisations. Make sure to get a picture of you and your sweetie, or you and your friends, or you and your prospective future whatever, under their rainbow of balloons.

Word has it that the university administration has already mishandled this event. Though QuAM is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, it seems nobody ever told security and groundskeeping, and also, strangely, the Department of Art History. This morning, as the Queer Alliance folks floated their rainbow and anchored it, they were accosted by an angry official who first demanded an explanation, and then began screaming for “Papers, acht, you need papers! We cannot proceed without papers!” Something like that.

He and his pals gave up after he was asked whether he had “anything better to do than hassle some homos.” Various bystanders mocked him as he left, sheepish. But within minutes, as an intrepid flag-waver was preparing to affix the rainbow standard to Alma’s scepter, a cold-bosomed curatress from Art History reprimanded him, declaring that no flag other than the black drape of National AIDS Day was to be affixed to Alma’s person. The standard was not raised.