UCSC’s Mardi Gras-themed queer prom held March 2, sold out, giving all students the prom experience they might not have had in high school. Photo by Sal Ingram.

In a transformed Porter/Kresge Dining Hall, under a glittering disco ball, students gathered for the second annual Queer Prom.

Bodies swayed to the music in a sold-out room where students attending the Mardi Gras-themed event danced on the floor, main stage, and on top of chairs and tables, until 1 a.m.

Queer Prom, held March 2, was hosted by the Queer Student Union (QSU) and Delta Lambda Psi (DLP). Nestor Rivera, QSU media coordinator, helped organize the event and discussed the purpose of the QSU.

“The QSU is here to build a better union with queer students on campus,” Rivera said. “We try to bring a safe environment to educate students with and around the queer movement.”

After last year’s large turnout, Rivera had high expectations for this year’s event.

“Queer Prom is a safe zone where students can be themselves, free of judgment,” Rivera said. “It’s a way to give students the prom experience they may have wanted but couldn’t receive in high school.”

Although the administration is helpful in providing the Cantú Queer Center at Merrill College, Rivera said, they can still meet the needs of queer students in other ways. For example, the university can push for queer studies, which he said was a course of study recently added by San Diego State University.

Along with QSU, Delta Lambda Psi helped coordinate the event. Delta Lambda Psi is a unique, all-inclusive queer Greek organization founded at UC Santa Cruz in 2005. It is the first queer, gender-neutral Greek organization in the nation.

Ryan Austin, a member of both QSU and Delta Lambda Psi, said the event was “absolutely successful.”

“Events like Queer Prom increase visibility for the queer student body,” Austin said. “And I think it’s representative of a larger notion that we shouldn’t deny the personal expression of others, whatever their form may be.”

Anna Sidorchuk spoke at the event about her experiences as a bisexual student.

“Being bisexual, I think it’s important for me to attend and represent my sexuality as well as that of others,” she said. “I’ve never been in a large participative queer community like this, so it’s cool for me to get involved.”

Many ally students also came out and enjoyed the night’s festivities.

“It’s going really well. There’s a lot of people and I’m having a good time,” said Patrick Davis, a chemistry major. “I came to the event because it was something to do, and I’m glad I came. There’s a very positive vibe.”

When the clock struck 1 a.m., students of all orientations and genders exited the dining hall with their fingers intertwined, heads on one another’s shoulders, and a quiet Saturday morning awaiting them after a long night of celebration.

Illustrated by Leigh Douglas

On Tuesday, Jan. 7, it was announced that the California federal appeals court found Prop 8 — the notoriously controversial ban on gay marriage — unconstitutional and discriminatory toward a minority set of people.

While this ruling is historic, the battle for marriage equality is anything but over. As far as California is concerned, opponents to the recent court ruling can appeal in the Ninth Circuit or go straight to the Supreme Court — and it is likely they will.

As for now, the stay on gay marriages in California will stand, as litigation continues.

Like California, many states are addressing the issue, and currently Washington state has introduced legislation to legalize gay marriage. If passed, our neighbors to the north will be only the seventh state in the nation to give LGBT couples equal marriage rights.

While the Washington legislation has already passed in the state senate, it now heads to the House and many are eagerly waiting to hear the legislature’s decision. Many are hopeful the legislation will pass — we here at City on a Hill are hopeful — but even if it does, it will not be the end of the struggle.

Even as the bill floats through the House, even as representatives read over it and argue legal nuances, even before it has been brought into law, opponents to the legislation are preparing to counter the bill. If the legislation passes, it’s expected that a referendum will be placed on the ballot, and decisions about the basic rights and happiness of many people will be made by the public.

But this is where people can make a difference, and for this reason it’s important to vote, it’s important to stay informed and it’s important to let the government know it is unacceptable to deny people the right to marry based on sexual orientation.

In 2008, when Prop 8 was on the ballot and won by a margin at just barely over 52 percent, it was a referendum to a court ruling. Prop 8 was a conservative response to a California Supreme Court decision stating that marriage was a constitutional right regardless of sexual orientation.

Gay marriage and LGBT rights are a contentious issue to say the least, and in states like California and Washington, they are divisive — communities are split down the center, and the difference between supporting and not supporting something like Prop 8 is marginal. The only way to ensure our voices and our support for gay marriage are heard and understood by our government and by our representatives is to take action — to vote, to educate and to advocate.

Marriage equality has been and continues to be a grueling series of legislative battles and court cases, but it’s worth it — it’s worth it because these are men and women and their families being denied equal rights in the eyes of the law. This is bigger than religion — this is an issue of civil rights and human dignity.

Photo by Nick Paris.

Until his first year at UCSC, Eugene Negrete did not talk about his identity as a queer Chicano.

At his generally heteronormative high school, the queer community was underrepresented and a sense of homophobia lingered, keeping Negrete from fully expressing himself.

“During high school I was held back from even thinking of the possibility of an alternative to life or gender expression,” he said. “We’re taught through institutions such as the school system, our parents, culture, and in the case of Latino/Chicano culture, the Catholic religion.”

Raised in a Catholic home, Negrete said his Mexican-American culture hindered him from accepting his queer identity.

“In high school I was very internally against, and I tried not to think about it. I tried to occupy my mind through extracurriculars, academics and plans to go on to higher education,” Negrete said. “I looked at [other activities] as an escape from thinking about it.”

While Negrete assumes his parents will accept his queer identity on some level, he is still hesitant to fully discuss it.

“In high school I was very concerned about my family, in terms of my family not accepting it and me thinking it was wrong and disgraceful,” he said.

Negrete still has not directly told his family, but assumes they know because of his increased confidence in college.

“Till today, it’s still an issue. It hasn’t been directly stated yet — it’s kind of invisible. I go back home after all these years and I’m sure they sense that I have this new confidence and a new perspective of life,” Negrete said. “I think yes, [my parents would accept me] because of the sense of love. But I also think it will take time and, internally they’re still not used to challenging they way they’re brought up.”

However, his father’s background as a migrant from Mexico and separation from his family leads Negrete to assume that his father will most likely be more understanding.

“He’s gone through the struggles of feeling singled out and being isolated,” he said.

From a queer Chicano perspective, Negrete discusses the “two pillars of oppression.”

“Being Chicano, you’re often singled out because of being a minority in the United States,” Negrete said. “And by being Chicano queer, you’re singled out by your own Chicano community and family. I don’t belong here, and I don’t belong there.”

In his transition from his first to his second year, Negrete made his queer identity public in a gradual process as a result of his classes, Rainbow Theater, involvement with Familia Equis, a group dedicated to creating a space of healing for students with queer and Latino/Chicano identities, and allies at the Cantu Center.

For queer individuals who have not come out, Negrete advises they take all the time they need.

“It’s a process of coming out to yourself first — coming out to yourself and coming to terms with the way you felt growing up, your attractions, and just being honest to yourself,” he said. “There’s no need to actually make it public and think about what the world is going to say. It’s not like when you meet someone you ask, ‘Are you straight?’ It really shouldn’t really matter.”

About the Series: Coming Out

October is LGBT History Month. In honor of the month, City on a Hill Press sat down with members of the LGBT community to hear their coming-out stories and insights into what it means to be queer and questioning in 2011.

Photo by Prescott Watson.

Morgan Mathias is alert, easygoing, and out. In a light blue scoop neck, an ivory spiral-shaped necklace and silver nail polish, she discloses everything — or more precisely, everything she knows thus far.

“You never really stop coming out. The first couple of times, you grit your teeth and do it. But it never really stops. There’s always new people in your life and new assumptions,” she says, “and your identity also develops over time … there’s too many flavors of it for words.”

Raised in Thousand Oaks, Los Angeles, Mathias was deeply closeted prior to college. She initially dated women, and began to identify as bisexual in her senior year.

“High school was really the process of coming out to myself,” she remembers.

In community college, Mathias came out to her close friends as gay. She joined the gay-straight alliance there, though she rarely bothered to specify whether she was a queer ally or a straight ally.

“If people asked me, I wasn’t going to beat around the bush,” she said, “but maybe half of the people just thought I was [a straight] ally.”

Moving into the dorms changed things for Mathias. Normal, everyday aspects of her life were much more public domain than before, and she didn’t see the point in hiding anymore.

