straightpridewear.com has some really great products
and so does straightandproud.com
Posted on 04/28/2003 12:05:54 PM PDT by Living Free in NH
DURHAM -- At Duke University, being OK with being gay is something of a fashion statement these days.
In the past two weeks, hundreds of students have been seen wearing T-shirts that say, simply: "Gay? Fine by me."
Duke President Nan Keohane has one. Duke basketball players Nick Horvath and Shavlik Randolph have been spotted in the shirts.
"They're everywhere," said senior Amanda Poston, who got hers Thursday from the boxes of free shirts on a breezeway outside the student union. "This is a peaceful, passive way we can express how we feel."
The trend was started by a group of friends, gay and straight, who decided something had to be done about the perception that Duke is a homophobic place. A few years ago, the Princeton Review rated Duke as the most gay-unfriendly campus in the United States.
So the students thought up a slogan, ordered 500 T-shirts and planned to give them away to as many people as would take them.
The shirts were gone by noon the first day. A rush order of an additional 250 disappeared in about 15 minutes. In 10 days, 1,800 shirts were snapped up.
"We've been giving them away as fast as we can make them," said Leila Nesson, a graduate student in history.
Some were reluctant at first, she said, muttering, "I'll pass," when they saw the message on the shirts.
"Once it was clear there were hundreds of students wearing them," she said, "that was no longer a problem."
The shirts became a must-have.
The friends solicited donations from student groups on campus. They raised $7,200 to pay for the shirts.
Spring classes are over, but the group has contacted college students across North Carolina to suggest similar T-shirt giveaways in the fall. N.C. State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. Central University and Guilford College have expressed interest.
The "fine by me" movement at Duke hasn't been without controversy, though. A group of feminists said the message was troubling. "Perhaps we should invest in a 'It is not my right to authorize your sexuality' shirt," they wrote in an e-mail message.
Abigail Weliver, a senior who stopped by the shirt booth last week, doesn't see it that way.
"I don't think it's necessarily validation," she said. "It's more a sign of solidarity and support and friendship."
Staff writer Jane Stancill can be reached at 956-2464 or janes@newsobserver.com.
Intelligent people can have rational discourse. That's how you learn. And, likely, how they became intelligent.
A wise man knows when to pick his battles.
How about the verse that follows it?
GAY? And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. I Corinthians 6:11
Around about that time, I heard that some rival fans (UK maybe?) made up some T-shirts that said, "Duke sucks, but Laettner Swallows."
I don't know -- I wouldn't be surprised to see such shirts come from Carolina Fever, at least back before they kicked out all the people who actually had Carolina Fever.
Of course, I remember the running joke for a while had something to do with Christian Laettner and a lot of bump-n-grind in the low post...
MD
I find this truly offensive. It should read "Gay? The Wages of Sin is Death."
Should that not be re-corrected to be grammertrically more correcter?
"Two Wage Sin is Death!"
"All Your Death Are Below Two Us" ?
"Two Wedged Sin Are Death Between Us."
"Sin is a Two-Wedged Sword!"
straightpridewear.com has some really great products
and so does straightandproud.com
"Gay? Find a boy* for me!
* Boy in the sense of 'boys of summer' of course. Heavens to Betsy, I would never ever suggest there's an association between homosexuality and pederasty!
Why doesn't anyone ever talk about how filthy and nasty and perverted homosexuals are, especially the males?"
...to be attracted to another man's anus is truly sick.
Are you kidding? It's Duke! Every student there pays over $30,000/yr for tuition and fees. They have money coming out their @$$es.
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