Joanna James /04
Deconstructing Homecoming /13 PLUS
The Weekly Student Magazine of the University of Minnesota
MN Candidate Guide / Nat’l Coming Out Week volume 5 / issue 9 /1-7 November 2006
Editorial/ Editor-in-Chief Jenny Odegard
Managing Editor Eric Price
Athletics Editor Craig Rentmeester
Campus Editor Sarah Howard
Literary Editor Jacob Duellman
Sound & Vision Editor Kristen Mueller
Voices Editor Cole Dennis
Editorial Assistants Alyssa Cogan, Dan Olmschenk, Lyndsey Danberry
Senior Staff Writers Elizabeth Autwes, Rachel Drewelow
PRODUCTION/ Production Manager Jeremy Sengly
Art Director Sam Soule
Photography Editor Ethan Stark
Web Editor Luke Preiner
Copy Editors Kelly Frush, Erin Lavigne, Rachel Levitt, Tammy Quan, Morgon Mae Schultz
Graphic Designers Dave Hagen, Eric Price, Becki Schwartz, Jeremy Sengly, Krista Spinti
BUSINESS/ Business Manager Angela Damiani
Office Manager Elizabeth Keely Shaller
Advertising Executive Now hiring!
Public Relations Director Cassie Benson
Advertising Intern Tyler Jones
Public Relations Interns Marlys Huismann, Alison Traxler, Julie Veternick
THIS ISSUE/ Cover Artist Brennan Vance Illustrators Dave Hagen, Aaron Ridgeway, Jeremy Sengly, Sam Soule, Ethan Stark
Contributing Writers Elizabeth Aulwes, David Dipasquale, Rachel Drewelow, Kelly Gulbrandson, Kat Hargreaves, Sarah Howard, Mary Kettl, Kristen Mueller, Nattie Olson, Ian Power, Eric Price, Andrea Vargo, Alice Vislova
Photographers Denise Rath, Chris Roberts
Š2006 The Wake Student Magazine. All rights reserved. Established in 2002, The Wake is a weekly independent magazine produced by and for the students of the University of Minnesota. The Wake is a registered student organization.
The Wake Student Magazine 1313 5th St. SE Minneapolis, MN 55414 (612) 379-5952 • www.wakemag.org The Wake was founded by Chris Ruen and James DeLong.
Candidate Overview page 10
This seems to be the time of year that brings out the worst in everyone. The frigidity of winter has arrived, students are failing midterms, the white-capped, less sensible among us are getting arrested in Madison (still! It’s Wisconsin, people!), politicians are taking last-ditch pre-election jabs at one another, and now Rush Limbaugh is … mocking Parkinson’s victims? Are you kidding me? I realize that Limbaugh’s a pretty easy target, but let’s be fair—so are the disabled. And really, Michael J. Fox? I’m willing to overlook Spin City. Even Limbaugh shouldn’t be heartless enough to hate Marty McFly. If that role didn’t earn Fox a place among this generation’s greatest actors, maybe our pre-winter scorn for the world is justified after all. All that said, our obligatory Michael J. Fox drinking game is on page 19.
November 7th is fast approaching and with it come a slew of candidates that—let’s be honest—you haven’t even heard of before. Be prepared before you hit the polls with our guide to Minnesota’s potential future.
SOUND & VISION/04 ATHLETICS/09 VOICES/10 CAMPUS/12 LITERARY/14 PHOTOGRAPHY/18 BASTARD/19
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By Ian Power With more talent in her little finger than most porn stars have in their entire phallus, the beautiful JoAnna James combines strong guitar skills with a voice that could make Donald Rumsfeld weep for forgiveness. The St. Paul native, blues/folk singer has been striking the heartstrings of audiences around the Twin Cities last month before leaving for a New York gig. But before fleeing Minnesota, The Wake had the utter joy of speaking with James for 10 minutes on an otherwise gloomy Monday night. The Wake: OK, so I am going to say you get four musical influences. I don’t know why, but lets go with four. JoAnna James: Four, huh… OK: Jeff Buckley, Patsy Cline, Mahalia Jackson and Lucinda Williams.
JoAnna James: Acoustic. (Answered in rapid fire.) The Wake: Good answer. So how long have you been in music?
JoAnna James: No, I travel. I’ve been out on the road more than I’ve been at home this year. Spent most of the time out east, spent some time in the Midwest. Louisville, St Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburg…”
JoAnna James: Well I’ve been playing, I’ve been singing, for 11 years.
The Wake: As far as a backup band goes, how does that work?
The Wake: Has it always been the kind of bluesy folksy stuff that you do now? Or were there other phases?
JoAnna James: I do all the touring stuff solo. When I’m in town there is a cast of talented people that I can call and have sit in for certain gigs.
JoAnna James: It’s been mostly blues acoustic stuff, but I’ve definitely gone through phases. I went through the looping phase and stuff. Yeah I tried looping… The Wake: Just didn’t like it?
The Wake: Howlin’ Wolf or Elmore James? JoAnna James: Elmore James
JoAnna James: No, well… I would go and see someone like Andrew Bird play, and just master the looping.
The Wake: R.L. Burnside acoustic or R.L. Burnside electric?
The Wake: Yeah (dreamy sigh). So do you mostly just tour around the Twin Cities?
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The Wake: Anything else you want to say? Aspirations? JoAnna James: I guess the only thing I can think of to say is that we are really lucky to have a vibrant musical community, it’s really supportive with a lot of really talented people. It’s had a big impact on me as a person and a musician. joannajames.com
\ Sound & Vision
Lost and Found By Kristen Mueller
courtesy of fiftyfivehundred.org
In slouching checkered pants, two lengthy gold chains (one ending in a giant ampersand), and a plain cotton tee, Davy Rothbart looks like he may spout rhymes at any second. Instead, he picks through a stack of crumpled paper and recites a letter to Continental Airlines from passenger 29 E—the tortured soul whose seat is at arms’ length from the plane’s bathroom door, and who continually finds his fellow travelers encroaching on his spot as they wait for the loo.
