How do you decide who’s on top during anal sex? Do all lesbians hate men?
For approximately an hour and a half Tuesday night, five members of Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance voluntarily subjected themselves to these and other such questions during a panel discussion. Audience members could ask any question, either aloud or anonymously by writing them on slips of paper.
After a few minutes of silence and some giggling, the 31 attendees dug in, asking everything they always wanted to know about gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people but were afraid to ask.
The audience was curious about everything from exactly what constitutes sex between two women to belief in God. Andrea DeChellis, panel member and Campus Women’s Organization president, said, “I talk to God all the time and she’s pro-gay.”
The panel was held as part of National Coming Out Week, a week of events surrounding National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11. This date is the anniversary of the second gay rights march ever held in Washington, D.C., in 1987. The march was the first display of the NAMES project quilt, remembering those who have died from AIDS.
According to the Human Rights Campaign’s Web site, coming out means identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Rainbow Alliance is celebrating the week with speakers, movies, an art show and a benefit concert with Melissa Ferrick, a lesbian folk-rocker.
The panel included two gay men, two lesbians and one bisexual woman.
Kerianne Ludwig, office administrator for Rainbow Alliance, opened the discussion with a warning.
“We tried to get as diverse a sample as we could, but five people is just that, a sample,” Ludwig said. She said that no group could fully represent all the diversity in the GLBT community.
Officers of Rainbow Alliance elected panelists for this event. Vice president and panel member Adelaina Acosta stressed the need for diversity in the panel because it was meant to “pander to the entire university.”
Rainbow has been giving similar panel discussions throughout the semester in freshman studies classes and dorms. Acosta said the Pitt police and the Engineering Mentors program have expressed interest in hosting panels.
Rainbow president Sandra Telep said the panels are meant to “make a bridge” between the gay and straight communities on campus.
Ludwig was disappointed by her perception that few fraternity and sorority members attended the discussion. She said fliers promoting the event had been sent to various Greek organizations including the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Association.
“It would have been great to see some people with [Greek] letters on,” Telep said of the audience.
Panel members shared their coming out stories. When Telep fearfully told her father she was a lesbian, he replied, “Yeah, honey, I know.”
Josh Ferris, panel member and political action chair for Rainbow, said, “My mom cried, my dad stared and I think we got some food or something.”
Most of the panel members said they were out to their families and friends and, selectively, their co-workers.
Several sexually explicit questions provoked peals of laughter from the audience and panelists. Despite some blushing faces, “It went really well,” Ferris said.
