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| Photos by BEN RUEHLMANN Tammy Dhority, Steve Cirrone and Jamie Lee Ormsby led the discussion held on Wednesday, October 15 in Eggleston Commons about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender issues. |
• Is it possible that your heterosexuality is just a phase you will grow out of?
This is a question often asked of homosexuals, but when turned around it sounds silly to ask a heterosexual. In celebration of National Coming Out Day on October 11, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Alliance (GLBA) hosted a week-long lecture series that included three movies with discussion, a panel discussion and a heterosexism workshop.
Monday, Oct. 13, the movie "But I'm a Cheerleader" was shown because it deals with gender roles imposed by society, according to Liz Ortiz, president of GLBA. The movie stars Natasha Lyonne as Megan, a cheerleading teenager with the captain of the football team as her boyfriend. Sounds "normal" enough except that she dislikes kissing him. Her parents suspect her of being a lesbian so they send her to True Directions where Mike (RuPaul) and Mary (Cathy Moriarty) work on “redirecting” her sexual preference. The movie's basic premise is, according to Ortiz, “if you do everything girls are supposed to do then you can't possibly be gay.”
• Did you have a bad experience with someone of the same sex that drove you to heterosexuality?
On Tuesday, a problem with the video prevented "Priest" from being shown. However, the lecturers scheduled for the evening, Rev. Marty Luna-Wolfe and Rev. Maria Luna-Wolfe, entertained questions and spoke about it. The movie is about a young priest who is torn between his faith in God and his secret life as a homosexual man. He questions his faith after hearing the confession of a young girl being molested by her father and being unable to help her because of the laws surrounding confessions. He questions how God would allow this to happen.
Rev. Marty, senior pastor at New Life Metropolitan Community Church of Hampton Roads, and Associate Pastor Rev. Maria at MCC discussed homosexuality and the church. In their church, they often have people who have been cast out from some other religion. "Our problem with the religion issue is that we almost always have to start with a broken person," said Rev. Marty.
Rev. Maria believes that "people want to make [sexual preference] a religious issue when it isn't." "I think religion has taken sexuality where it shouldn't have gone," said Rev. Marty, "the bedroom."
• If you haven't slept with a person of the same sex, how do you know you wouldn't prefer that?
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| Megan Barger, David Daniels and Mike Loeffler listen to the panel discuss their feelings about the many adversities they overcame during their lives. |
On Wednesday a panel discussion was sponsored by GLBA. The panel included a homosexual male, a lesbian, and a postoperative transsexual woman. Steve Cirrone is a professor at Tidewater Community College in Norfolk and has his PhD in Shakespeare and Renaissance. He came out at the age of 20 while a sophomore in College. However, someone else pointed it out. One day he called his ex-fiancé to discuss wedding plans.
"She said, ‘I have something to talk to you about. Do you love me?'" and he told her that he did. She asked "Do you love my brother?" After he was unsure of how to answer she told him, "if you can't answer that then maybe we shouldn't get married." "I was never ashamed of being homosexual, I just never thought I could be because of the way I was raised," he said.
Tammy Dhority is the technical director of the theater at Virginia Wesleyan College and the faculty advisor of GLBA. She has her BA from Northern Arizona University in theater with and emphasis in set, light and costume design. "My experience coming out is a lot different that Steve's," she said. With a hippie father and a public school teaching mother, her parents "never forced [me] to be anything other than I am."
When she was 18 years old she tried "to fit into a box," and married a man. They were only married for 30 days, when she came running home to her parent's house because it didn't work out. Her current relationship has lasted five years and she was married in the MCC church. In 1995 she graduated from college and returned to the theater department because "it's basically a place you are accepted for who you are."
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Jaime Lee Ormsby currently works as a counselor for pre-op transsexuals and at the CANDII House, "The Children's AIDS Network Designed For Interfaith Involvement, Inc." Their mission, according to www.candii.com, "is to improve the quality of life for children and their families living with HIV/AIDS and to improve family stability and wellness." Before her operation, Ormsby was married to a woman and had three kids. He was raised in a strict Irish Catholic household and is a Vietnam veteran. According to the therapist he was required to see before surgery, the reason he stayed in Vietnam until he was wounded was because he had a death wish. Religion was a big theme over the whole week's event and she said, "I am not an organized religion person, but I am a spiritual person." She believes that you must "be proud of who you are" in order to be happy.
• Why do so many heterosexuals try to seduce others into their lifestyle?
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Thursday, Oct. 16, the movie "Fire" was shown as the last movie in the lecture series. An independent film from "Baliwood," directed and written by Deepa Mehta, is a film about an Indian woman, Sita, who marries a man having an affair with a Chinese woman. Sita marries the family more than she marries the man and ends up becoming involved with her sister-in-law, Radha, who's husband has taken a vow of celibacy.
• What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
The final event of the week was a heterosexism workshop moderated by Keith Moore. The attendants answered a short "Gender and Sexuality Definitions Quiz" which asked participants to match words like heterosexual privilege, transgender person and cross dresser with their definitions.
Heterosexual privilege is "The system of advantages received by heterosexuals in a heterosexual society."
A transgender person is "A person whose self-definition challenges traditional conceptions and boundaries of gender and sexuality."
A cross dresser is "A person who enjoys dressing in the clothes typically associated with another gender."
Moore led an open discussion about each of the 17 terms defined by the quiz and had the participants answer the questions posed throughout this article. It was interesting to learn about the differences between transgender and transsexual people. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Alliance meets every Thursday in the theater at 4:30 p.m. and is always looking for more people interested in the issues related to the GLB community. If you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or straight you are welcome to join this organization and maybe you can even assist in planning future events.
"Mom, I've gotta go. This is my job. It's what I signed up for." Those are the words Debbie Wintermantel heard from her son, Specialist Brian Wintermantel, Wesleyan junior, last January as he said good-bye to begin a year-long activation following selection by his Virginia National Guard unit.
Wintermantel's duties in providing additional security for Walter Reed Army Medical Center include all the tasks of a regular military policeman (MP), with the exception of arresting power and traffic control. Primarily, Wintermantel serves as a sentry on one of the many gates to the facility. He checks IDs for proper clearance, inspects all commercial/contracted vehicles for weapons, ammunition and any devices that could be used against those under the garrison's protection and detains offending individuals.
Please see Wintermantel, page 5
A new case of breast cancer is diagnosed every three minutes. In an attempt to raise money to find a cure, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is sponsoring its third annual Race for the Cure to be held Saturday, Oct. 25. By giving $25 to the foundation, each participant can compete in the 1-Mile Family Fun Walk or the more challenging 5K Co-Ed Run/Walk. Donations are welcome and can be given to the foundation without participation in the race through the local Tidewater affiliate.
Over 3,000 participants from all over Hampton Roads will gather to commemorate October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They will meet at 7:00 a.m. in the 17th Street Park on Atlantic Avenue, at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, to carry on the support the Komen foundation has of "innovative breast cancer research grants, meritorious awards, and educational, scientific, and community outreach programs around the world."
Founded in 1982 by sisters Nancy Goodman Brinker and Susan Goodman Komen, the Komen Foundation, along with its affiliate network, corporate partners and donors, has managed to raise nearly $600 million dollars for its cause. Of the net proceeds that are raised during the "Race for the Cure" event, 75 percent is given to local Tidewater breast cancer programs and services while the other twenty-five percent helps to continue breast cancer research and education through the established Komen Foundation's National Grant program.
Please see Race, page 5
Site created and maintained by Linda De Rosa.