LAWRENCE, Kansas — Contrary to what some are suggesting after last Tuesday’s “Little Scottie” comic, we are not homophobic bigots with an axe to grind. In fact, we agree that “the heterosexual community often hypersexualizes the queer community in order to vilify them.” There is one problem. We are not part of the heterosexual community. We’re gay.

Being gay, however, should not compel us to agree with gay or “gay-friendly” organizations any more than being American should compel us to agree with our government. Our freedom to disagree is the very essence of our First Amendment. Some people may view such dissent as disloyalty, but we believe it is not only our right but also our duty to express our dissatisfaction with organizations and institutions.

“Gay-friendly” fraternities are inherently focused on differences. Otherwise, why would they need to exist? Ideally, they shouldn’t, but that is not the objective of these groups.

They instead undermine the pursuit of LGBT equality by encouraging more division based on sexual orientation rather than less. Many people, including us, simply refuse to allow our sexuality to dictate our identities, either personally or socially.

As for the comic itself, we write and draw our comics between four and six weeks before they run in The Kansan. We developed this year’s storylines for “Little Scottie” in late June and have never consulted any schedule except the KU Football schedule. The timing of the comic was unintentional. We already did a rush-themed comic that ran in The Kansan on July 21, 2010, where more members of the fraternity are shown, many of whom are not “older, hairy and more muscular.”

The comic in question is a satire, not of any specific fraternity but of a general idea. We held up a mirror to something we are critical of, and it seems that a lot of people did not like the reflection they saw. Our characters may not be based on specific people, but they are a reflection of our own experiences and observations.

So, if the language used by our characters is too “unintelligent, unmasculine and immature,” maybe it’s time for gay students to rethink their behavior. If we’re hypersexualizing gay people, perhaps try not swoon over every attractive straight guy on campus.

To those who disagree, look around. If anyone is perpetuating stereotypes, it’s not us.

Todd Pickrell contributed to this letter.

Appeared on Page 4B of The University Daily Kansan (9/21/10)

Filed under: College, Opinion/Editorial

LAWRENCE, Kansas – During the time that I’ve been preoccupied with other projects to devote my full energies to keeping up with IPW, I’ve made the first major effort of my life to get into better shape. I’ve lost two grandfathers, a great uncle and others to heart disease, so sooner or later I was either going to need to do something about it or suffer irreversible consequences.

I opted for the former and, in Forrest Gump-esque fashion, one day I just decided to start walking. I had talked about it before but had only acted sporadically. Kicking off with a 7.2-mile walk the first day, I floored it at first before tapering off on distance in favor of more challenging terrain. All the while, I’d been making adjustments to the kinds of food I’d eat, trying to figure out ways to exploit various eating habits, etc.

The most amusing part of it, at least to me, is the fact that I don’t own a scale. In this economy, a scale simply isn’t an expense I’m willing to have. But inevitably when people have told me that I look like I’ve lost weight, they ask how much I’ve lost to which I say, “I don’t do scales.” I can tell if I feel better or not, and that’s all I need to know.

As for my walks, I probably push myself harder than is sometimes advisable during the hot Lawrence summer. My regular attire includes workout pants that I bought several years ago to combat the Syracuse cold, warmup pants or sweatpants, a sweatshirt and a hoodie. Plus, I wear a pair of tennis shoes that I bought the summer before I started college. In other words, it’s a bunch of stuff that I’ve had for a while. The only recent addition has been ankle and wrist weights that I’ll wear intermittently to add to the challenge. For me, the objective is to sweat as much as possible.

I walk almost daily, usually in the afternoon in order to get the full benefit of the day’s heat. For as flat as people generally think Kansas is, Lawrence is definitely an exception to that misconception. The KU campus has some wicked hills that I routinely hit up.

But as important as all of those factors are, what gets me through the occasionally tortuous conditions is my music. Aside from the weights, the single most important expense was a pair of headphones that are comfortable, durable. The standard iPod headphones need not apply. In fact, I have a first generation iPod touch that came with my computer nearly two years ago. It’s practically useless to me for walking.

Instead I use my much older iPod (the 4th generation iPod) with a click wheel and a monochrome display that came with my first Mac in 2004 (a PowerBook G4 to be exact). While the computer’s internal hard drive failed long ago (largely my fault… I think), the iPod works as well as ever. And, most importantly, it has actual buttons that allow me to skip songs, play, pause and adjust volume simply by touch. Even better, I have a great hard plastic case for it. Those two things, and I’m set.

As for the music, I have a “traveling music” playlist, made up of a combination of metal, alternative rock, rap, hip-hop, R&B, rock and some pop, that I keep on shuffle so I have a little bit of everything depending on the point I’m at in my walk. On a flat straightaway, I can go for just about anything. Once I get to hills, it’s all rock and metal. After the hills, I tend to tone it down.

In general, I try to mix it up and add different stuff from time to time. But some of the bands I routinely keep in the rotation are AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Ke$ha, The Killers, Metallica, Muse, Queen, Rihanna and Stone Temple Pilots.

So that’s one of the major things I’ve been working on. That, the comic strip, the podcasts and a bunch of other things.

Filed under: Opinion/Editorial

LAWRENCE, Kansas – In a demonstration of trigger-happy media and bloggers, a slew of folks jumped all over the story that Duke senior Jon Scheyer had tweeted his cell phone number following his team’s National Championship victory Monday night. He didn’t.

I’m not a detective. I didn’t need to be in order to crack this case. A quick Google search of the number Scheyer posted led me to a Facebook group. You know, one of those “I got a new phone and need your numbers” groups? Well, the number had been posted to one such group by Zach Kelly, who incidentally is a fan of Wash U Athletics on Facebook.

Sure enough, after the tweet that most people took as an admission that Scheyer had released his own phone number, he followed up with a shout out to someone named Zach Kelly, who he claimed had won back-to-back Div. III national championships.

For those of you who don’t follow D-III sports, Washington University in St. Louis – known by many as Wash U – won back-to-back men’s basketball titles in 2008 and 2009. They also have a senior forward named Zach Kelly who attended Glenbrook North in Northbrook, Ill., which happens to be the same hometown and high school as Scheyer.

But I’m sure that’s all just a coincidence.

Filed under: College, Social Media, Technology