“Day one, I was out as queer, and I spent that year immersed in the queer culture up here,” she said.

She found the Cantù Queer Center and pledged Delta Lambda Psi, a Greek frarority founded at UC Santa Cruz.

She also came out to her parents last year.

First her mom, while they were in the middle of an argument. She had commented on the transformations she perceived in her daughter, and alluded to a suspicion of heavy drug use. That was too much for Mathias.

“I was like Mom, I’m not on drugs — I’m gay,” she laughs, “and later that day I came out to my dad.”

Despite how it came up, Mathias remembers that coming out to her parents went smoothly. She’s been fortunate enough to have her orientation received positively elsewhere as well.

Mathias attributes the success of her experience at Santa Cruz to the combination of many elements here, and hopes to live in similarly queer-friendly communities upon graduating.

“For the queer students,” she advises, “if you haven’t realized what an incredible, safe, and encouraging space Santa Cruz on the whole is, realize it, and take advantage of it while you’re here. You would be hard-pressed to find as safe a space for any kind of queer people.”

At UCSC, Mathias believes that she is still coming into her self as queer, and her identity will likely evolve further.

“Gay people have identities and straight people have identities, which are way more than just ‘I’m straight’,” she points out. “Nobody can be reduced to just one facet of their personality.”

About the Series: Coming Out

October is LGBT History Month. In honor of the month, City on a Hill Press sat down with members of the LGBT community to hear their coming-out stories and insights into what it means to be queer and questioning in 2011.

Photo by Nick Paris.

Uyenmy Yamamoto dreams of good conversations.

As Yamamoto speaks, using words like “male-bodied” and “female-bodied,” it is clear she simply likes people and sees them precisely as just that. In a world of definitions that can both include and exclude people, Yamamoto is open to all exterior genders and defines herself as a “queer womyn of color.”

Yamamoto is a fourth-year Vietnamese Kresge student from Sacramento majoring in psychology and history of art and visual culture. Yamamoto laughs as she explains that even before she realized her queer identity, she had always been interested.

“I always wanted to be queer,” Yamamoto said. “I was really open to it in the first place, but I just hadn’t met anyone that proved it true to me. … I wanted to be able to fight for that equality and that consciousness.”

Yamamoto has dated males, but has felt the most connection to females. She discovered her queer identity during her junior year of high school, when she met the person who changed her perspective.

“It was the most natural thing for me, because I just met someone and it just clicked for me,” Yamamoto said. “I’ve never really felt magnetized to anyone before. I kind of just dated guys and it was whatever until I met someone and they just opened a whole new world of emotions for me. There were times when I just let myself question it, but I’ve just never felt as strong of a human connection as I did. It was the most natural thing ever. It felt real. We never went out, we just remained friends, but it was just the first time I felt that way.”

Yamamoto came out to her parents and received surprising support before leaving for college.

“I was pretty open about it in high school but totally hid it from them for the longest time,” Yamamoto said. “They also actually came out for me because with the people that I was bringing home to hang out with, the way they appeared was a lot more stereotypically queer. Their presence was different and my parents noticed that and kind of figured it out.”

However supportive, Yamamoto still feels doubt from her family.

“My mom secretly thinks that it’s a phase and that I’m just young,” Yamamoto said. “When I talk to her about relationship problems, I feel like she’s open to talking about how to help me without being biased, but sometimes at the end she’ll say little comments and I can tell that she thinks that it’s just a phase.”

While Yamamoto has found people to be very accepting on campus, she still faces some adversity.

“Little comments hurt me. I feel like when people find out that I’m feminine and queer, they try to ask about my sexual life and sometimes I feel like for people, it becomes a game,” Yamamoto said. “They’ll say, ‘It’s because you haven’t met a real man yet.’ They’ll try to get at me in both sexual and emotional ways and they’ll try to psychoanalyze me. It’s disgusting. I know it’s because I’m feminine — if I were more masculine, I know I would get a completely different reaction from guys.”

Yamomoto is currently single and is open to dating people of any label. Even though she has found female connections to be much deeper, Yamamoto does not necessarily reject any male-bodied individuals just because they are not female.

“I don’t want to be discriminatory toward people — whoever it is that I meet and make connections with and fall in love with,” she said. “When I would imagine people in my head, I wouldn’t think about their biological sex, I would just imagine their personality to be amazing. I would take snippets of what I liked about people and I would just imagine them in my head.”

Yamamoto’s philosophy on love regardless of label does, however, invite conflict even within the LGBTI community.

“Even people within the queer community sometimes don’t understand people who identify as being bisexual. There’s a stigma to it that you’re always confused,” Yamamoto said. “It’s hard for me to talk about it because a lot of people don’t understand. For people who I came out as queer to, my fear is that they won’t understand what it’s like to just like … people. People are so stuck on identity. Are you lesbian or gay? Are you trans? Are you bisexual? What is it? Love is complicated.”

Yamamoto ends the conversation with a smile.

“I think my best falling in love moments have happened when it was just friends first.”

About the Series: Coming Out

October is LGBT History Month. In honor of the month, City on a Hill Press sat down with members of the LGBT community to hear their coming-out stories and insights into what it means to be queer and questioning in 2011.

Photo by Morgan Grana.

During last year’s Thanksgiving break, a four-word question turned a mother-daughter novella viewing session into a much more significant experience for Helen Aldana.

“She just asked me, ‘Do you like girls?’ and I replied, ‘Yeah, I like them a lot,’” Aldana said.

Aldana, who now identifies as a lesbian, came out to her mother as bisexual, and at first, her mother dismissed her coming out as confusion.

“It didn’t feel real to me because she thought I was confused,” Aldana said. “Instead of ‘I know you’re a lesbian,’ or ‘I accept that you’re a lesbian,’ it was ‘I accept that you have this phase going on.’”

This past September, Aldana finally felt her mother acknowledged her identity as a lesbian by recognizing the connection Aldana had to another girl and not regarding it as confusion.

“I felt like I was coming out to her again. She took it seriously, and it was like, ‘Wow, she acknowledges my queerness,’” Aldana said.

Her mother, Aldana said, was not the only one confused about her sexual identity.

“I was confused all of high school because being straight is so convenient. It made my parents really happy, yet sad,” Aldana said. “If a guy broke up with me they would ask, ‘Are you sad?’ and I would say, ‘It’s cool.’ I don’t get why they didn’t see that, me being careless about getting dumped by a guy.”

When Aldana told her older sister she was a lesbian, her sister simply denied it, and Aldana agreed.

After coming to UC Santa Cruz, Aldana was still trying to figure out her identity. She started working at the Lionel Cantú Queer Center and tabled for National Coming Out Day. This experience was the first time Aldana stated she was a lesbian.

“Coming out to my friends was a little frustrating. There was a part of me that wanted to get it off my chest, but they still didn’t take it seriously. I really wish they had,” Aldana said.

Some of her friends at that time just assumed Aldana liked men. She did not feel involved in many of the conversations they had, and hoped that her friends would notice her discomfort and make their conversations more general.

Now that she works at the Lionel Cantú Queer Center, Aldana has made more friends within the queer community and no longer feels left out of conversations.

Even though Aldana has come out to her mother, she still has some hesitations about coming out to her father and much of their extended family. She has discussed coming out to her father with her mother and knows he will love her no matter what. Aldana predicts her father’s biggest concern will be her safety, emotionally and physically, from gay-bashing. Aldana has never experienced gay-bashing firsthand.

“I hope I never have to go through it,” she said.

Aldana is concerned that her extended family will not understand her sexual identity because of their religious views.

“I always tell them, ‘Well if God is so awesome, he would love a homosexual.’ And they say ‘Yes, he will forgive a homosexual,’” Aldana said. “I respond, ‘No, but there is nothing to be forgiven … There’s nothing wrong with being gay.’”

About the Series: Coming Out

October is LGBT History Month. In honor of the month, City on a Hill Press sat down with members of the LGBT community to hear their coming-out stories and insights into what it means to be queer and questioning in 2011.

Kyle Lakatos sells sweets at the “Periodic Table of Cookies” event at Kresge Pride. Photo by Pierce Crosby.

