Before D.C.-area colleges welcome back their undergraduates from summer vacation, let’s give the schools a little test of our own. Campus Pride’s LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index rates four-year colleges and universities around the country based on their “LGBT-Friendly policies, programs and practices.” The index surveys schools on eight subject areas (click through for survey questions): LGBT “Policy Inclusion,” “Support & Institutional Commitment,” “Student Life,” “Academic Life,” “Housing,” “Campus Safety,” “Counseling & Health,” and “Recruitment and Retention Efforts.” Campus Pride also administers a “Sexual Orientation Score” and a “Gender Identity/Expression Score” to isolate schools that are friendly to LGB issues but not to T issues, or vice-versa.

Since the index is based on a voluntary survey, not all local schools have submitted themselves for rating here—though 204 schools nationwide have. So keep in mind: even a low rating from Campus Pride shows more commitment to LGBT issues on campus than a school that’s not rated at all. Local ratings (out of 5 possible points) are after the jump.
Read More “Back to (LGBT Friendly?) School” »

Fall From Glory: George Washington University’s Corcoran Hall

Anonymous public sex ain’t as public—or anonymous—as it used to be. In the past ten years, private Internet hook-ups have all but eliminated the need for old-fashioned public toe-tapping meet-ups. In the meantime, some infamous incidents have helped raise awareness about the dangers of initiating anonymous public sex with the wrong guy—like an undercover cop.

But somewhere between the time that the Internet went mainstream and Craigslist took over the sex stuff—we’re talking late-90s, early 2000s here—willing partners in search of anonymous sex began seeking out—and recording—their public meet-ups spots online.

The popularity of these online message boards—like Gay Universe’s D.C. cruising spot locator—have come and gone. But in their wake, public sex locations (like restrooms), their corresponding sex codes (like winks), and their dangers (like leather-clad dudes who hang around suspiciously, pretending to “fix their glasses”) have been recorded for posterity. What remains is an online history of glory holes past, present, and policed.

Alongside the clubs, porn shops, and public parks is one particularly refined category of anonymous sex meeting places: The District of Columbia’s most prestigious universities. Delve into the online public sex histories of American, Catholic, Gallaudet, George Washington, and Georgetown, after the jump.

Read More “Glory Holes: The College Years” »

Umm. Okay [PDF].

On Friday, the Faculty Senate of the George Washington University moved to include “gender identity and expression” to its non-discrimination policy, the Hatchet reports. G.W.’s added protection puts its policy in line with the D.C. Human Rights Act, which added those protections in 2006. The official recognition as a protected group, at the very least, will grant G.W.’s transgender community more visibility when filing complaints with the university. Earlier this year, I wrote about the on-campus experience of Devin Alston-Smith, a trans student at G.W. who was frustrated by the university response after reporting alleged harassment at the hands of his sorority sisters. Read the story, Menace to Sorority, here.

George Washington University student group Trans Education and Advocacy (TEA) is spearheading the campaign to add “gender expression and identity” as a protected group in the university’s non-discrimination policy. In 2006, “gender expression and identity” became a protected group under the District of Columbia’s Human Rights Act, but the university’s policy has since failed to follow suit.

Read More “G.W. Argues Over Transgender Rights” »

Todd Belok, the George Washington University freshman who was kicked out of the university’s ROTC program after two of his fellow program members reported him as gay, has receiving nothing but love from fellow students, community members, and ex-militaries since his story was published in the Hatchet earlier this month. The two fellow ROTC students who outed Belok to their superiors after they witnessed him kissing a male “special friend” in the basement of a fraternity last year haven’t fared so well:

Read More “Outted Gay ROTC Student Praised, Outers Vilified” »

My story this week, “Menace to Sorority,” about a transgender man’s sorority trouble, touched about a hundred nerves. You can read all the comments on the story here. Below, choice perspectives from Greek life, GLBT theory, and innocent bystanders:

bigblugemini, 2009/02/20 at 1:34 AM

I am gay male and a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. I understand Alston-Smith’s frustration with wanting to be accepted as transgender and I think it takes a brave person to choose to live the life that he has chosen to live. I, too, had a terrible undergraduate experience as a new initiate of the fraternity

Read More “Sexist Comment(s) Of The Week” »

It’s day two in the thinky bracket of our Manliest Workplace in D.C. tournament, where our nation’s capital’s think tanks take on its academics in a fight for utter non-femininity (see the full 64-workplace bracket here)! This time: Will those Libertarian scallywags over at the Cato Institute prove brawnier than the George Washington University’s spoiled brats? Wow! Neither of them sound very manly!

THE CATO INSTITUTE: When they’re not scamming for dates on the Atlasphere or posting on CityDesk, Libertarians do some pretty serious mental heavy lifting about, like, free will or something, I don’t really know. But do they have the will to employ more males than females? Let’s find out!

Read More “Man Madness: Cato Institute Vs. George Washington University” »

George Washington University student Andew Clark wrote an opinion piece in campus newspaper The Hatchet this week explaining why he voted for California’s Prop 8 on Nov. 4 (full disclosure: I wrote for the Hatchet as a student). Yesterday, Travis Helwig of G.W. blog The Colonialist published a rebuttal to the piece, calling Clark’s argument “very, very dumb.” In formulating his response, Helwig noted that he would not “attack [Clark's] grammar.” I, on the other hand, am not opposed to assessing Clark’s argument based solely on style points. After all, Clark is a political communications major.

After the jump, I tally the argumentative stylings of this Prop 8 manifesto:

Read More “GW Student Supports Prop 8, Bad Analogies Tamales” »

* Juicy Campus has hit George Washington University. How do G.W. gossips compare to Georgetown’s finest? So far, Juciy Campus’ G.W. page seems to have a lot more nonsense on it. That’s a good thing, writes Travis of G.W. student blog The Colonialist: “I spent the weekend surfing the site a lot, putting up things about myself and my roommates. I’d like to openly admit to writing all 10 of the comments calling The GW Patriot racist. I’d be willing to bet that 80% of the posts on the site are done with the same innocent prank attitude. It’s a playground.”

* The New Gay blogger inspired, depressed by gay couples. TNG’s Jon surveyed the scene at the annual HRC fundraiser on Saturday: “Men were holding hands, women were kissing, and partners were snuggling up and laughing together at their tables,” Jon laments. “This is all wonderful of course, but it served as an in-your-face reminder that I’m currently partner-less.”

* Sex blogger dude Roissy in D.C. says the recession will mean better sex:

If a protracted and deep recession leads to the average woman cutting costs at the supermarket and steering clear of the high calorie packaged foodstuffs, it could mean more slender women and, consequently, better sex. . . . Hard times bring “hard” times.

Hmm. Maybe it will also teach Roissy a lesson in economics.

* Local blogger Jimbo makes an appearance at Maryland Renaissance Festival, hears best catcall ever: “Oooh, gurl, he’s dressed up like an evil sex sorceror.”

* Before the presidential face-offs resume tonight, let’s remember just how far we’ve come since last Thursday’s veep debates. Thanks to The Guardian’s Michelle Goldberg for highlighting Palin’s most nonsensical non-answer:

Say it ain’t so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced [sic] your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let’s look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I’m glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? … My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here’s a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.

Shit, is it possible to just place a [sic] around an entire quote? Or to have one floating over her head every time she speaks? Get on it, magic Jesus.

Photo by dumbonyc, in mourning of last night’s re-run of Gossip Girl. –XOXO, The Sexist