The upcoming Gay Pride Week at the University of Utah will be without the posters organizers commissioned to advertise events during the weeklong celebration due to a disagreement surrounding the nature of the photographs being used.
Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center intern Bonnie Owens had spent hours photographing and laying out the photos she took to use on the posters. In the end she chose to use five photographs featuring students in sexually suggestive poses as the backdrop for the posters.
When Owens presented her posters to Cathy Martinez the director of the LGBT Resource Center she rejected all but one of them. Martinez then approached Kari Ellingson, associate vice president for student affairs and together they decided to reject all five of the posters.
Ellingson told the Daily Utah Chronicle that “When Cathy and I talked about this, we thought it would be important to break stereotypes that being queer is just about sex,” and that “The pictures would take away from all the other events going on that week.”
She went on further to say that the posters could hamper the purpose of Pride Week. (Gay people are normal and it isn’t about sex).
For Kevin Ingraham co-president of the Queer Student Union the decision made him feel that he was essentially being told that as an individual he was deemed inappropriate and obscene.
Yet the decision was not due to any desire to censor the gay community on campus or to belittle the worth of gay students on campus. After all Martinez is a world renowned therapist in treating transgender clients and came to the University to “educate the public about the issues facing young LGBT people.” She is very gay friendly to say the least.
It is because of this gay friendly attitude that the posters were rejected. By playing down the sexuality aspect of the movement Martinez and Ellingson are trying to paint a softer image of gay students and to try and convince the public that it isn’t all about sex when that is the main component of their identity.
The QSU should be thanking the administration for banning the posters instead of criticizing them. In the end it will help their cause while traditional family values and morals take another slap in the face.
Don Irvine is the Chairman of Accuracy in Media.