Max Aung and Kyle Lakatos are distinctly different: one suave and with a quick tongue, and the other reserved and methodological. But both have experienced similar challenges in finding a sense of belonging at a school that tends to separate identity from profession.

Lakatos was raised in the Bay Area for most of his life, whereas Aung emigrated with his family from Burma at the age of five. They are both first-generation college students who have excelled in professional degrees within the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) departments, but with very different focuses: Aung is a fourth-year in molecular cell and developmental biology and Lakatos is a fourth-year in biochemistry.

Interest in the sciences has brought them and many fellow peers together for healthy discussion, but they have found they are often more commonly united by a different identity: Lakatos and Aung are queer students.

“With STEM … when you come to the front door, you leave other things at the front door, and then you come inside with that identity,” Aung said. “When I go to resources for STEM, I kind of have to put my being gay behind, so its nice to have such an open, safe place to identify with both — that’s what The Element Lounge offers.”

The association of the dual identities may seem insignificant to some, but for those who have them in common, the particular combination can be rather challenging. Because of this divide between the sciences and their queer identity, Aung and Lakatos, along with Chris Britton and Mark Corre, collaborated to engineer The Element Lounge (TEL).

“There isn’t really an inclusion of all disciplinary discussions,” Aung said. “[In the sciences] its not that being LGBT is less accepted, it’s just that sciences have a certain stoic-ness to it, where you don’t really bring in those outside ideas — and you enjoy the beauty of that stoic-ness, but it’s lacking in that you don’t really bring culture to science that often. That’s why we need diversity programs … to have these conversations.”

Herbert Lee, mathematics department faculty member, vice provost of student affairs and TEL’s faculty sponsor, said TEL offers a valuable support system.

“There is a need for an organization like TEL, which helps form this community for students who might otherwise have difficulty in connecting with each other,” Lee said. “Communities like this generally increase the success rate of students in them.”

The group was founded in late spring, quickly attracting members from diverse areas of STEM.

“There was never open communication about it,” Lakatos said. “There was never really a bridge between grouping the queer identity with the scientific identity, it was always two separate things, so we really wanted to bring those together.”

The Element Lounge (TEL) has become part of a “trifecta” of three identity-oriented groups associated with making the bridge between science and community. Together with the Academic Excellence Program’s Pre-Health Community (PHC) and Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), TEL generates awareness of student diversity within the science community.

While it’s not the only organization that provides support and awareness for queer students — or for science students — TEL is the only organization that provides this community simultaneously.

More than providing academic support, TEL aims to create a community of trust.

“I think the most hard-hitting thing that has happened, for me, is the idea that there are other people who are going through the same or similar struggle,” Lakatos said. “That is what was most rewarding about this group.”

But the most key move in the playbook of athletes — coaches and managers alike — is the sidestep, the practiced move of speaking generically on critical questions from the media by providing clichéd responses straight out of the “Bull Durham” postgame interview lexicon.

The realm of professional sports has been privy to plenty of black eyes as a result of a blind eye turned away from an important situation, like concussions in football or performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. But one issue that has been swept under the rug for decades that is just now starting to see the light of day is homophobia — and homosexuality as a whole — in sports.

Illustration by Louise Leong

It has become an en-vogue topic of discussion thanks to a recent rash of high-profile cases of gay slurs by athletes, combined with historic acknowledgements of homosexuality both in sports and by those who partake in them.

The first — and arguably most talked about — incident that raised eyebrows occurred when Lakers star Kobe Bryant shouted a homophobic slur at a referee after he called him for a foul in a game last month. Bryant was fined $100,000 by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and issued an apology, saying that he called the referee a “f—ing f—–” out of frustration and that this was not meant to convey his attitude towards homosexuality.

Two weeks later, Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell was suspended for two weeks after making lewd remarks and gestures towards fans before a San Francisco Giants game. He allegedly approached three men sitting together in the stands and asked them, “Are you guys a homo couple or a threesome?” He then followed up these comments by motioning suggestively with his hips and a bat. When another spectator sitting nearby intervened by saying that there were children nearby, McDowell responded that kids don’t belong at a ballpark, then picked up his bat and asked the fan how much his teeth were worth.

Most recently, Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah was fined $50,000 last Monday for shouting the same slur as Bryant towards a fan who was taunting him from behind the Bulls’ bench. He acknowledged his mistake, as well and said that he was willing to “pay the price” for his actions.

But what did paying the price really mean for Noah? It meant a little bad press and a few pennies from his wallet that amounts to 1.6 percent of the roughly $3.1 million he made this season. It meant having to issue an apology and receiving the ire of gay advocacy groups for a day but then having this story get lost in the swath of other less taboo, more simplistic sports news.

This isn’t something that McDowell, Bryant or Noah could have lost their jobs over, and nor should they have. Their comments were ignorant and egregious, but it’s just another reminder that athletes aren’t heroes and shouldn’t be treated as such, even though they sometimes appear to have superhuman physical abilities compared to us ordinary 9-to-5 folk.

However, that doesn’t mean that we should excuse any kind of wrongdoing on their part with a “boys will be boys” attitude. Granted, while the commissioner’s offices of Major League Baseball and the NBA did act swiftly to condemn these derisions and punish the athletes responsible, the issue of how homosexuality is regarded in sports is something that cannot be solved with a check and a forced public apology.

The larger issue at hand comes down to the cultural identifications that exist with regard to homosexuality and its countering ideology found in the concept of machismo. The undeniable core of this problem is that homosexuality in men has been forever linked to being less of a man and thereby being feminine and weak. And there’s no place where any sign of weakness is a bigger sin than on the playing fields and locker rooms of professional sporting arenas. It’s the whole “there’s no crying in baseball” temperament that had sports fans making fun of Miami Heat superstar Chris Bosh for crying after a tough loss in March, the overall locker room mentality that breeds physical and mental toughness over the display of any emotion other than anger.

Clearly, this state of mind isn’t something that can be tackled over any short period of time, and perhaps it will never fully go away. As long as there are football dads and soccer moms that disparage their kids by calling them pansies when they cry after getting hurt, this equation of emotion = weakness = bad (meaning it makes one a “queer”) will continue to live on.

That’s where it comes back to the athletes. While they should not be wholly responsible for trying to address the matter of homophobia in society as a whole, sports is such a large part of our culture that athletes can make a dent in the problem by educating themselves and others about it.

As the old Alcoholics Anonymous adage goes, the first step in recognizing there’s a problem is admitting there is one. The commissioner’s offices of all the professional sports should determine a way in which they not merely impose a fine on their players for saying these slurs, but also — or even alternatively — encourage them to seek out knowledge on the issue of homophobia by talking to advocacy groups. This shouldn’t be handed down as a punishment like court-ordered community service but should be framed in a light that allows the athletes to see it as an opportunity for them to really learn from their mistake philosophically — not just financially.

Over the past few weeks, a couple of steps have been taken by pro athletes that could have a positive long-term effect on addressing this subject.

Last month, Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts revealed to the media that he is gay. He is believed to be the first man in a prominent position in sports to have ever openly stated his homosexuality and said he did so to help address a topic that is “off-limits” in his industry. Subsequently, Suns star point guard Steve Nash made a video in support of New York’s marriage equality proposition.

Additionally, the San Francisco Giants organization recently released a clip for the “It Gets Better” anti-homophobic video campaign aimed at giving hope to gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual adolescents who are bullied for their sexual orientation. They are the first professional sports franchise to jump on board with an “It Gets Better” video.

While it is laudable that these moves have been made to step up and address homophobia as a whole, professional sports as an entity should try to improve how the sports world percieves homosexuality by dealing with it from the inside out. In this day and age, they will not be alienating people by bringing a seemingly political issue into sports. Rather, they will alienate themselves from spectators more if they continue to plug their ears with their fingers and act as if they are inside a bubble.

Queer Fashion Show, hosted at Porter/Kresge Dining Hall, will feature several fashion lines and performances created by students. Photos by Molly Solomon.

One of UC Santa Cruz’s premier events has returned for another year. The Queer Fashion Show will be presenting “The Media in Rainbow Vision” at Porter College this Friday and Saturday. Not only does the event promise to be some of the most ambitious student theater on campus, but the sexy charity show will also donate all proceeds to the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center, Planned Parenthood and the Diversity Center.

