Over The-Edge Page 8 Student’s Voice February 11, 2002

Why Should It Matter

to You Who I’m Banging?

An Essay Regarding Rumours and Sexuality at UNBC.

By Joseph Cole
Recently, my sexuality has
become somewhat of a
rumour mill. | will admit that at
first | found the situation
somewhat uncomfortable.
The conversation was always
one that went on behind my
back, at parties or with
friends of the people involved
—“he is SO gay!” There is
one event that sticks out
strongly in my ~mind. An
acquaintance of mine was at
a party with several of his
friends. At which point he
decided to inform everyone in
attendance at the party that |
had, in fact, introduced to him
.to my. boyfriend. This

“acquaintance,” of course,
never confronted me as to if
the person | had introduced
him to was my boyfriend or
not. In fact, he never asked
me if | was even gay. The
only proof he actually had as

to the claim that | may be
homosexual, was that | am
male, and | have my tongue
pierced. (And all this time |
thought homosexuality
involved being sexually
attracted to someone of the
same sex. How silly of me!)
However, he bestowed it
upon himself to scar my repu-
tation with unproven slander
about a topic that was not
only none of his business, but
none of the people’s with
whom he shared the informa-
tion. ;
The story continues: |
recently became fast friends
with a girl who was “friends”
with some of the people
involved in this situation. This
particular girl happens to
have a reputation of being,
well, sexually dynamic. Once
| had been seen with her, the
rumours were nearly instant
that she and | were, of
course, sleeping together.

Again, no physical proof for
such accusations. Merely the
fact that we were hanging out
together was apparently
enough evidence to satisfy
the minds of those who
where seemingly so interest-
ed in our sexual lives.
Apparently some of the peo-
ple making these claims were
psychicly adept. When the
initial rumours reached back
to us about our sexual status,
the woman involved inquired
into what the source behind
the claim was. The response
was that “you can just tell
when people are f*cking.”
Talk about a sixth sense.

So my question is this: Why
does it matter to you who I’m
banging? | am very open-
minded to different opinions
when it comes to sexuality. If
you are waiting for the “right
person” before giving up your
virginity, great. If you would
rather experience several

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sexual encounters with who-
ever or whatever, great. Your
sexual orientation is none of
my concern, so why should
my sexual orientation be any
of your concern? | don’t care
if ’m gay... so why do you?
She doesn’t care that her
numbers are higher than
most guys could dream of...
so why do you? In fact, if her,
and |, and my supposed
boyfriend, want to go and
have a wild threesome on the
top of Connaught Hill, why
shouldn't we? As long as we
aren’t hurting you through our
sexual expressions, then I’m
really not seeing a problem
here. Yet the rumor mill
keeps on turning.

The point isn’t if I’m gay or
not. It’s not if she is a slut or
not. The point is, what we do
in our bedrooms (or in our
cars, On our couches, on our
swing sets, in our bath tub, on
our pool tables...) is really

none of your concern. Can
we PLEASE get past this
juvenile high school gossipy
mentality, and into the real
world where everyone is just
gonna be different. Welcome
to maturity. Idealism doesn’t
exist, and diversity is the
essence of society. Judge not
who | am by who | am sleep-
ing with. That has no barring
on my soul, or my personality.

As I’ve said before, my
plea is simple. I’m calling on
all men, women, and all oth-
erwise undeclared people out
there to love each other.
Accept each other. | don’t
necessarily mean man to
man. | don’t mean woman to
woman. | don’t even mean
woman to man, or man to
woman. | mean love each
other, person to person—
human to human—soul to
soul.

Rant and Rave about

By Rey T. Singh

The issue of tuition hikes
has been received with
mixed reaction at UNBC.
Students gathering at the
rant session on February
6th voiced mixed feelings
about whether or not the
hikes were justified. Both
neoconservative and struc-
tural, class-based views
were voiced from the stu-
dent body. The melee, was
highly disjointed and
received little community
support from students in
general. Recognition must
be given to the organizers,
who had the fortitude and
understanding to provide
such a forum for student
voices. The forum was
helpful in providing stu-
dents in attendance with a
broad range of opinions on
tuition hikes. Many stu-
dents cited reasons for
reducing tuition.

The lack of student sup-
port perhaps reflects our
values in North American
society. To live for the pre-

tuition hikes

sent, not consider the impact
of our action, or government
action on the next genera-
tion. As long as we have our
student loan and are meeting
our own personal agendas
we need not think of larger
decisions and their long-term
impacts.

The issue of polarity was
also apparent. One individual
spoke with charisma about
taking direct action. He chas-
tised academics for “sitting
on their asses”. His observa-
tion holds merit, as much of
academia at UNBC, students
and faculty have failed to
align themselves with issues
that do not serve their imme-
diate interests. This gentle-
man stated he could not
understand why students are
unwilling to take risks and
make changes. He did not
state however, that he was
willing to take up the cause
with us. His observation is
key, as it helps us realize that
there are individuals who are
desperate to have the oppor-
tunity to access opportunities
that many of us take for