Food: $500. Liquor: $600. Laundry: $30. Crack: $600. Attorney: $250.
“Asses fit into my personal space like a pornographic jigsaw puzzle,” 29 E rants. “The next ass that touches my shoulder will be the last… I just heard a man groan in there. This sucks.”
“When I get bad grades, I start to turn blue. That’s when I like to eat something—like you.”
Earlier, Rothbart read from a boy’s small diary. Inside were ramblings on school, teachers and a four-step plan for destroying his brother, Matt. Step one: Wait until he’s asleep. Step two: Make sure he’s asleep. Step three: Put hand in water. Step four: Total humiliation. These are just two of the thousands of personal notes, e-mails, pictures and signs left lingering in high school hallways or forgotten in bowling alleys that people collect and mail to Rothbart, who compiles the most compelling—and hilarious—submissions into Found, a series of ingeniously simplistic books and magazines. Last month, Rothbart stood before a crowd packed onto metal folding chairs and pressed against the walls of the Creative Electric Studios’ small Northeast Minneapolis gallery to read (and sometimes dramatically reenact) his favorite finds, including a typed note titled “Budget List.” After logging typical expenses, like rent and cable, the note continues:
Then there’s a handwritten letter found by a high school janitor, which looks torn from a Five Star notebook. The rumpled paper is a correspondence between two girls, distinguished by different colored pen ink, which Rothbart articulates with the emotion of two Hollywood actresses duking it out for an Oscar.
“Fuck you bitch. Give me my pen back.” “Yo mama a bitch.” “Trash-whore-ho. You think you the shit but you ain’t nothing lame ass.” “Don’t play with me, because when you play with me, you play with fire.” The note, probably slipped slyly across desks during class, leaves one girl seemingly near tears, and the other consoling her. “See you later!” it happily ends.
of a Nick Lachey/Jessica Simpson duet—before they split. But the night’s real treat occurred when Rothbart grabbed a stack of unopened envelopes, all Found submissions, except for one student loan bill, and passed them out with all the zeal of a proud U.S. postal service worker doling out Christmas cards. “I want to give you a sense of what I experience every single week,” Rothbart explained, before the crowd dug into mail sent from as far as Billings, Montana, and as close as Minneapolis. Gleefully tearing into my prize, I find a 3-by-5 inch photo of five white goats on a farm, discovered in the self-help section of a thrift store, inside a book titled “Building a Marriage.” “Did the goats live happily ever after?” the finder questions. Someone else unwrapped a poem scrawled on the back of a student loan service center envelope (though not Rothbart’s). “When I get bad grades, I start to turn blue. That’s when I like to eat something—like you… Filipino pastries, filled with some sweet cheese… You’re curious. You make me dream.” Curious, indeed.
Found is a family business. Submissions of found items are actually mailed to Rothbart’s mom’s house, and his brother “Popcorn” Pete writes songs inspired by the finds, including “The Booty Don’t Stop Girl,” based on a mixtape that a kid named Nigel found while walking home from his bus stop. The cassette’s title is “Booty Songs,” and its content, the brothers explain, is “dick-donkulous.”
Found can be purchased at area bookstores or online at foundmagazine. com.
Pete’s rendition of the mix-tape’s opening track, which begins: “Damn. The booty don’t stop girl,” and says little else for the next few minutes, is crooned in a boy-band worthy harmony, softly-and-slowly, with all the emotion
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Sound & Vision/
ethan stark
YouTube Unfiltered By Alice Vislova To emo 13-year-old girls with pouty lips and trashy boys with baseball caps and peach fuzz, Oct. 9 brought shocking news: a video released on YouTube was so outrageous that it sparked (to date) 1,983,912 views, 7,211 comments, 81 video responses and a collective gasp so heavy that it may have temporarily shifted the orbit of the earth. The reason? Former owners of the Internet sensation, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, cheerfully announced to their viewers that they had sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion. YouTube, a website that allows users to freely share video clips using Adobe Flash technology, has for some time now provided college students with a much-needed distraction, and for tortured souls, an endless portal to broadcast their insecurities. News of the purchase should not have come as a surprise, especially in the wake of MySpace’s recent sale to News Corporation for a measly $580 million. However, it is now difficult to predict the future of YouTube. Be it the end of the site as we know it, or a bright new beginning, the present crossroads presents an unparalleled opportunity to commemorate YouTube in all of its glory—and lack thereof. This is the time to consider the broad categories of content, and to remember countless minutes spent watching a guy get kicked in the balls repeatedly, instead of studying, doing homework, or perhaps even writing an article for The Wake. This brings me to the most useful, but perhaps most dull category of content on YouTube—episode clips and music videos. Miss the latest Lost or Grey’s Anatomy? Have no fear, YouTube is here! Can’t get enough of Christina Aguilera’s newest rump-shaking music video? YouTube’s got
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your back. To make a long story short – YouTube will rock your cable-free world. The site also has stockpiles of “humorous” clips, and some of them are actually funny. Whether it’s a scene from World of Warcraft set to music, or a clip of Stephen Colbert debating the existence of God, you’re sure to find something to rev your engine. One commonly featured humorist is the unapologetic comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as Ali G, Borat or Bruno. If you have never had the opportunity to hear Borat explain how his sister is the “number two or three best prostitute in the country of Kazakhstan,” I would encourage you to change that unfortunate state of events as soon as possible. Another YouTube favorite of mine is a cartoon entitled “George Washington.” It claims the first president was “twelvestories tall” and “made of radiation.” Historically accurate? No. Thoroughly enjoyable? Yes.