Fourth-years Zackary Forcum of Oakes College and Jasmine Fernandez of Porter College will be directing this year’s Queer Fashion Show. The two former dancers have each been involved in the show’s last three performances, and share a passion for the causes advanced by the queer community.

“I love that there’s a night to celebrate queerness in performance,” Forcum said. “[During] my freshman year I saw the show, and it looked like so much fun. I immediately wanted to get involved.”

Queer Fashion Show has long been a part of UCSC culture. Forcum discussed some of the history behind the event.

“No one knows for sure when it began,” Forcum said. “The Queer Fashion Show started with queer individuals emptying out their closets and parading around the Porter quad.”

The UCSC university library documentary project “Out in the Redwoods” puts the origin of the show in the late 1980s, when it was known as the Alternative Fashion Show.

Since then, the show has become a mainstay at UCSC, and is emblematic of the school’s identity as a queer-friendly campus.

“We’ve come a long way in the last few years for queer representation,” Forcum said. “UCSC is one of the most openly queer schools in the U.S.”

The show has since grown from its humble beginnings. This year, in addition to the usual festivities, there will be a gallery showing before the performance. The show’s directors provided a few other glimpses of what to expect.

“You’re going to see four different fashion lines, each student-designed and all of them very different,” Forcum said. “We will be having spoken word, dance and comedic skits, all performed by a cast of more than 60 people, and it will be very, very sexy at times.”

The show’s reputation for being provocative is aided by the work of its designers. College Ten fourth-year and student designer Juliana Findlay discussed the inspiration for her fashion collection.

“My line focuses on a stripped-down version of the tuxedo,” Findlay said. “I took it apart, made it sexier, and did it in the vein of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ and ‘Smooth Criminal’ music videos.”

The entire production is student-run, from the creation of advertising campaigns to the choreographing of dance routines, and students participate on a volunteer basis.

“Our actors don’t get material things or any sort of monetary value from the Queer Fashion Show,” Forcum said. “They only get a great experience. When you think about how busy life has gotten, it’s really beautiful that people commit so much time to put on a show for charity. The students get involved in this event because they care and because they love it.”

But supporting charity isn’t the only goal the Queer Fashion Show plans to accomplish. The directors also hope to help advance the queer community.

“The show is ‘Media in Rainbow Vision,’ and we’re basing it on the media’s portrayal of the queer community,” Fernandez said. “We want to break their perceptions. Instead of putting people in little boxes, we want to celebrate queerness and diversity. This is an opportunity to learn more about the queer community here at Santa Cruz and the student body as a whole. Hopefully we’ll open some minds.”

Illustration by Louise Leong.

Although it was designed to foster intellect and produce educated, progressive citizens, the heteronormative American public education system has been most successful in matriculating heterocentrically-minded youth who lack an accurate perception of social relations and civil rights.

A gross affront has been committed against the U.S. public education system, but San Francisco School District officials are attempting to rectify some of this injustice.

In 2008, Bay Area schools approved the inclusion of same-sex representation in sex ed and social studies classes. But in November, this advance was met with opposition from parents and conservative religious leaders who claim that they have lost their right to decide what their children are taught.

Incidents of censorship and historical misrepresentation are rampant in public schools. Last May, the Texas Board of Education ruled in favor of new curricula. The curricula impresses upon students the idea that American capitalism is superior to other models and presents Republican political philosophies in a strictly positive light in addition to revising lessons about the civil rights to emphasize violent incidents.

Because of its size, Texas has a significant influence on the content included in textbooks nationwide.

Diluting history and adulterating reality in an attempt to maintain the status quo is an act that calls into question whose interests policy makers are really trying to serve. It is in the best interests of students to present and complete inclusive education.

Rates of suicide and depression are high among queer youth, who experience a higher than average incidence of bullying and ostracism. Educating youth about queer issues could literally save lives.

It shows great disdain and disregard to discount the participation of gay civil rights activists during the civil rights movement and in our society.

It is not only the privilege but the right of every student to be recognized and represented in national historical accounts. The efforts made and the progress yet to be made should not be canceled out by ignorance.

Schools must champion queer-inclusive curricula. California public schools are asking queer students and the children of queer parents to discount the validity of their lifestyles by omitting any mention of same-sex relationships or gay rights movements from classroom discussion.

It shows even greater disrespect for American students whose personal health and social skills depend on the accessibility of accurate, inclusive information.

Making information available about all of the intricacies of the civil rights movement and of American social relations does not mean sexualizing the kindergarten curriculum.

It means recognizing and normalizing non-heterosexual, non-nuclear families. The way conservatives often characterize gay people by sex acts is an act of desperation to otherize a group they cannot in any other way tangibly differentiate from themselves. No other demographic is identified by sex acts, because it’s just not relevant.

It is not the case that advocates for an inclusive curriculum are calling for funding be reallocated from traditional academics.

Words are free. Instead of spending time and energy rewriting history, educators should focus on inclusion and accuracy.

Little girls grow up taught to behave like princesses, expecting the prince and the princess to live happily ever after. Boys are taught to love football and hamburgers and butts and boobs. And not to love these things means, according to this message, to be less of a man.

But hundreds of thousands of little boys and girls grow up learning that there’s no place for them in the story books.

For every 10 stick-figure family portraits of nuclear families, there is one drawn that depicts instead of one mom and one dad, two mommies or two daddies.

Fear of explaining these stick figure images is what drives this debate.

Homosexuality will not disappear because of denial. Do not elect for bigotry. Do not support hate. And please do not propagate intolerance.

Students and Community members alike light candles in memory of young adults who have commited suicide after anti-LGBTQ bullying and prejudice. Photo by Molly Solomon.

“I have a friend who just died of an intentional overdose. I wish I had known. When you are struggling, talk, just talk …”

As the survivor of a brutal anti-queer hate crime, UCSC alumna Lex, knows all too well the harsh reality of bullying and harassment facing many queer youth today.

Two and a half years ago, Lex and four friends were assaulted outside a San Francisco club, and recently Lex suffered the loss of a close friend.

For that reason Lex, who goes by her first name, speaks out at events across Santa Cruz county, such as Tuesday night’s campus HEAL event, for queer acceptance.

UCSC hosted the Honoring, Educating, Activating, Living Queer (HEAL) memorial event to honor young queer people who have died from suicide or violence from anti-queer hate crimes. The group comprises queer and ally members of the Santa Cruz community.

Rutgers student Tyler Clementi committed suicide after classmates outed him, by posting a video online of Clementi having sex.

At least six teenagers — Raymond Chase, 19, Cody J. Barker, 17, Seth Walsh, 13, Asher Brown, 13, and Billy Lucas, 15, and Aiyisha Hassan, 19 — have committed suicide since September after struggling with their sexual orientation or anti-gay bullying.

Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, was among those honored. Shepard’s 1998 murder brought national attention to hate crime legislation. He was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyo.

“It’s important to me to tell my own story and makes the stories real — to give a voice to those who have lost but also those who are losing,” Lex said. “These are real people we are talking about.”

The event, sponsored by the Cantú GLBTI Resource Center, Student Affairs and the Dean of Students, brought students and campus administrators together for a discussion of the tough issues of hate, bias, bullying and suicide.

Bill Ladusaw, interim humanities dean, participated in the event sharing his personal experiences with the group, encouraging those who are struggling to seek help from campus resources.

“The major importance of events like these is that we have this opportunity to be seen,” Ladusaw said. “We want to say to people who are struggling, ‘Reach out — we love you.’”

The Trevor Project, a national organization that aims to end suicide among LGBTQ youth, provides resources and a 24-hour suicide prevention hotline.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death on college campuses, according to studies cited on the Trevor Project website. Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers. More than one third have attempted suicide.

The accompanying teach-in was co-facilitated by Cantú Center programs coordinator Tam Welsh and College Eight programs coordinator, Mike Kittredge. It focused on building communication skills, becoming better allies and discussing modes of bullying and harassment.

“Be committed to having an inclusive environment here at UCSC,” Kittredge said. “Be aware of the various identities that exist within the community … Learn as much as you can and be aware of yourself and the privileges you might have if you identify as straight. Work towards equity for all folks in our society, educating yourself and others.”

