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Amee Hicks, left, a biology student, and Marta Goldstein, a business administration major, carry water-filled condoms through an obstacle course in the MU Quad Thursday during the Pride Week drag races.

Celebrating Pride

Week's worth of campus-wide activities bring entertainment, awareness, lessons to OSU

By: Candice Ruud

Posted: 5/9/08

This week the Pride Week Committee brought heavily lubed condoms, a free-speech graffiti wall, horn-rimmed glasses and multi-colored wigs to the MU Quad for the entertainment and expression of students.

Troy Fultz, a senior in business administration, and Ryan Landyn, a sophomore in women studies, were co-chairs of the Pride Week Committee and part of the team responsible for the putting the events together.

Activities ranged from T-shirt sales and MARS booths on sexual health awareness to drag races through obstacle courses performed for onlookers and male judges dressed in drag.

The week started with a barbeque and followed with a performance by a queer Filipino comedian, bowling, several films, a slumber party and Queer Vox, a queer open-mic event that took place last night at the Pride Center.

The grand finale of Pride Week is tonight's much-anticipated and extremely popular drag show, which will take place at the MU Ballroom from 8 to 11 p.m. Tickets for the drag show - 425 in total - have been sold out since Monday, according to Fultz.

Following the drag show will be a dance in the MU Ballroom, which will continue until 2 a.m.

Pride Week is sponsored by the Rainbow Continuum, which has been on campus for 30 years and whose home is the Pride Center by Adams Hall, the house with a large rainbow flag out front.

"Our main goal is awareness and visibility in the community," said Landyn.

Landyn, who was born a female, explains his sexual orientation as difficult to describe because he lives as a male.

Landyn hopes to move into Halsell Hall with his girlfriend next year when the residence hall initiates gender-inclusive housing.

"I have kind of mixed feelings about Halsell Hall being gender-inclusive next year," Landyn said. "They're trying to seem queer-friendly by calling themselves gender-inclusive without explaining or understanding what that really means."

Fultz, the other co-chair of the Pride Week Committee, came out as gay to his family and friends during his first year of college.

"It wasn't that hard to come out once I decided that's what I wanted to do," Fultz said.

Emily King, a sophomore in apparel design and a member of the Pride Week Committee who categorizes herself as a pansexual, was an onlooker during the Lube Olympics and drag racing events.

"I grew up in Portland, so I was shocked by how tolerant people are in Corvallis," King said. She admits thinking Corvallis would be far more conservative in general and more closed-minded about variances in sexual orientation.

King says she identifies with liking people for their personalities, regardless of gender or sexual preference.

"I found out I was pansexual in college when I realized things didn't have to be just black and white."

While Fultz said that most of the Rainbow Continuum and Pride Week Committee members are LGBTQ - or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer - there are many straight allies who are active members of the group.

For more information on the Rainbow Continuum and for a calendar of events, visit www.oregonstate.edu/groups/rcosu.

Candice Ruud, senior reporter

news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231