Newspapers / Lambda (Carolina Gay and … / Oct. 11, 1994, edition 1 / Page 2
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off on incfosting feces just as there are people who simply live for drinking urine and being urinated upon. But notice that I use the word "people" here. Yes, contrary to popular belief, even (gasp) heterosexuals engage in such behavior. However, I wouldn't dare venture to say that over 70% of heterosexuals participate in "mating dances* which involve human waste or the waste of any other animal for that matter. Moving on, I guess I should start living life to the fullest since at 21 years of age I have reached the exact halfway point of my life expectancy as a gay man. Or at least this is what Rev. Webb would have you believe. Actually, I know many gay men who are well into their 60's and 70's, and I would bo willing to bank on the idea that there might be a gay man or two out there who' s more than 100 years old. 1 don't have any idea where Rev. Webb found his "statistics", and, frankly, I'm afraid to ask. Webb in his special column to the Daily Tar Heel has the gall to say that the life expectancy of a homosexual male is 42, and that's only assuming he doesn't get AIDS, commit suicide, or get murdered. Yes, we do have a higher suicide rate, and, yes, we get murdered quite often. But, would you like to know why? It's because people like Rev. Webb make our homosexual brothers and sisters feel so abnormal, so inferior, and so perverse that they feel they have no place in a "moral" society. And we get murdered because people [sic] feel that God justifies them in killing homosexuals. And as far as AIDS is concerned, let me just say that the tables are turning. New infections are falling in the gay community, whereas, they are very much on the rise among heterosexuals. Now, let me address The Carolina Review. There's only one issue I want to talk about here, because everything else they say is simply inane. When they talk about gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals calling for more rights, they immediately ask: "More rights than whom?" Well, let me just say that if they would open their eyes, they'd see that we don't want more rights than any other citizen of this country. We just want equal rights as everyone else. Right-wing, social conservatives say that we should be able to lose our jobs for flaunting homosexuality, arguing that we should keep our mouths shut about what we do in bed. But what they don't realize is that they can display pictures of their wives and girlfriends on their desks at work apd no one cares. But if I have a picture of my boyfriend on my desk, and I honestly answer the "who is that* question, I can be fired from my job. And I have no legal grounds on which to sue I The seune is true for housing, etc . Well, I guess I've been on a long enough tirade and I'll let you move on to more interesting, less whiny articles. Oh, and in case you're wondering, this is an editorial which does not reflect the attitudes of everyone in B-GLAD, although I do think I speak for a great many - both homosexual and heterosexual. And remember, nobody's born a Gay, Therapeutic Bodywork for Lesbian and Bisexual Students $20 per hour Douglas Hudson, MA, CMT (919)549-6492 Varied background in massage, dance, martial arts, theatre and athletics. He has worked) with sports related injuries, stress reduction, general health and chronic illnesses. Sex and Gender in Antiquity: Classics 42 by Cecil Wooten Several years ago the Classics Department decided that it should try to broaden its curriculum by dealing with groups that have traditionally been neglected. The most obvious lack in the department was a course on women in antiquity. There was no one in the department, however, who was especially interested in teaching such a course or who felt particularly qualified to do so. I had always been interested in teaching a course on homosexuality in the ancient world. Therefore, I proposed to my chairman that I teach a course in sex and gender, dealing with women and homosexuality. The two topics are closely related. Ancient Greek men. who oroduced most of the literature that we have, tended to be quite misogynistic and to have a very low opinion of women. Consequently, they felt that a truly meaningful romantic relationship could exist only between two men. So, to a certain extent it was attitudes toward women that impelled men toward homosexual relationships. On the other hand, the success of these relationships tended to make Greek men feel even more negatively toward women. Homosexuality in Rome was less glorified than it was in Greece because Romans had a hiaher opinion of women. Therefore, a course in sex and gender, what it meant to be a man and what it meant to be a woman, what options were open to you and what constraints were placed on you as one or the other seemed to be a good idea. Unfortunately, there is not much known about women in antiquity since most of the literature, our major source of knowledge about the ancient world, was produced by men and for men, and it tended to be about men. There is even less information about lesbians in antiquity, but we read whatever there is. In the course, we consider many works that are often read in classics courses, such as Homer's Iliad. I tend to stress, however, interpersonal relationships, especially if they reveal the possibility of homosexual attachments. The class consists mainly of discussion, involving a fair amount of personal reaction to the literature that we read. There is also some role-playing. I have students write, for example, a letter that one of her girlfriends might have written to Sappho. Students tend to be quite open in the class and often compare their own personal experience with the experience of those authors whom wo are reading. The response to the class has been very good. Each time that it has been offered it has closed soon after registration began. Moreover, on the course evaluation many students comment that taking the class has made them prouder to be gay or more tolerant of gay people and more aware of the long history of homosexuality in western culture. And that, in some ways, is its major goal. Some students, of course, feel uncomfortable with the idea of looking at a society, especially a "gay friendly* society, whose ideals and practices were very different from those of our own society. They feel that that legitimizes those ideals and practices, as indeed it does. But education is not about closing minds, and I hope that when students study the sexual practices of the ancient world they will see that the human experience need not necessarily be, and has not always been, as we in our own society perceive it. The course is offered every spring, usually at 12:00 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It fulfills the multi-cultural requirement. For more information, contact Cecil Wooten in Murphy 220 (962-7191).
Lambda (Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
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