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.
“I think it’s just an internalized, not even conscious at this point, ignorance,” said David Papas. “I think they fail to understand the tone, and just plain bias, in that article.”
Do you see that bias reflected in the rest of the paper’s coverage? Bwog wanted to know. “To be honest, I don’t really read super-much of Spectator,” Papas conceded.
“It trivializes a lot of the outreach work Spec has done,” Gallotta added. “Our relationship is a little bit tenuous.”
The event elicited confused glances from passersby, but positive reactions from those who asked what they were protesting.
“They call y’all queers? That’s some shit,” said a lady walking by. “This is love, baby.”
– LBD
27 Comments
@Anonymous he’s cute too
@word. he IS awesome.
@David Papas SHOULD represent columbia’s queer community! or really any community because he is awesome.
@QUAM was a waste of space this year. spec’s right. they need to get their act together and put some energy into a more diverse range of activities.
@How.. do you expect them to diversify? They’ve only got like 1 hole to work with.
@jesspoon uh, clarification, my nod was to tina’s comment, not… the one directly above
@look at all dem queers. No wonder this ain’t no Real America. How non-Pro-American can you queers git?
@Tina considering the cute redhead is my gf, i’m glad they’re not dating each other… =)
@jesspoon word
@no worries tina noted. you two are cute together (so cute it makes me a little bit jealous). ten bucks if you can guess who i am…
@... ain’t nothin wrong with expressing your sexuality.
ain’t nothin wrong with being gay.
ain’t nothin wrong with being gay and expressing your sexuality.
@papas “super-much”
keep reaching for that stereotype rainbow, fellas.
@A gay man. This is silly.
@Made me smile I want to give that woman passerby a giant hug. That made my day.
@Quit complaining It’s so annoying to have people fight put their identities in the spotlight. Do so, and ignorance is deserved.
@I love how debates about activism inevitably turn into debates about people.
Long live the Spectacle.
@To Concerned If you’d like to represent the queer community, you should take an active stance of your own and make your voice heard. David Papas was not necessarily representing the view of the entire community but merely giving his own opinion regarding what was a case of condescension and bias in the Spec’s editorial.
That is all.
@anonymous none of this is a legitimate surprise if you know who wrote the spec article. pardon me, but enjoy the weekend in the closet.
@wow read the article, noted the inaccuracies, still don’t think it’s that big of a deal, and calling it bias is such a huge leap of faith it’s ridiculous — spec fucks up its facts all the time, the fact that they did it in a piece that was critical of a gay organizatoin doesn’t make it homophobia.
there are so many better venues for this passion: i think people must just want to congregate around a common villain.
@Jeanette Clark Bwog,
This event was put together not by any one organization (CQA), but instead by a number of LGBTQ students with varying degrees of involvement in many different campus organizations. It was advertised on several different listservs, but this was not CQA’s event specifically. Again, I am personally disappointed with fact checking. CQA is not the sole voice of the queer community on campus, nor is it the sole organizer of queer campus events. Please make the necessary edits.
Thank you,
Jeanette Clark
CQA President
@Juli Hi Jeanette,
We apologize for the error and will fix it right away.
Best,
Juli
@Concerned Citizen David Papas does not represent Columbia’s Queer Community.
That is all.
@uhh... two=too
@rugby love i love the picture of the two women’s rugby players hugging. two bad they’re not dating each other…
@ianc-b might have made more sense if they’d protested when members of the staff were actually in the office.
@hmmm needs more inflatable penis