Letter to the Editor: In Response to Issue 6

[information]Read Production Manager David Matteson’s response to this and two other similar letters to the editor (1, 2) here.[/information]

Dear Editor,

I am writing in reference to the most recent edition of The Sandspur. I’ll be honest; I am not a regular reader of your newspaper, but the recent cover caught my eye as I was walking to class, so I stopped and picked it up. As a gay man and a member of the Rollins community, I must voice my displeasure with the completely prejudicial and stereotypical manner in which you decided to portray the story–namely the front page picture.

To recap, you have three stereotypical gay boys standing naked on a balcony overlooking what appears to be the Rollins tower with the words “Come out with Pride” scribbled underneath. The greatest irony of this picture (gay men staring at what can only be presumed to be a large phallic-symbol in the sky) is that the article specifically references how Rollins is a place where GLBT people and couples can safely be themselves without fear of being stereotyped or discriminated against. Your picture, however, proves that at an institutional level this is in fact, not true.

Your picture is what is commonly referred to as a micro-aggression in that it subtly relays a message to an oppressed group which operates in discrimination and up-plays stereotypical behavior. Namely, it tells your readers that gay men, specifically Rollins’ men who are gay, enjoy public indecency and exposure and are sex-crazed individuals. Moreover, the article itself continues this aggressive tirade by making repeated references to archaic and stereotypical “frat guy” behavior and references the warm alcohol-filled arms that gay men and women are invited into.

I find the overarching meta-communication of the article and issue itself offensive to the Rollins GLBT community and the greater society at large. I feel personally offended and believe that you and your organization owe an apology to myself and the community at large for your callous, shortsighted, and bigoted paper. Feel free to share my opinion with the writer.

Daniel Garner
Holt School