Brooke Skiba
Features Editor
Next week Wooster will celebrate Seven Days of Gays, an annual event sponsored by Spectrum that celebrates the diversity and uniqueness of all sexual identities. The week will begin on Sunday, April 14 with a Kickoff Bonfire and Fire Show, and will end on Saturday, April 20 with Gayla, the student-run drag show and dance party.
The bonfire on the first day will run from 8-11 p.m. on the Kenarden patio. The poi artist (Seeker) will perform with fire batons and bolos. Seeker combines theatre and dance with fire to create art she shares with her audience. The bonfire will also include s’mores, dancing and music courtesy of Woo91.
On Monday, Andrea Gibson will perform in Mateer Auditorium at 7 p.m. presented by Spectrum with the Poetry Club, the Women of Dene and the English Department. Gibson is a lesbian spoken word poet who performs pieces about war, class, gender, bullying, white privilege, sexuality, love and spirituality.
There will also be a “Sexuality in Sports” panel on Tuesday in the Scot Center Governance Room at 7:30 p.m. This panel will explore the current views on non-heteronormative sexual identities in organized sports. Local speakers from Team Cle and Gay Games 9 will be speaking.
Wednesday will be a movie night presented by Spectrum with Brothers of Diversity held at 7 p.m. in Lowry Pit. The movie shown will be “Pariah,” the winner of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Excellence in Cinematography Award. The film follows 17-year-old Alike, an African American teenager who must embrace her identity as a lesbian while faced with also finding her identity within her race, gender, religion and social status.
On Thursday there will be a “Bi, Pan and Fluid” panel in Lowry 119 at 6:30 p.m. Spectrum members will speak about what it means to be bisexual, pansexual or “fluid,” which means embracing the flexibility of sexuality and the inability of labels to fully define it. They will also discuss common myths and stereotypes about these identities and broader political issues involving visibility within the LGBTQ movement.
On Friday until 5 p.m., the campus will honor the National Day of Silence. On this day, students across the country stay silent in order to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools. Over the last 17 years the Day of Silence has become the largest single student-led action toward creating safer schools for all students, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Spectrum members will be handing out explanation cards and tabling on that day. They also plan to have a photo campaign during lunch.
On Saturday, Spectrum will host Gayla at 10 p.m. in Lowry Ballroom. Gayla is Spectrum’s biggest event of the year. The event is a giant student-run drag show and dance party with music, silly emcees and awesome performances. Lola VanHorn, a professional drag queen, will kick off the event and then continue to emcee the event and student performances. Also performing will be Stop. Motion., a new band on campus that played at Battle of the Bands and will play a set at Gayla to begin the dance party. Woo91’s Evelyn Liu will D.J. after their set and the dance floor will be open until 1:30 a.m. For more information about Gayla, contact Michelle Baker at mbaker13@wooster.edu.