Sixty members of the campus and Santa Cruz community then participated in a candle­light vigil, which ended in the Quarry Plaza, where participants shared their personal stories and words of encouragement.

Fourth-year community studies major Xochixlquetzal was among the dozens who spoke up to share their stories with the crowd. Like Lex, she goes by her first name.

As a young child, Xochixlquetzal was teased and ridiculed for acting and dressing in a way that was atypical of her gender. Her response was to bully others.

“It turned into name calling against people who, really, were like me,” she said.

Xochixlquetzal was able to come out many years later as queer and transgender and asked for the forgiveness of the young woman she had made fun of.

“[I bullied] a beautiful trans woman and we called her ‘he-she’ and ‘shim,’ names I am now sometimes called,” Xochixlquetzal said. “Having come full circle, it still shames me that I ever said those things. In high school my response to these issues was rage, anger. Now my answer is love and understanding.”

HEAL organizers aimed to educate members of our campus community on hate and prejudice.

“We need to work to foster a community that promotes a culture that does not foster hate,” Kittredge said. “If there is an act of hate, we need to act quickly to condemn it. It only takes one small act to make an entire group of people feel uncomfortable, unsafe or unwelcomed.”

Author Joël Barraquiel Tan recites a selection of poems from his latest book, “Type O Negative.” Tan, a visiting writer for UCSC’s Living Writers series, reads aloud to a crowded lecture hall. Photo by Molly Solomon.

Sitting in the Cantú GLBTI Resource Center, Joël Barraquiel Tan gesticulates as he tells students the current happenings of San Francisco’s queer community. Later that evening, he shares his poetry to a much larger crowd at the Living Writers series on campus, but at the moment, he tells his personal stories in a more intimate setting with a much smaller group. The conversation jumps from politics and writing to Filipino and Filipino-American culture.

Tan, who was born in Manila, is an openly queer Filipino-American and has actively participated in the queer community. Deeply rooted in activism, Tan worked for years to develop HIV/AIDS prevention programs such as the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team, before retiring from AIDS work in 2004. Currently, Tan works as the director of community engagement at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where he does community outreach through art.

Tan does not see his role in the community, his work as an activist, and his work as a writer as unrelated to one another.

“I don’t think of activism as a separate thing — [it’s] more of an impulse,” Tan said. “Whatever it is that’s driving me towards something, it is just to create more avenues of joy, hopefully.”

Tan said that he doesn’t see himself as “dystopian” and that instead he is ultimately interested in being a positive force looking forward, or a “futurist.” Tan doesn’t want to look back to define identity, but is interested in those “who will speculate on who we’re going be.”

Tan also sets his sights on the future as a writer and an academic. When discussing identity issues, gender studies and critical thinking, he explains that he wants to hear something new from academics.

“We’re in the middle of this incredible [cultural] shift and we’re still saying the same thing,” Tan said. “It’s wasted paper, it’s wasted language, it’s wasted scholarship.”

Tan’s energy extended to his reading later that night as the audience interacted with him, asking questions and laughing at his quick responses. At one point, when discussing his writing, Tan joked that he has “an ongoing battle with the mango,” referring to his fight against Asian stereotypes and the stock images of the exotic islander.

Throughout the evening, Tan read from his book of poetry, “Type O Negative,” a fictional autobiography that he describes as “operatic” and a “composite fictional history.” The book is heavily influenced by his father.

“My dad wrote it,” Tan said. “After he died…he came to me in dreams. We had a really fucked-up relationship.”

Overall, Tan’s work was well received by students and faculty alike. Literature professor Karen Yamashita, who described Tan as “provocative,” said that his book of poetry “deserved a wider readership.”

Yamashita hoped that Tan, as a queer Filipino who is “relaxed and very open” about who he is, would “open doors for students that are trying to work out their own issues on identity and gender,” she said.

Weston Tate, a fourth-year literature major, said he “enjoyed how [Tan] doesn’t hold to standards” and “mixed [Tagalog and English] languages.”

Desirae Karmazin, a fellow fourth-year literature major, enjoyed the ambiguity in Tan’s work and follow-up discussion.

“It was hilarious that [Tan] didn’t answer all the [student] questions but left it up to the reader,” Karmazin said. “He gave it some mystery.”

Despite the heavy topics Tan tackles in his writing — sexuality, abuse, family turmoil, AIDS and death — his reading was engaging and interactive.

Tan is not the only writer who will be visiting this quarter. Every Thursday of the quarter through Dec. 2, the Living Writers series will host an author reading. Upcoming visiting writers include Linh Dinh, James Maughn and Earll Kingston. The last event this quarter will be a reading of student work from the creative writing department.

Students gathered at Kresge College on Saturday afternoon to celebrate PRIDE. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Kresge College presented PRIDE, a festival celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans (LGBT) identities and their allies, on Saturday, May 22. The event coincided with California’s first Harvey Milk Day, which was made official in October 2009 after Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill dedicating the day to Milk’s honor.

“Today, we celebrate the legacy of a pioneer and, unfortunately, a martyr for gay rights — Harvey Milk,” said Jesse Bernal, the first openly gay student regent, in his keynote speech at the event.

The rainbow-clad crowd packed into lower Kresge listened intently as Bernal, who traveled up from Santa Barbara for the event, spoke about the recent acts of racism and homophobia at the UC before ending on a determinedly optimistic note.

“My expectation is when you look back on these years … you will see a time in which we finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and woman,” Bernal said.

A horde of volunteers decked out in red PRIDE T-shirts worked to make Kresge into the space that Bernal envisioned. Armed with handmade signs, volunteers Kameron Myles and Angie Wootton went to “queer” the nearby bathrooms.

“In the spirit of PRIDE and queering gender and making a space for people who don’t fit into the gender binary, we’re putting up gender neutral signs so that anyone can use any bathroom,” said Wootton, a second-year Kresge student. Wootton also tabled for Delta Lambda Psi, UCSC’s queer coed “frarority.”

The frarority was just one of several groups that supported the event. Safe sex supplies and information abounded between the Condom Co-Op and Student Health Outreach and Promotion (SHOP).

After the speech, a number of acts went on to perform beneath a rainbow balloon arch. Acquire Acapella sang a crowd-pleasing version of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” Delta Lambda Phi put on a drag show involving a boy scout uniform, shaved legs, and tight fitting dresses that left little to the imagination.

“Someone yelled ‘Beeeeaver!’ out of a bus at me,” said Justine Beaver,* speaking of the recent fame her act, which she performed with Luda Christine* at PRIDE, has brought her.

“I have a blast, I love looking fabulous,” said Jeff,* who performed the Spice Girls’ hit “Spice World.”

The event was not limited to Kresge students. Students kicked off the event at noon, snaking their way around the UCSC campus, bringing visibility and picking up supporters at each college. At Oakes, a car drove donuts around the entrance to the college while pounding dance music and flying rainbow sheets from its roof. Students making buttons and carrying banners shouted their appreciation.

Once PRIDE had gotten well under way, students and staff joined together to sing “Happy Birthday” to Harvey Milk on what would have been his 80th birthday.