Whether it’s a scene from World of Warcraft set to music, or a clip of Stephen Colbert debating the existence of God, you’re sure to find something to rev your engine. To some, the heart and soul of YouTube is video-blogging, or “vlogging,” a delicious mix of bad accents, kiddy porn and horrible acne that seems to be not just a hobby but a way of life. Inside this not-so-secret little world, reputations are staked, hopes dashed, loyalties built and torn
apart. One famous scandal, I quickly discovered, was that of “lonelygirl15.” Apparently, lonelygirl15 was a muchloved vlogger until announcing that she was actually a working 19-year-old actress, not the 16-year-old amateur she was pretending to be. Lonelygirl15’s betrayal made an even bigger splash in the cyber-ocean than Chad and Steve’s sale announcement did—and believe me, that is quite an achievement. Before diving into this sub-set of Internet users, be warned: browsing the vlogs on YouTube is like delving into the rabbit hole: the deeper you go, the more there is to discover about this slightly worrisome but very intriguing dimension. Several more YouTube categories worth mentioning include banned Ikea commercials, unconvincing video evidence of government cover-ups, and home video bloopers set to catchy music. So what is to be the fate of all this valuable footage? For now, all we can do is pray that Google will continue to provide us with the same quality entertainment that we have grown to depend upon. With that said, I’ll leave you to watch a video of some guy running around and yelling with a bag over his head.
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Sound & Vision/
Review
Shortbus By Mary Kettl
Sex—rather startling, graphic, athletic sex—is one of the framing activities of Shortbus, but isn’t really what the movie is about. You don’t have to pay very close attention to realize that John Cameron Mitchell’s slightly surrealistic film is actually about the same old themes that pop up in literature everywhere: love, acceptance, and finding yourself. Which is not to say that Shortbus doesn’t go after these themes in a funny and surprisingly tender way. The plot intertwines the lives of three couples: Jamie and James (played by PJ DeBoy and Paul Dawson), gay men who are handsome and sweet, even though James is deeply depressed; Sophia and Rob (Sook-Yin Lee and Raphael Barker), a married couple dealing with the irony that, although she is a couples’ therapist, Sophia has never had an orgasm; and Severin (Lindsay Beamish), a punky dominatrix, and her idiot teenage “john.” With characters like that populating and copulating across the screen, you’re tempted either to walk out or stick around and see what happens. Stick around. The characters soon connect at a place called Shortbus, a fictional salon/sex club in New York. It’s hard to figure out exactly what this place is—it holds
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courtesy of shortbusthemovie.com
rooms for drinking cocktails and rooms filled with people on mattresses having Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Sex. There are quiet nooks where characters visit and have heart to heart conversations, and sometimes there’s a band playing mellow music. There are strange men in strange costumes and a room full of friendly lesbians willing to chat with Sophia about their orgasms. Shortbus the place is interesting and awkward and funny and uncomfortable, all at the same time.
There are genuinely uncomfortable moments—watching attempted orgasms and an attempted suicide seems invasive, and you want to look away And so is the movie. Mitchell did an open casting call and invited the actors to help develop scenes and scripts, which gives the movie a slightly unpolished quality, which actually adds to the realism of the characters, even while the plot takes absurdly unrealistic turns. The sex is real, and there is a lot of it, but it’s not terribly erotic, which makes you remember that real sex is often awkward and
unrehearsed. There are genuinely uncomfortable moments—watching attempted orgasms and an attempted suicide seems invasive, and you want to look away—but then the bus turns a corner, and through more magic realism in plot, everyone ends up safe and accepted. Shortbus the salon, in a lovely bit of candlelit footage, becomes an intimate concert space, where the gay host sings a soaring cabaret number, accompanied by the friendly lesbians, who now play classical violin. The song rises into an anthem, and everyone feels better. It’s hard to know who to go see Shortbus with, and not just because it could be embarrassing to watch all that sex with someone. But it’s the humor and sadness and tenderness that grab you and make you think. Shortbus brings up genuine feelings that you might have to talk about— and that could be really embarrassing.
\ Athletics
Kickin’ Ass and Takin’ Names The Wake talks about Gopher wrestling By Ian Power Break out the spandex and get ready for a team of sweaty men. As autumn picks up, and we reach the midpoint of fall semester, wrestling season is quickly approaching. Nov. 11 marks the first Gopher wrestling meet — The Bison Open. This event may not seem too important to all you fair weather fans out there, but we, at The Wake, recognize that the University of Minnesota wrestling team is “kind of a big deal.” According to preseason polls, the team is ranked No. 1 in the nation right now, after finishing second at the NCAA championships last year. Gopher wrestler Cole Konrad is the NCAA heavyweight champion, Mack Reiter finished fourth and Dustin Schlatter became the first freshman wrestler in school history to win a NCAA individual title. The Wake had the chance to speak with Reiter about the upcoming season. The Wake: So you guys have recently been ranked as the number one NCAA wrestling team in the nation. How has that affected what is going on for everyone? Reiter: It’s a different attitude that we have to take into the season, my freshman and sophomore year, we weren’t even ranked fifth in the country. Everyone is taking it differently. The coaches and ev-
erybody are taking things a little bit more seriously. The Wake: You took fourth at the NCAA championships last year. Has that affected you personally at all? Reiter: Yeah, it did because, as a freshman I finished fourth, so I took it as that I didn’t improve any. It’s almost like a slap in the face to me because I didn’t do what I needed to do, so I’m taking that next step this year to getting on top of the podium. The Wake: What about your rivals, Oklahoma State? Have you got anything to say about that?
