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Volume LII, Number io
Serving UNC-Wilmington Since 1 948
WWW.THESEAHAWK.ORG
October l 7, ZODO
INDEX
Campus
OP/ED
Classifieds..................
Features
Sports
Reverend White speaks
on gay Christian issues
Dan Guy
Asst. News Editor
Rev. Mel White, a nationally recognized
gay Christian advocate, spoke to a crowd of
more than 250 people in
the Warwick Center
Ballroom last Wednes
day. He spoke about
struggles gay people
have with religious is
sues and how they are af
fected by society’s per
ceptions.
“We don’t have to
agree about the issue, but
we need to talk about it,
it’s really important,”
White said. “(The
churches) don’t under
stand that we’ve been
there from the beginning, but they still want
to shut us out.”
White said he believes in using the prin
ciples of non-violence taught by Gandhi and
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
“Gandhi once said ‘you are cnsated, and
not a mistake. You need to believe that your
enemy is also somebody,’” he said.
White has served the Christian commu-
nity as a pastor, seminary professor, author
and filmmaker As a communications con
sultant and ghostwriter. White’s clients in
cluded Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Oliver
North and Pat Robertson.
White began Wednesday’s lecture talk
ing about his personal life
before he reconciled his
Christian theology and
came to teinis with his
sexuality,
w “For thirty-five years
fljlSF % I thought I was sick, I was
alarmed,” White ex
plained. “I thought no
body would love me, not
even God. I lived in fear,
isolation and guilt, and I
worried about it con
stantly.”
White and his wife
struggled through 23
years of marriage, and spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars seeing counselors.
“One day my wife told me, ‘I’m giving
you your liberty, but remember you have a
family that loves you,’” he said. “My life
began when I figured out who I really was.”
White focused his lecture on the search
for acceptance as a gay person.
“I have received over50,000letters from
people, all telling me their guilt, God’s con-
Seahawk begins
twice-weei^
pubUshmg
Staff Reports
For the first time in its 52-year history,
the Seahawk, the official student newspa
per of UNC Wilmington, is making the
transition firom weekly pubUcation to
twice per week. Beginning Tuesday, Oct.
17, the Seahawk will be pubUshed and
distributed on the UNCW campus and at
various points in the \\^lmington area on
"Riesdays and Thursdays.
The Sea/iowjt was motivated to make
the change by a combination of factors in
recent years, according to Editor in Chief
Thomas Ruyle. Among those factors are
a vastly increased student readership, in
creased demand for advertising in the
Seahawk, inajor improvements and up
grades to production technology, and the
establishment of fomial academic support
for the newspaper.
“Over the past three years, the
Seahawk has experienced enormous
growth across flie board. The students who
have worked on this newspaper have
See Twice, Page 5
demnation,” White said. “I travel for two
purposes. One, to tell gay and lesbian people
that God loves you, and don’t forget it. Two,
See Gay, Page‘s
‘Get out the vote’day registers over600students
TDDD VtJLKSTQRF
Staff Writer
Last week, student organizations made a
last ditch efPcat to encourage UNCW stu
dents to register to vote before the deadline
for the upcoming national and state elections.
Members of the Student Government
Association (SGA) and the UNCW Leader
ship Center launched a campaign to get stu
dents registered and informed about issues
crucial to the upcoming state and national
elections. The effort culminated last Thurs
day with “Get out the Vote Day,” a rally that
was based in the amphitheater Representa
tives also set up tables in the student housing
buildings.
Krista Powell, an SGA member and
chairperson for the External Affairs Com
mittee, was the principle force in organizing
and implementing the voter registration
drives on can^ this semester. She sent
SEE Vote, Page 5
Over 600 students regis
tered to vote through the
Student Government
Association’s “Get out the
vote” program last week.
Last Friday was the dead
line to register to vote in
the presidential election
next month.
Left: SGA members sign
up students to vote at the
ampitheatre on the Cam
pus Commons.
MoOy Handl0f/Th9 S«atiawk