It was a birthday party he would not have wanted to miss.

~~~~~~

*Names have been changed.

Captain Spanky-pants directs a confused traveler during a QFS skit. Photo by Nita-Rose Evans.

Photo by Nita-Rose Evans.

Photo by Nita-Rose Evans.

The closest thing to a UCSC fashion week is here and as fabulous as ever. The Queer Fashion Show (QFS) is hitting the runway.

Opening on April 30, QFS has been around since the 80’s. Fused with singing, dancing, and spoken word performances, this year’s theme plays with the idea of fairy tales, as suggested in the show’s title, “Once Upon a Queer.”

“There are actually more fashion designers this year than ever before,” said fourth-year Porter student Julie Roth, who is both designing a line based on the play “Medea,” and modeling in a friend’s performance.

The art department does not currently offer fashion design classes, and the only garment construction training is through theater costuming. Designers Emma Trollman and Amy Bobeda gained their sewing experience working with Shakespeare Santa Cruz. The two co-designed a line based on the fantasy of the circus.

“It’s really bright and exciting and ridiculous,” Trollman said. “It’s about how people with really weird abnormalities who had no way of supporting themselves … could still have a job through the circus. Even though they had weird lifestyles and were not accepted by most people, in the circus they were kind of celebrities.”

A bearded lady, conjoined twins, a strong man, and other circus performers will don this wild and colorful line on the runway.

In an effort to get away from mainstream love stories about princesses and fairies, literature major Olivia Warner chose to portray the darker side of traditional fairytales. She is depicting “The Little Mermaid,” putting together a performance loaded with symbolism and references to the dangerous side of being queer.

“The thing about fairy tales is that they’re really violent,” Warner said. “Like, in Grimm’s fairytales people are burning and bleeding, and those are the textual fairy tales, and that kind of stuff has kind of been edited out of them.”

Warner’s presentation is a fairy tale gone wrong. In the end, a mermaid giving up her voice in order to spread her legs for a prince turns out to be a raw deal.

“The tail that I have her wear is a full-length corset,” Warner said. “She has to be carried around, and onstage she’s cut open and out of it … she’ll be wearing blood-streaked tights, and have blood in her mouth.”

The original creation of the QFS was an attempt to open up the stage to people who have felt unwelcome and have something to say. Breezy Colomb, co-director of the show and a fourth-year from Porter College, describes this year as an attempt to be realistic about diversity, showing people of all colors and sizes.

“People were tired of seeing skinny white girls on stage in fashion shows,” Colomb said.

The final dress rehearsal found the Porter Dining Hall hectic, full of performers and designers scrambling to finish garments and work out sound system glitches. In the corner of the room, second-year literature major Aaron Juni fought to buckle his model into a butter yellow corset, part of his science-fiction inspired line.

“I’m bunching the fabric up on this side,” Irene O’Connell, the model said to Juni, as they wrestled with the vinyl, wrenching the belt together.

“Oh fashion,” Juni said with a sigh, giving up and setting his model free. “Gotta love it.”

~~~~~~

Where to buy QFS Tickets: Quarry Plaza 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Porter Dining hall 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5-7 p.m.

Performance Times:
April 30, 8 p.m., $6
May 1, 8 p.m. $6*

*There is a scheduled protest on May 1, so in the event that QFS may have to be cancelled on the night of May 1, there will be a show on Sunday, May 2, at 3 p.m.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

Not all silencing is as direct as a piece of tape across your mouth. But on April 16, LGBT students and their allies at UC Santa Cruz participated in the 14th annual Day of Silence, an annual event where students nationwide wear black and tape their mouths shut to show support for queer rights and spread awareness of homophobia and harassment.

Hundreds of thousands of students nationwide participated in the event, and UCSC students rose to the occasion as well.

Juba Kalamka, an acclaimed black, gay, poet, and hip-hop artist and bondage/sadomasochism porn actor from Oakland, performed at the open mic night that kicked off the “Night of Noise,” held at Cowell Plaza. Kalamka conveyed his thoughts through poetry, and described the event as a success.

“I just think that lots of times events like these get measured in terms of having people show up,” Kalamka said. “I think what’s much more important for students and for people of the community is the fact that they’re happening, that there’s space for them to happen, and that people feel safe enough to make them happen.”

About 20 to 30 enthusiastic students attended the open mic night, during which several people shared their poetry and personal experiences with the audience. One of those performers was Tom Barden, a student who spoke about the challenges of leading a gay life.

“Especially in terms of advocacy, we have to stand up the hardest to the ones that we love,” Barden said. “That’s always going to be the hardest thing to do.”

Barden was visibly emotional as he described his experiences with homophobia with those closest to him.

“When my grandmother won’t be convinced that I can be safe and sane as a gay man, when my mom can’t be convinced that trans-people have a sane understanding of their gender identity, and when my best friends can always tokenize me … I think that the most important thing is that … we don’t let them dictate the dynamics that we progress in a daily fashion.”

Santa Cruz County Congressman Sam Farr showed his support for those present through a statement read by the emcee during the event.

“I’m proud of the thousands of students on the central coast and across the country who are joining us in this effort to end these deplorable acts of discrimination,” Farr said. “We should all be raising our voices to move towards a day when the Day of Silence is not necessary.”

Lydia Andrews, a third-year Oakes student and main proponent of the Day of Silence who was promoting the event earlier in the week in Quarry Plaza, said the event is important because it shows the public what it feels like to always be silent about your sexuality.

“In the gay community, silence is a very common trend. Everybody has to be quiet about what they are and hide what they are … hide that they’re queer,” Andrews said.

Amanda Rabe, a second-year Stevenson student, also worked at the booth in Quarry Plaza the week before the event, and said it was important to her because of her own sexual identity.

“I feel very privileged to finally feel comfortable with my sexuality,” Rabe said. “It took a long time to get to that point. The Day of Silence is for you to remember the times when you yourself had to hide.”

Assemblyman Bill Monning also sent a representative to the event, Allie Spikler. She communicated Monning’s regret that he himself could not attend and was reponsible for expressing the Assemblyman’s support for the event.

“It’s really cool to be at an event like this, being a trans-person who works for our state government,” Spikler said.

Spikler also brought the news that California has just become the first legislative body in the nation to elect an openly gay member, John Perez, to the leadership role of speaker.

Despite these advancements, Elia Martinez, the student emcee for the Day of Silence, expressed concern over divisions in the gay rights movement.

“I see it as a really divided movement,” Martinez said. “I see on the one hand there’s a very homo-normative, very stereotypical white gay male-led push for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), for organizations that are trying to be very hetero-assimilationist fighting for things like gay marriage, fighting for things like ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ to be repealed. Those are the things that we are focusing on as opposed to greater issues of societal repression.”

And indeed, the Day of Silence and Night of Noise were focused on the everyday dehumanizing acts of discrimination that affect the gay community.

The division Martinez referred to has a precedent.  Historically there have been schisms within broader civil rights movements between conservative and radical elements, like with the black civil rights movement.

The latter faction of the gay rights movement was in full force during the Night of Noise, especially the colorful Kalamka, who in one of his pieces ironically referred to people “apologizing for the least of us, the unsavory shameless bohemian elements of our kind.”

A local transgender activist, who preferred only to be identified as Lex, summed the national event up while addressing the crowd.

Lex said, “It’s important to recognize that not only are we silenced in a lot of ways, but that there’s a lot of work to be done in building collaboration across communities.”

Illustration by Patrick Yeung.

“Fag,” “Gay,” “Homos,” and “Gays Go to Hell” — these are the words that adorned the UC Davis Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center in February. Despite what some believe, the UC system is not a post-homophobic institution. In the wake of such horrendous acts as the graffiti on the UCD LGBT center, the students and various members of the UC system should reflect upon the importance of tolerance and understanding of all beliefs and lifestyles, be role models to youth, and take an active role in change.

Homophobia is an issue that has recently plagued all forms of education, from the humble beginnings of high school to the high tiers of college.

In March of this year, Mississippi high schooler Constance McMillian was not allowed to attend her prom with her girlfriend due to her desire to don a tuxedo. In an effort to mask McMillian’s sexual preference, the school administration suggested that she and her girlfriend take male dates.

With the creation of Facebook, the ability of people to show support for ideals and take sides on various debatable issues has just become a mouse-click away. For example, groups such as “Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend to the Prom” have over 429,000 “fans.” These combat the dark side of Facebook groups, like “Constance quit yer cryin,” which has only 2,790 fans. Although positive in preventing cyberbullying, Facebook group activism is passive activism, and has even coined the term “slacktivism.” Though the internet has allowed for the ability to easily support ideals one believes in, it should not mean that our generation should stop actively participating in change.

In 2007, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) released a study that nearly nine out of 10 LGBT students, of both middle and high school, experienced harassment in the previous year.

We, as students of a higher education system, need to be role models and show that tolerance and understanding can exist in a world too often subjugated to hate crimes and overall acts of violence.

More specifically, students should participate in an the Day of Silence event, which protests the silence faced daily by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their allies.

This event will begin at the Bay Tree Bookstore and last until Friday night, which will bring about the Night of Noise at the Cowell courtyard that allows those who have been silenced to speak out and tell their stories.

There is a need for change in our educational system to protect those who are LGBT, because currently schools cannot discriminate against students based upon race, color, national origin, religion, sex or disability, but not sexual orientation. The Student Nondiscrimination Act, which is currently being promoted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would help change this. The HRC’s and ACLU’s Web sites are currently organized so those who support the act can easily fill out a pre-made letter that can be sent to members of congress.