According to preseason polls, the team is ranked No. 1 in the nation right now, after finishing second at the NCAA championships last year. Reiter: It’s exciting to wrestle them. We met a couple of times last year in the national championships, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we met a few times this year. I like those sorts of duels; they are great for us to have. I think it’s going to be a similar situation with Iowa this year. It’s great for us, and I think it’s great for them too. The Wake: Your season starts on Nov. 11 with The Bison Open. How have you been preparing for that? Reiter: We spend a lot of time with independent coaches; one coach will work with two or three guys just trying to start out right to start winning early. But we’re not trying to peak at The Bison Open. We want to use it as a warm up. A lot of guys’ bodies aren’t going to be where they want them to be. It’s a step in a long process.
photos courtesy of umn wrestling team
The wrestling team opens their season Nov. 11 but won’t have their first home meet until Dec. 6 when they take on Oklahoma State, currently ranked number two in the nation, at the Sports Pavilion. Tickets for Gopher Wrestling are available through www.gophersports.com.
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traffic congestion and ensuring the federal government plays a limited role in education. Experience: U.S. House of Representatives, 20002002 (Second District) and2002-present (redrawn Sixth District) Hometown: Benson, Minn Family: wife Debbie and four children Brought: The “because they’re true” commercial in which an elderly woman approaches Kennedy innocently reading the newspaper on a park bench and chastises him for “picking on Amy Klobuchar.” She asks him why he “said all those things” and he responds “because they’re true.” It might be the cheesiest political ad ever aired. Quote: The former Boy Scout’s website says: “Because we live in America, Mark married the girl of his dreams (a farmer’s daughter he met in 4-H)” and they lived happily ever after...
Candidate: Mark Kennedy Priorities: Winning the War on Terror, reducing
Republican
eral budget, energy independence Experience: none, pretty much. Just Kidding, people. He’s the former Executive Director of Access Television, obviously. Hometown: Rothsay, Minn. Family: wife Carolyn Interestingly: Fitzgerald stars in several nonpornographic videos on YouTube Quote: On the Iraq war he says “it’s time to get out of Iraq now. Congress has abdicated its responsibility of oversight while cost overruns and emergency funding have masked the true cost.”
Candidate: Robert Fitzgerald Top: Reducing the national debt, balancing the fed-
Independence
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Aul h t abe Eliz
education and holding Washington accountable for its actions. Experience: Hennepin County Attorney, 1998present Hometown: Plymouth, Minn. Family: husband John, daughter Abigail Claim to Fame: The valedictorian of her high school class, she’s the daughter of former Star Tribune sportswriter and columnist Jim Klobuchar. Quote : Following the blogger-“finds”-Kennedy-adand-sends-it-to-the-Klobuchar-camp debacle, Klobuchar said “what happened here was wrong. ... Some people may believe that this happens on campaigns all the time, but it is not acceptable on our campaign.”
Candidate: Amy Klobuchar Priorities: Reforming healthcare, supporting
Democratic-Farmer-Labor
tes a d i nd a c he . 7! t n p o g Nov u y d Stu re votin befo we s
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to higher education, reliable transportation options and addressing the environment and energy concerns through a reduction in foreign dependence on oil Experience: former Minneapolis Public Schools superintendent Hometown: Faribault, Minn. Family: wife Karla and two daughters Emily and Julia Avoids: “The 5 G’s.” Meaning, he doesn’t use guns, gays, gynecology, gaming and gladiators, by which he means sports stadiums, in politics because he considers them “wedge issues.” Quote: On the way his approach to public safety differs from Pawlenty’s: “I think calling people names and taking them out in public is not the way you get this stuff done.” Hutchinson promotes collaborations between state and local governments as the best way to fight crime. Also says, “I’d be two or three orders of magnitude less divisive” than Pawlenty or Hatch.
safety
to healthcare and education Experience: Minnesota Attorney General, 1998present, Minnesota DFL party chair,1980-1983 Hometown: Duluth, Minn. Family: wife Patti and three daughters Katharine, Elizabeth and Anne Pets: Bella and Laddy, both golden retrievers, Buffy, a cocker spaniel, and Nico, a formerly homeless cat. Quote: From a speech at a Hindu Temple last spring: “Minnesota is becoming an increasingly diverse state and with change comes choices. We can embrace diversity and the added richness that diversity brings to our communities, or we can use resentment and fear to react in a destructive manner.” The choice is yours...
Candidate: Mike Hatch Priorities: Providing the middle class better access
the Jewish faith around the world will commence the observance of Rosh Hashanah, a sacred holiday which marks the beginning of a New Year, 5767, by solemnly taking stock of the year past, acknowledging their mistakes and planning changes to make the new year a better, more fulfilling and joyous one. I can think of no more appropriate frame of mind for any of us to embrace in this final month of the secular political year.”
Quote: “At sunset today (September 22) those of
and the United States’ first Muslim Congressperson
Would be: Minnesota’s first black Congressperson
healthcare, immediate withdrawal from Iraq, the elimination of poverty (all very modest goals.) Experience: Minnesota House of Representatives, 2002-present Hometown: Detroit, Michigan. Ellison moved to Minnesota in 1987. Family: wife Kim and four children Amirah, Jeremiah, Elijah and Isaiah
Candidate: Keith Ellison Priorities: Instituting a system of universal
photo credits: Amy Klobuchar courtesy of AmyKlobuchar.com/ Keith ellison Courtesy of keithellison.org/ Mark Kennedy courtesy of markkennedy06.com/ mike hatch courtesy of hatch2003.org/ peter hutchinson courtesy of teammn.com/ robert fitzgerald courtesy of flickr.com/ tammy lee courtesy of flickr.com/ tim pawlenty courtesy of arikah.net
of small government over” in an interview with the Star Tribune. “Government has to be more proactive, more aggressive,” he went on. Pawlenty later claimed he was quoting New York Times columnist David Brooks and said that he meant he actually just wants to make government more effective. Right.
