Soulforce Equality Ride 2008 is a tour through the country by 17 activists looking to promote gay and lesbian rights at conservative southern schools.

Seems harmless enough, unless you are a religious Southern school.

On Monday, Soulforce Equal Riders made an appearance at Columbia International University in Columbia, SC to help reform their ideas on homosexuality and change their ban on homosexuality on campus, as stated in the school’s handbook. CIU is a privately funded fundamentalist school that promotes Christian faith and values.

Prior to the arrival of the activist group, CIU issued a statement saying that the university would not allow Soulforce’s bus to enter the campus, though they did propose that Soulforce meet off-campus. Soulforce refused to do so.

Upon their arrival, Equal Riders were welcomed with police tape and barriers, secluding them to a limited area to talk to the students. Dialogue between the young activists and CIU students was monitored by school officials and faculty. The discussion was eventually broken up by police and Equal Riders were asked to leave the campus.

When a simple discussion about the rights of people on a college campus is seen as such a horrible thing and broken up so forcefully, it really makes a person think back to the days of civil rights marches and meetings. Have we really progressed so little after so long?

We all know that hooking up isn’t all rose petals and follow-up phone calls. In fact, more often than not, the morning can be excruciatingly awkward. Sometimes, that awkwardness follows you down your walk of shame, and lingers like a black cloud over your relationship history.

You might be able to laugh off some of these poor decisions, but in other cases, you might reap the consequences, especially if your fling affects the people around you. Here are some awkward hook up scenarios that you may just wish to avoid in the future.

1. Your Best Friend’s Brother.

Usually, you give your best friend all of the deets regarding your trysts, and she listens, and laughs, and offers advice when necessary. No can do when you’ve crossed the line into sibling snogging. Your best friend doesn’t want to picture her brother in any type of sexual situation. If the hook up turns into something more, congratulations, but you’re still not going to be able to share certain details, because the guy won’t want you gossiping to his sister, and your friend won’t want to hear it. Dating the brother might also strain your friendship, depending on whether your friend resents your decision. Read More »

Did you know Loveline was still on? Yeah, we didn’t either, until Lilo decided to call and use it to finally announce her relationship with Samantha Ronson. The two were chatting it up with the host (some imposter who was not Dr. Drew) when they casually mentioned that they have been together for a “very long time.”

The media has been buzzin’ about this relationship for-e-ver and no one knows quite what to believe. Especially a very opinionated CollegeCandy blogger who was sure this whole thing was a sham.

Well, according to the happy couple, it is not a sham, but that doesn’t mean everyone understands how this whole thing…works.

Read More »

For a college in stereotypical Smalltown USA, I always thought that good ol’ WAC was a good progressive college, accepting of just about anybody. True, I’m in the VAST black minority in my school, even if they’re attempting to up the number of enrolled black students. But no one really seemed to ever judge me (and if they did, they did an awfully good job at hiding it), and it’s part of why I love my campus.

But I’ve noticed something that has become so frequent that it happens at least twice a week. I don’t know if it’s because we have such a large freshman class that doesn’t know me as well as the rest of the upperclassmen, or if it’s something else, but while I’m walking to lunch, at a club meeting, or in a popular hang-out spot with my girlfriend, whether we’re just holding hands, play-flirting, or giving goodbye kisses, I’ve been catching several looks. And most of them are of utter confusion and/or disgust.

After well over a year of being with my girlfriend, it’s not exactly breaking news that we’re going out. We’ve gotten looks from some upperclassmen before, sure, but it was never so frequent or so extreme as it is now. And I’m certain that these looks aren’t being given to other heterosexual couples, or even other interracial couples (which, unless they are well-hidden, I have seen none of).

It’s bad enough that when I’m home, I can barely bring my girlfriend up in conversation without feeling awkward. But to be on campus, walking down the street and holding her hand and being gawked at like we’re some kind of traveling freak show? Read More »

Q: I’ve had boyfriend my entire life, but I can’t help feeling attracted to some of my straight girl friends. Am I bi?

A: My instinct is to answer your question with “Maybe. Who cares?” and leave it at that, but I’ll try to do my job and actually advise. That said, I can’t tell you whether or not you’re bi. I think it’s possible that you’re crushing on your female friends because it’s a safe way to explore same-sex attraction—since they’re your friends and they’re straight, the chance of a hookup happening is minute, meaning you can admire/lust from afar.

But I also don’t think a few same-sex crushes necessarily have to mean something, and I hope you don’t feel pressure to immediately define yourself as soon as you catch yourself staring at a chick with a great rack. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I did make a brief jaunt to the other side myself. It was fun, and that was that. When I told a few friends about my tryst, I got a range of responses: amused, disgusted, curious, and shocked. A lot of them asked the question I hadn’t even bothered to ask of myself: “Are you bi?”

The answer? No, not particularly. But who knows, maybe by next month I’ll be marching in gay pride parades wearing flannel and waving a rainbow flag. The point is, I wasn’t interested in dissecting What It Meant, not for me, and certainly not for the benefit of others. Read More »