Our generation cannot be bogged down by technological advancements, and needs to continue to participate actively in social and civil changes in our nation. To combat the increase in active homophobia we need to actively go out and speak against it, and promote discourse and equality amongst all people despite beliefs, backgrounds, or sexual preferences.

Illustration by Joe Lai.

It’s been just over a year since the passing of Proposition 8 in early November 2008, the amendment that restricted the marriage between same-sex couples in California. One long year that has left the gay community questioning the legitimacy of their unions, and the potential for official state recognition.

Although it has only been a year since a major setback in what is being called our generation’s civil rights fight, it seems that gay marriage, no longer the “hot” topic of the day, has faded from the minds of most citizens. Replaced by concerns about the economy, health care and education, most Americans have pushed the question of gay marriage to the back burner.

After a brief period of hope in 2008, when over 18,000 couples were officially married in California between June and November, it seemed that we were finally taking a step forward. However, after the grievous blow of Prop 8, the only meager concession given to the state of California was the upholding of marriages performed that past summer, before the amendment’s passing. A small victory, but by no means satisfactory or acceptable.

While several concessions have been magnanimously imparted to the gay community by our glorious land of opportunity since 2008, it is clear that we are far from winning the war against ignorance and intolerance. In fact, in recent months several states have taken steps backwards in the fight for equality.

On Nov. 3, the state of Maine repealed its same-sex marriage statute. This most recent injustice was the latest in a series of repeals and rejections. Maine marks the 31st state to put gay marriage laws to a popular vote and lose. Presently, only Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa have officially legalized gay marriage. Out of the 50 states in our union, only five allow gay couples the same bonds that heterosexual couples have access to.

The UC, even with the budget crisis and fee increases, is doing more to support gay marriage than many states in the U.S. — a country that is currently undergoing similar financial crises and reassessment of priorities. According to the University of California Human Resources and Benefits Department, any UC employee with a domestic partner, regardless of gender, is eligible to the University of California’s retirement benefits and survivor benefits.

This public entity of California recognizes unions that many states have officially denied as being valid. Although we as a state are making some progress, conservative state statutes such as the Alabama Marriage Protection Act, take a step backwards, claiming same-sex marriage is not only against the laws of the state, but of nature.

We protest libraries closing and fee increases on a bi-weekly basis at UCSC. Why can’t we unite in the same spirit to protest this infringement of our constitutional rights? While Proposition 8 had yet to be voted on, UCSC was up in arms. Do we take defeat so easily? This is not to say that there are not many people still fighting on a daily basis to have these laws repealed all over the country, but what happened to our fire?

On January 11, 2010, the issue of the unconstitutionality of Proposition 8 will be presented and debated in the federal courts by two lawyers, Ted Olson and David Boies. We must show our support and take up our right as citizens of this often great country by letting our lawmakers know that we will not stand for this breach of our social contract any longer. As a country of progress — go Obama! — we need to keep our momentum and not lose the fervor of 2008. This is no trend that will be idly passed by.

While the issue of same-sex marriage may no longer be splashed across every front page, the problem is still undeniably present. Students and non-students alike need to rally to the cause and make sure that this violation of human rights doesn’t goes unnoticed until it is rectified.

Farmers and Gardeners participating in Queer Farmers’ Field Day at the UCSC Farm push fava bean seeds two inches into the freshly tilled soil beds. Photo by Isaac Miller.

One of the Queer Farmers’ Field Day organizers, Markus Major, an alumnus of the apprenticeship program on The Farm, looks to a row of greens as fellow farmers harvest. Photo by Isaac Miller

’Tis the season for harvesting fava beans, collard gleaning and queer farmer awareness.

In celebration of queer farming and the autumn season, the Rainbow Chard Alliance (RCA) network of queer farmers, the Cantú GLBTI Resource Center, and the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) collaborated to host the first ever Queer Farmers’ Field Day.

On Oct. 10, the UC Santa Cruz Farm became the hub of queer farming activity as 30 participants, who came from all over the Bay Area, spent the day exploring the aspects of farming.

The itinerary for the day included tours of the farm and garden, a chance to work in the garden preparing beds and maintaining fields, and a potluck dinner including food straight from the farm.

“It’s exciting to meet people and see queer people and families come together from all over the Bay Area to share techniques about gardening,” said Maggie Cheney, a UCSC farm apprentice and one of the two organizers of the event.

Originally from Massachusetts, Cheney made her way to California, and eventually to the UCSC Farm and Garden Apprenticeship program, which includes about 40 farmers from all over the world.

Cheney found her inspiration for organizing the event after attending a panel that brought together women in the agricultural field. At the end of the panel Cheney asked fellow attendees how many queer farmers they knew of — a question that was met with silence. As a result of this exchange, Cheney thought of creating a Queer Farmers’ Field Day.

To make the event happen, Cheney and her co-organizer Markus Major collaborated with a number of groups, including the Cantú GLBTI Resource Center, which contributed some funding and ideas for the programming.

“The event is to bring queer farmers and gardeners together,” said Deb Abbott, director of the Resource Center. “It is for the camaraderie and connections people make. I’m hoping that there will be a great cross-pollinating.”

One aspect of the program that Abbott came up with was the idea of playing movies at the potluck. She selected films that highlighted the focus of the event, including “Ladies of the Land,” featuring a female alumnus of the UCSC farm and garden apprentice program.

Markus Major, who works on a local farm in San Francisco, also graduated from the apprentice program at UCSC. He helped start the RCA to create a network for queer gardeners and farmers and to provide a space within the farming community to promote queer rights.

“Even organic communities are still traditional,” Major said. “People in some parts of the country farming are much closeted.”

Among those who came out to enjoy the festivities were Candace Hansen from Nevada City and her daughter Coral Morin, who resides in San Francisco.

Hansen and her husband farm in Nevada County, mostly cultivating tomatoes and garlic. Hansen planned the day as a surprise for Morin and kept the secret for a month until the duo set off Sunday morning.

“My mom surprised me,” Morin said. “She wanted to take her queer daughter to a queer event.”

Morin said just looking at the queer farming community at UCSC’s farm made her recognize the importance of the event.

“There are only four queers in [the] apprentice program,” Morin said. “That number is disappointing because it’s small, so having the event is nice.”

According to Morin, networking is a definite key in the queer farming community.

“The gay community [around food] is very small in San Francisco; I’m assuming it’s the same in [Santa Cruz],” Morin said. “It takes a bit of networking but once you know someone, you know someone.”

The temperate weather led many people present to comment on how the day was perfect for farming.

“My heart rate went down ten beats per minute, it’s an amazingly beautiful space,” said Debbie Koski, another event attendee. “We’re all just so happy to be here.”

As part of the day’s free activities a magician walked around and entertained attendees of all ages with his slight of hand. Photo by Alex Zamora.

Among the many GLBT families attending this first time event at the boardwalk, Reb Botelho, Amber, Raina, and Bridger Flansass display their body art and flash some smiles as they enjoy the festivities. Photo by Alex Zamora.

With cascading sunshine, crashing waves and summer tourists long gone, Saturday Oct. 3 marked a near flawless day at the Boardwalk, and a prime afternoon to introduce the park’s newest annual attraction. Under a rainbow flag waving in the beginning-of-fall breeze, local families and their supporters gathered for the Boardwalk’s first Gay Family Day.

The event was the brainchild of the Boardwalk’s marketing department and the Diversity Center, a local nonprofit supporting the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) community. The Boardwalk donated a portion of event ticket sales to the center, and according to Boardwalk representative Kris Reyes, the partnership proved as perfect as the weather.

“We’re always looking for new promotions and new special events to do at the Boardwalk,” Reyes said. “The Diversity Center approached us about doing an event, we met with them, and it just sounded like a great thing for us to put on.”

Families gathered adjacent to the Boardwalk’s Casino Arcade at the Aloha Terrace, a grassy area complete with game and informational booths, food, face painting, magicians and a troupe of Tahitian dancers.

Amber Flansaas and Reb Botelho were happy to attend the event with young children Raina and Bridger at their sides.