Favorite Sport: Hockey Quote: Earlier this year Pawlenty declared, “the era
Mara
Experience: Minnesota Governor, 2002-present Hometown: South Saint Paul, Minn. Family: wife Mary and two daughters Anna and
Candidate: Peter Hutchinson Priorities: Affordable healthcare, easier access
education, healthcare access Experience: Hubert H. “Skip” Humphrey’s communications director, corporate affairs, Vice President of The Mark Travel Corp. Hometown: Alexandria, Minn. Family: daughter Lissa Aired: Commercials in which she shreds paper. It’s really exciting stuff. Quote: In a debate earlier this year, Lee said “we’re going to see a lot more bad stuff and mudslinging come out during this campaign. I respect the fact that Keith said he’s running his own campaign and it’s going to be about the issues. I think Alan and the Republican Party are running his campaign. They’re going to have a very different style and approach and I’m running my own campaign. I will contrast my positions with the other candidates in this race.”
Candidate: Tammy Lee Priorities: Balancing the federal budget, public
Candidate: Tim Pawlenty Priorities: Economic growth, education and public
family values and reform healthcare Experience: Senior lecturer in Carlson Hometown: Minneapolis Family: son Louis Wrote: “Empower Your Self: A Framework for Personal Success” Pets: Attention-whoring Shetland sheepdog puppy named Blaze Quote: “This district is a bastion of diversity,” Fine told the Southwest Journal. And he says “have a Fine day!”
Candidate: Alan Fine Top Priorities: Support economic growth, promote
Campus/
“QueerSpawn” Marches On Keynote speaker Abigail Garner teaches people about families like her’s during National Coming Out Week BY rachel drewelow Nineteen years ago, half a million people marched in Washington, D.C. to fight for gay and lesbian rights. Celebrating that day and continuing the fight for rights and awareness, the University’s Queer Student Cultural Center (QSCC) holds National Coming Out Week events each October. This fall, the QSCC’s keynote speaker asked supporters not to forget the children of gay and lesbian couples – because they too are marching through the homophobic world. “QueerSpawn,” is what keynote speaker Abigail Garner calls herself. The daughter of a gay father and a straight mother, Garner is a professional advocate for not only the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender (GLBT) community, but also for their children. There is no exact figure for the number of children who have grown up in GLBT families over the past two decades, but estimates vary from one million to 16 million.
“These hot button debates about what types of families will be recognized rage on, with little regard to the reality that kids are already in these families,” explains Garner. Today’s fiery political questions of gay and lesbian marriage and GLBT parenting force the children who are already in these families under a public microscope, argues Garner. The parents, fighting their own battles, who focus on teaching their children how to deal with discrimination they may face often do not realize the extra pressures their children cope with, she says. Garner explains that when she was a child, “I knew that I had power, power to change people’s minds… their perceptions about gay people in general.” She says that by displaying herself as a perfect and healthy child she could become a “testament to gay parenting.” On the other hand, when children like her make normal mistakes, “the default blame for anything short of perfectionism becomes the sexuality of their parents,” Garner explains.
“I knew that I had power, power to change people’s minds… their perceptions about gay people in general.”
“We’re constantly trying to bring in diverse people, to represent a diverse community,” says QSCC Co-Chair Vincent Staupe, a senior journalism and mass communication major, of bringing in Garner. She spoke about issues that the rest of the week’s events did not address, Staupe explains.
“For a lot of kids that realization puts tremendous pressure on them,” Garner explains, “If children are going to be visible, they have to be perfect. That’s what they internalize.” Garner interviewed many adult children and young children of homosexual parents for her book Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell it Like it Is. “Children know that we’re in this powerful position, because we are symbols of something much bigger,” she says.
Children with one or two GLBT parents face unique and demanding pressures, Garner explains. This is not because GLBT parents are any less fit than straight parents to raise children, but because of the current heated political dispute as to whether their families are “valid,” she says.
If a child of GLBT parents does something like skip class or tries drugs it is blamed on their unfit parents, Garner contends. But, when their classmates (kids with straight parents) do the same things, those things are brushed off as common mistakes teenagers make.
Naturally, these children feel pressure to legitimize their families and thus to refute the two widespread myths about children of gay and lesbian parents - that they too will be homosexual or that they will be damaged in some way, Garner says.
Ironically, if children of GLBT families grow up to identify as GLBT themselves, they are often reluctant to come out to even their parents because they do not want to confirm the myth that GLBT couples reproduce GLBT children, Garner
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says. No studies have shown that GLBT parents are any more likely to produce GLBT children than straight parents, she points out. Aside from facing discrimination and pressure to display public perfectionism, children in these families also live with a lack of laws protecting them, Garner argues. Because their parents are not always legally recognized as parents, or this status changes across state lines, children face risks in situations where a “legal parent” needs to be present, Garner says. Both the GLBTA (A is for Ally) and the anti-gay marriage/adoption crowd contribute to the negative forces these children face, explains Garner. While the far right condemns the parents and makes claims that the children are unhealthy, the left fights back boasting the flawlessness of their children. Both are unwise moves, Garner warns. “What it’s really like for kids to grow up with GLBT parents is much more complex than what either side of the rhetoric claims.” “I hope that with more honest conversations, the children in these families will
someday have the rights that children in other families have, including the luxury to be as dysfunctional and complex as any other family, without worrying about the backlash of prejudice,” Garner says. The QSCC hosted a variety of events in the week to encourage such honest conversations about GLBT issues, Staupe says. Luncheons, outings, a rally complete with a literal “Coming Out Door,” and an annual drag show were very successful, says Staupe. Despite rainy weather, over 200 students showed up to the rally, where they picked up t-shirts donning the words “gay,” “bisexual,” “lesbian,” “transsexual,” “ally,” or “me.” “The main point of the week for us is to raise awareness of GLBT issues,” Staupe explains. “We just want to let people know that we’re here. We’re [QSCC] at 205 Coffman Memorial Union, and we’re here for the students.” More about Abigail Garner’s advocacy and research can be found at www.familieslikemine.com.
