Welcome Frosh! Wesleyan University is a complicated place, attempting against the grain of progressive staff, students, and professors, to further instill some great old amerikkkan values such as classism, racism, sexism, ageism and LGBTQ-oppression. I recommend that we should be wary of these oppressions, namely in our tuition-supported media, The Argus.

Some friends and i noticed that the frosh party “Bend it at Beckham” came with corresponding ridicule in the Ampersand section of the Argus. Images of trans and gender non-conforming people have a history (and present) of being used by straight media to ridicule and dehumanize them. However, we don’t have to fall in line with the Argus’ intended joke on the person pictured next to the headline “Attention-Seeking Transvestite Goes Unnoticed at Foss Cross, Joins NRA”. Not only does this promote offensive language, but it also promotes the idea that images of trans and gender non-conforming people should be open to public de-legitimization and ridicule. The headline supports the idea that trans and gender non-conforming people are one-dimensional, attention-seeking and mentally unstable.

Yes, i know that the intention was to be hilarious. But who is the joke on? Would The Argus ever publish a picture of a white, enabled, masculine male with the headline “Attention-Seeking Bro Goes Unnoticed at Party, Joins Radical Feminists for Peace”? Or, if someone would like to use the it’s-funny-because-it’s-true technique, they could publish, “Attention-Seeking Transphobia Goes Unnoticed on Wesleyan’s Campus, Continues to Practice Bigotry”.

Considering this along with the LGBTQ-oppressive “Do’s and Don’ts at Freshman Orientation” section, i have concluded that this year’s first issue of The Argus kept completely in line with its previous queerphobic and transphobic comments made in years past. Thinking that the phrase “No Homo” is a funny joke for straights and closeted gays alike doesn’t acknowledge the fact that LGBTQ students on this campus have been regularly taunted with that phrase in addition to being called tranny, dyke and faggot. It is not okay to use LGBTQ terms in derogatory ways, and that’s probably one of the reasons that people here wouldn’t want to be out in the first place. If you’d truly like to consider yourself a queer ally, one way to start is educating yourself, asking around what you can do to support LGBTQ community, and not making any assumptions about people’s identities, including the assumption that someone is straight.

Just in order to provide some space for all the non-queerphobic and non-transphobic students out there, i think there needs to be a “Do’s and Don’ts” column for y’all as well:

DO: Be supportive of yourself and others who question the norms of gender and sexuality!

DON’T: Yell queerphobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or other NONSENSE at people as they walk by your porch!

DO: Check out the Queer Resource Center at 190 High St–full of books, sex magazines and other sassy, educational, and fun materials!

DON’T: Let the queer-bashers and queer-baiters get to you! There is a community here that wants to be here for you, so Shout Out!

DO: Continue to wear the clothes you feel like wearing, hook-up with whoever you want to consensually, make major life decisions, or do whatever else you want to do! You are an autonomous humyn being!

DON’T: Respond to this Wespeak with apathy or bigotry! If you were just raised that way, there’s no better time to find some way of working through your issues, possibly counseling, and become a more beloved, respectful humyn being!