“I really like that it’s a Gay Family Day, because we have “Pride” and “Gay Days,” but I think families can get excluded,” Flansaas said. “I love the emphasis on family. It allows us to celebrate who we are and how much we love each other.”

Other attendees were grateful for the safe haven the day provided. Cynthia Druley said she was felt welcome and at home at the local landmark.

“It’s nice to be able to walk around and see lots of other gay people being affectionate,” Druley said. “You feel safer when you’re in a larger number. It’s like we’re given permission to be open and hold hands.”

Roger Hunt was also happy with the sense of security the day afforded to families.

“We feel very strongly about being visible and proud, and I think it’s important we all support each other like this,” Hunt said. “Contrary to popular belief, it’s not that safe to ‘be out,’ even in Santa Cruz or San Francisco.”

The event attracted a small but enthusiastic crowd, and Reyes said the Boardwalk and Diversity Center are already thinking about what they can change or add to the event next year.

“I think they should have a body building contest next year,” Hunt said with a smile. “I think that would draw a lot more people.”

Attendees were thankful both for the festivities and the company, but some were also curious why it took so long for this type of event to happen at the Boardwalk. Many amusement parks around the country, most famously Disneyland, have been holding Gay Family Days for many years now.

“I think this is long overdue,” Druley said. “I can’t believe that the Boardwalk hasn’t done anything like this for so long. But I think it’s a great thing and I hope it becomes an annual event.”

According to Reyes, it’s well on its way.

“We hope that it grows into a long-term event,” Reyes said. “It’s an event that’s successful at other parks, so I think it can be successful here too.”

Jim Brown, a volunteer at the Diversity Center, felt the Boardwalk made wise community choices — as well as astute economic ones — by hosting the festivities.

“I think [the event] is twofold. I think the Boardwalk is doing a great thing in making sure the GLBT community feels welcome,” Brown said. “Also, market research shows that if you create a relationship with the GLBT community, if you can become a trusted brand, then those community members will be very loyal.”

Indeed, all who commented on the day said they would gladly return to a second annual Gay Family Day should one take place.

The finances are solid. The social outcomes look good for both parties. However, one of the best reasons for Gay Family Day’s pending 2010 return came from Amber Flansaas’ son Bridger, 6, who responded with a grin when asked if he was having fun,

“Well yeah,” Bridger said with a shrug. “I think just about everybody in the whole wide world loves the Boardwalk.”

Photo by Alex Zamora.

The Cantú Queer Center, located across from Crown College on campus, is accepting of all sexual orientations and is open to students from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mon. thru Fri. Photo by Alex Zamora.

VIbrant Balloons led this year’s PRIDE march as it made its way throughout all of campus, ending at Kresge College in a huge celebration. Photo by Alex Zamora.

On Nov. 4 of last year, UC Santa Cruz students celebrated the election of the 44th president of the United States with a large victory run that spanned the entire campus. However, the joyful mood was soon dampened when news of the passage of Proposition 8 became known, and students’ hopes for marriage equality in the state of California began to fade.

The proposition added a section to the California Constitution that reads, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” 

On March 5, the California State Supreme Court heard the oral arguments of three cases challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8. A 90-day decision period commenced and the fate of 18,000 same-sex marriages that took place before the November election hung in the balance.

On May 26, the court rejected the challenges by a 6-1 vote and further disappointed those who had hoped for the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, the court ruled that the marriages that had occurred before the election would be exempt from the adopted revisions to the California Constitution. Justice Carlos R. Moreno was the only judge to rule that Proposition 8 was invalid. 

The arguments addressed in the hearing focused on Proposition 8’s validity, as it constitutes a revision of the California Constitution. The proposition was also questioned for possible violations under the separation of powers doctrine in the California Constitution. 

Adriana Lopez, UC Santa Cruz residential educator, and Monica Morales, UCSC alumna, were married in August 2008. Lopez is worried about what the exception to the proposition will mean for their future.

“It’s a very odd position that we’ve been put in, being one of the 18,000 same-sex couples to keep their marriage in California,” Lopez said. “We are not part of the mainstream, and I can see that becoming an obstacle.” 

Despite the difficulties arising from the state, Lopez believes her marriage means more than what others think of it. 

“We were planning on getting married even before it was legal in the state,” Lopez said. “It was more of a personal recognition of our bond before anything else.  

“The main obstacle we faced came from our family’s perception of marriage, but having a family of our own is more important to us than anything else,” Lopez said. 

With the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in Maine, there has been more and more talk about what advances California should make in the fight against the ban on same-sex marriage in California. 

New York is predicted to be next in line to jump on the same-sex marriage bandwagon that now includes Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Iowa. New York governor David A. Paterson broke ground when he introduced a same-sex marriage bill for his state in April. 

This latest string of New England states in support of same-sex marriage has increased the LGBT advocates’ drive in California to tackle another ballot measure on the issue by next year. 

LGBT Pride in the Community

On campus and in town, students and citizens have been gearing up to fight the court rulings with events and protests.

The people of Santa Cruz and several towns in the surrounding area gathered together on the “Day of Decision” for the California Supreme Court hearing, May 26. 

Equality Action Project team member Cathy Andrews organized the event and saw more people there than she had anticipated.

“There were several hundred people there with signs, even though so many folks in Santa Cruz were upset by the decision,” Andrews said.

On campus, a gay pride march from Cowell to Kresge caused many students to get involved and informed about California’s status for same-sex couples.

“It was great to see so many straight and gay people out marching together for the same cause,” said first-year Cowell student Mark Rossow, who participated in the march.

At the UCSC Cantú Queer Center’s GALA Gallery, the photo exhibit entitled “We Now Pronounce You” documents the recent marriages of UCSC staff, students, faculty and alumni. It is open for the spring quarter during the center’s open hours, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Deb Abbott, director of the Cantú Queer Center, said that the photo exhibit gives the stories of each couple, and although the exhibit is a celebration of the marriages, for some of the couples it was a long and strenuous process to be married. 

“There are many couples that got married last summer, which is very exciting, but very few people realize that for a long time, those weddings were in limbo,” Abbott said. “There are couples that were forced to get their marriage annulled.” 

Santa Cruz’s Stance

Long before the LGBT community was more widely accepted, the city of Santa Cruz took a strong stand in supporting it. In 1983, John Laird, an openly gay man, became mayor of Santa Cruz. As one of the first gay public officials elected in the country, he successfully fought the Briggs Initiative, which attempted to ban gay teachers in schools in California. 

“Santa Cruz is particularly accepting of the GBLT community because early on, we did a lot of basic public education and grassroots organizing on the issue,” vice mayor Mike Rotkin said. “The city of Santa Cruz also started one of the first consistent gay pride events in California.” 

On June 6, the 17th annual “Dyke March” will take place in Santa Cruz, and the 35th annual LGBT Pride Festival will follow the next day at San Lorenzo Park. With a variety of booths, speakers and entertainers, both events characterize the fervent support of gay pride that can be found in the Santa Cruz community. 

With the majority of the fight to legalize gay marriage taking place in the more liberal cities of the state, there are also protests in support of gay marriage taking place in characteristically conservative areas of central California. A rally called “Meet in the Middle for Equality” took place in Fresno at the City Hall last Saturday after the California Supreme Court ruling.

“In communities that are small or not typically progressive it is especially important to have some visibility of GBLT issues and to begin to educate them on the rights they deserve to have,” Abbott said. 

In addition to less progressive areas of the state, there are also religious groups that are not accepting of the union between same-sex couples. 

Cowell first-year Nick Paterno has faced the difficulties of being an openly gay Catholic head-on. 

“At first I stopped going to church because it scared me when the priest said that it was a ‘hellfire damnation’ to be gay,” Paterno said. “I don’t think that most churches support the gay community even if they say they do.” 

Reverend David Grishaw-Jones of the First Congregational Church in Santa Cruz expressed the importance of accepting multiple viewpoints within the church community. 

“I want to believe our country can be a place where a wide diversity of views and spiritual values are tolerated and welcomed,” Grishaw-Jones said. “What worries and angers me is the attitude among some fundamentalist Christians that theirs is the only view that matters.” 

Abbott said that California’s decision was more of a reflection of the financial power of religious groups than a reflection of how the majority of California citizens felt on the issue of same-sex marriage.