Correction In an article printed Wednesday, October 25th, it was written that it required a 3.2 grade point average to be considered as an orientation leader. The correct GPA is 2.3 in order to apply.
\ Campus
We Have a Parade? The Wake finds answers to the difficult questions you have about Homecoming BY kelly gulbrandson I remember my first experience with Homecoming. Excited to be at such a massive university, I was ready to participate. But the events were geared toward the Greek system, making it difficult and awkward to fully enjoy Homecoming as a newcomer and a commuter student. Without a sorority or residence hall to lead the way towards activities, I was without direction. I don’t remember a lot about that fall, but I do remember the Homecoming parade that went down University Ave. It was chilly and was raining on and off throughout the morning, and I found a spot in the heart of frat row. A few houses were elaborately decorated with facades in front of the house held up by scaffolding to go along with the year’s theme. As the floats went by, people gave handouts to the noisier members of the crowd. As I was standing in front of the houses, I remember thinking about how long the people had been drunk and if they even slept at all the night before because it was early in the morning and I was sure the people celebrating were wasted. I ended up having a good time at the parade and at the football game afterwards even though I was not as drunk as the other people and the weather sucked. Homecoming at the University of Minnesota has been celebrated since 1914, and the goal is to promote school spirit and the energy of maroon and gold. It is a week full of events that are coordinated by the Homecoming Committee which consists of 11 students and two faculty members. Even though the main groups that participate in the events are residence halls and members of the Greek system (most events are team events), there are things that any student can participate in or watch. The most popular events are the Homecoming parade on Saturday along University Avenue and the football game afterwards. This year, the Gophers will take on Indiana at 11 a.m. Alissa Pepelnjak, the Campus Wide Activities Co-Coordinator, says that she wants to include commuter students in Homecoming. In putting up flyers and attending
Dave Hagen
events for transfer and commuter students, she hopes to encourage their participation. Pepelnjak believes that Homecoming is important for the U. “It’s a great time to get everyone involved to celebrate the tradition of the U and spirit of the maroon and gold. It’s also a lot of fun,” Pepelnjak says.
Fraternities and sororities pair together each year to go to the events. “Our theme for our pairing is Blazing Saddles,” Bundul says and adds that his fraternity’s shirts and floats are “sweet.” Sororities and fraternities are involved in many things during Homecoming week and it’s no exception this year for “The Wild, Wild Midwest,” theme. This year’s activities include the lip sync competition, barbecues, flag football, water polo, the
parade and more. One of the sororities on campus that gets involved in homecoming is Alpha Chi Omega. They are involved in all of the activities this year. Annette Reichkitzer, philanthropy chair for Alpha Chi Omega, says that her sorority either is involved in or watches the events to earn laching points, which are earned by sororities and fraternities. The amount of laching points depends on how well you do in an event and how much spirit you show for your group. The group with the most points by the end of the week is the winner, Reichkitzer says Delta Upsilon, a fraternity, is participating in lip sync, float/house front making, flag football, cheering and the new event, water polo. “We’re pretty pumped. Homecoming’s always sweet, especially for the Greeks, definitely the Greeks, it’s pretty much made for us,” says Ben Bundul, vice president of recruitment. Fraternities and sororities pair together each year to go to the events. “Our theme for our pairing is Blazing Saddles,” Bun-
dul says and adds that his fraternity’s shirts and floats are “sweet.” Sororities and fraternities also work together on projects that are not related to Homecoming. Alpha Chi Omega, Delta Upsilon and Phi Sigma Kappa are working together on a philanthropy project that is being hosted by Alpha Chi Omega, Reichkitzer says. This past year one sorority from the Panhellenic council, the governing body for sororities on campus, and one fraternity from the Inter-Fraternity council, the governing body for fraternities on campus, had a member volunteer each weekend feeding starving children. Working together makes volunteering more fun, Reichkitzer says. As long as there is a Homecoming at the U, sororities and fraternities will be involved in the activities, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get involved too. For a full schedule of events and information on how to participate, check out the Homecoming website: www.homecoming.umn.edu.
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Literary/
A Conversation About Laying Low in Tropical Hideouts By Kat Hargreaves
Literary Events Who: Ben Marcus; Heidi Julavits What: The authors/editors discuss recent works. When: Wednsday, Nov. 1st, 7:30 pm. Where: Sundin Music Hall. 1531 Hewitt Ave (Hamline University), FREE
“aside from his defective vision, he also had constipation” -musings on Love in the Time of Cholera
Who: Evelyn Klein What: The author reads from her poetry.
What he ends up doing, trying to communicate;
what he’s
When: Thursday, Nov. 2nd, 7 pm.
language, we
Where: The Loft Literary Center, FREE
are so numb to everything except for
Who: Bharati Mukherjee
last night
What: The author discusses American identity from a transnational American writer’s perspective.
trains un thawed and pushed into metal ground un
til a girl woke up heart in throat,
When: Friday, Nov. 3rd, 7:30 pm.
bombs exploding;
Where: McNamara Alumni Center (University of Minnesota), FREE
we don’t really notice it: dreams a convention.
Grow and damage; she got over it, soon a milky sky sweating
translucent and
Who: Laurel Poetry Collective What: Poets read their work.
unconsciously a rain, white, drives those rules we
When: Saturday, Nov. 4th, 2pm.
made in class:
Where: St. Paul Central Library, FREE
subject verb agreement.
Off the top of her head she thinks ‘comma, possessive’; a
What: Lecture on the crossover voting in African American senate elections.
man’s skin avoids the typical conventions of stereotypes. comment on itself.
Who: Hanes Walton
The prose will
When: Monday, Nov. 6th, 4 pm.
The kinds of
Where: Notle Hall (University of Minnesota), FREE
things we say, honestly, means writers have failed.
Who: Anders Nilsen
He once said everything we do
What: The comic book artist/writer discusses his work.
for granted, we
When: Monday, Nov. 6th, 6:30 pm.
may not be moved, illogical but
Where: MCAD Auditorium, 2501 Stevens Ave S, Mpls. FREE
we ignore that because that same day a
sidewalk outside, he is able
When: Tuesday, Nov. 7th, 2 pm. Where: University of Minnesota Bookstore, FREE
refresh itself: the same old kind of
disaster tale but
harder to follow; breaking my heart to find
14/1-7 November 2006
Who: Patricia Hampl What: The author discusses her writing.
to
make language
black man spit on the
what the premise was.
The Voices in my Head Demand Satisfaction! jduellman@wakemag.org
\ Literary
An Impression By David DiPasquale Turned on By the charge of each and every electric packet, winging their way from me to you and back again with blizzards and monsters and imagination and sailing and Freud. By the sight of your shy smile leaning over my Coffee countertop and the pair of trembling hands that made your tea and the pair of eyes that sparkled and waited, that watched the clock, until closing time came. By the long walk that zig-zagged in circles around that square mall for hours and collapsed nestling gently head to head and flowing, dripping conversation back and forth and drifting lazily until we took the long way back to a pair of cars in an empty mall parking garage and a 3 a.m. waltz. By the incredible sensation of warm hands and strong arms and soft lips wrapped one around the other, and we are beautiful statues, melting together in this cold air; and the flames above our heads continue to slowly burn as we are filled with the wholly unexpected blessing of these two lives, fixed together by the breaking dawn.
aaron ridgeway
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Voices/
Hookers Across America, Hear My Cry Rationality in a time of complacency. BY Nattie olson ed to them. Is it such a sin to just ask why every once in a while? The government, since it’s dressed up in shiny badges and looks really convincing in a lab coat, is pretty successful in getting people to ascribe to its laws. A lot of people love slapping that “GO ARMY” bumper sticker on their cars, or pretentiously bragging about how they’ve never done drugs. I’ve had one too many run-ins with police who obviously treat the black guy worse and I’ve read a bit too much about U.S. involvement in the Third World, so I don’t care what that badge says or who gave it to them. I’ll determine my own morality; thanks for the offer to do it for me, but in this case the government’s wrong again. My opinion on trading sex for money might be considered soulless, but if it’s consensual, if everybody’s 18 or older and nobody’s getting hurt, then my opinion doesn’t determine anybody’s morality but my own. To me, a real crime is something that causes pain and creates a victim, so consensual acts of free will, like prostitution, should not be treated the same as murder and robbery. Some might say that prostitution is criminal because Jesus and the Bible say so. Please.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never pay for sex; I have a hard time urinating next to a stranger. Even with the buffer urinal and several square feet of visual barrier, I’d probably vote Republican before letting someone I don’t know see me naked. With my OCD and crippling fear of germs, I hate myself enough as it is and I can’t imagine trying to fall asleep after paying somebody to pretend to find me attractive for a few minutes. But prostitution doesn’t deserve to be illegal. The government’s vice squads, which march around locking up consenting adults engaging in acts of free will, don’t deserve to have that power. Just because my overactive conscience curbs my personal behavior to a puritanical level doesn’t mean I have any say over what you do with your personal time. Because whatever two, three, hell, 10 people do behind closed doors, as long as all involved parties consent, as long as everybody is 18 or older, then it doesn’t really matter what happens. Because what they do with their bodies is their business. So what if money changes hands? Is that process really much different from the hoards of fake-ID carrying frat children who flock to Sally’s and buy drinks for one another? It is unreasonable that, in a country which is democratic, something can be perfectly legal in one part of the country, yet criminally punishable everywhere else? I don’t think Nev. is different from anywhere else. I’ll never understand these people who are so quick to align themselves with their leaders and the laws present-
16/1-7 November 2006
My opinion on trading sex for money might be considered soulless, but if it’s consensual, if everybody’s 18 or older and nobody’s getting hurt, then my opinion doesn’t determine anybody’s morality but my own. For one, Jesus is boring and you also can’t bring that leather-bound collection of fairy tales into political discussion as it turns out we don’t allow that here. Or maybe we just say we don’t. You can’t buy beer on Sun. in Minn. and two men can’t get married anywhere, but oh yeah, we have a separation of church and state. It’s just a coincidence that many of our laws are right in check with the Christian God, the most popular imaginary friend the American people have. Setting aside the One True Messiah for a moment, let’s use some simple logic here. Say two people make a porno movie. They’re paid to have sex on camera. Is that really much different from prostitution? Well they’re both paid in that situation, right. OK, so say some guy pays a woman for sex, only he films it, calls himself the director, producer and writer of the film and doesn’t take any money. Prostitution or porno? Let’s talk porn for a minute. The reason I don’t watch porn isn’t because it embarrasses or depresses me, I don’t watch porn because it’s the last place in America where
sam soule
racism is so easily accepted. You thought Hollywood was bad? On the lone occasion when I was conned into watching Howard Stern, a guest from the industry discussed how white female porn stars’ values (yes, they use the word “value”) actually depreciate after they have sex with a black actor on film. But yet again, what my conscience forces me to do or not do has no bearing on what other people do with their personal time and the government doesn’t deserve such credence either. Remember the ’70s when we legalized abortion? Justice Blackmun talked about how abortions were going to happen anyway, at least if they were legal the women who decided to have them would be safe and wouldn’t be forced to worry about what that coat hanger might do to them. So maybe legalizing something that our nation should respect as personal choice would ensure that prostitutes would have access to available methods of birth control and health care, and they wouldn’t have to worry about being beaten up by pimps and aggressive clients. If the settings were controlled and the transactions were regulated then maybe fewer people would be getting hurt. We could use that government presence and power to keep prostitutes safer and healthier, to encourage condom usage and require testing for STDs, rather than enforce government-sanctioned morality. I’m unsure if there exists an antithesis of xenophobia, but if there is one, I probably have it. Our currency, monuments, anthems and songs are all the same lie about how we’re free, free, free. That’s just something that looks nice because in truth The Man changes our personal decisions by deeming things illegal. It’s your body, do with it what you want. As long as you’re not imposing harm on my family or me and if everything’s consensual, then it’s not my issue, or anybody else’s, to condemn.
\ Voices Photo Poll
by Denise Rath
What are your homecoming plans?
What is Homecoming? What do people even do for Homecoming? I’m sure I’ll be studying the whole time anyways. LINSE LAHTI Senior
We plan on wandering around and catching fun as it hits us in the face! KIRBY MONTGOMERY Freshman Child psych / youth studies MELLISSA LEMKE Freshman
I’m going to wear a crown and sash to the game that say “Birthday Princess” because my birthday is the same day as the game. JANINE ABOUAISH Sophomore Biomedical Engineering
I am looking forward to getting up bright and early at 6 AM to go to marching band practice. RYAN DRISCOLL Sophomore B.I.S.
Violence in Schools No consistent trends, no end in sight and no answers BY sarah howard Five innocent girls dead. A small Amish town shaken and hurt. On Oct. 2, Carl Charles Roberts IV held 10 girls hostage at their schoolhouse and ended up wounding some and taking lives, as well as his own, for what seems to be no reason at all. As with all the other school shootings, this leaves communities all around the United States uneasy about school violence. It seems we only worry about it once it’s too late and the body count has been tallied. When it comes to murder, there are many categories: homicide, gang-related activities, hate crimes and school shootings among others. I consider school shootings and massacres to be different from any other types of murder. They have unique chilling components. They seem more malicious, more hate-filled and more out for some kind of revenge. They also seem to have no end in sight. As long as there are kids with pent up anger who hate school and themselves, school violence will be a never ending trend. Most of these murders come from nice normal families. There are some alcoholic parents and foster homes thrown in the bunch, but more often than not these students have two fairly stable parents, every opportunity in the world and don’t have a
They just want to kill as many people as possible for what seems like no good reason at all. disadvantaged youth. They are missing one thing though: self esteem, and that’s nothing original for a high schooler to be missing. What we are being told is that these pissed-off kids just can’t get enough attention from their parents, a common theme in most school shootings. Most attackers are lonely depressed outcasts who come from families of opportunistic nature but who have hit a rough patch. The parents have divorced, one parent has developed alcoholism and on and on. Despite what seems to be an okay or at least manageable situation, these kids have decided to take out their frustrations on their suburban communities. That’s right. This shit doesn’t happen in inner city schools, which are labeled as the location of frequent school violence. In the United States, most school violence, including everyday bullying and beatings, happens in inner city schools. This is not the case with school massacres, which occur in middle-class, white non-urban towns.
Despite the Secret Service’s attempts, there is no “profiling” of who would or would not shoot up a school. There is no one characteristic that the school shooters share. Some were loners while others were popular. Some had two parents; others were foster children. Some were depressed; others just had access to a gun. Research has found that it is almost guaranteed that these killers do not just “snap,” as had been previously assumed. They get the idea, get a weapon and start to plan. Another sick layer to this is that the murderers almost never have a victim in mind. They just want to kill as many people as possible for what seems like no good reason at all. If the student was bullied, they didn’t kill the person who made fun of them. At this point, it is said that they simply want to take as many people down as possible. The most famous of school shootings was of course Columbine. In Littleton, Colo., the school has been the face of school violence since that infamous Apr. 20 in 1999. It is argued that this is the most well-known shooting because of the extensive media coverage, the number of deaths and the long-term planning of the attack by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. But prior to this, school shootings date all the way back to 1927 with the worst school massacre in U.S. history in Bath, Mich., which resulted in 45 deaths by a school board member. The thing that seems most interesting to me is that these murderous rampages almost always end in the dramatic ending of the shooter killing themselves. Do these killers really need to kill others in their path of self-destruction? I guess they know that their two choices are to kill themselves or to spend life in prison. As obvious a statement as it may seem, I have to say it: high school can be hard with self-esteem issues, bullying and stress, but this is no excuse to kill someone. The thing that pisses me off the most is that after the shooting has happened, and if the attacker survives, they almost always plead insanity in court. While almost all who have survived their own rampage are serving a life sentence if not more, the fact that they have the audacity to blame their horrible acts on “insanity” seems so wrong and twisted. Nearly as wrong and twisted as killing innocent children as they attend school.
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Photography/
Chris Roberts
18/1-7 November 2006
ARBITRARY AWARDS Best shower: Golden shower
Best Christmas movie: Debbie Does Christmas
Worst sandwich: Shit sandwich
Honorable mention: A Muppet Christmas Carol
Honorable mention: Ham sandwich
Honorable mention: Carrie
Luckiest object: Rabbit’s foot
Best nut: Peanut (“Legume?” Jackass.)
Unluckiest object: Threelegged rabbit
Best houseplant: Venus flytrap Honorable mention: Pot
The first American chess tournament was held in New York in what year?