OUTzone on Campus!

September 14, 2007

OUTzone is proud to announce it's new initiative for fall. We reached out to a few of our nation's on-campus gay groups and asked that they send us a blogger or two to fill us in on campus life. We have our first entry, and we pasted it here! IT comes from Paul, who's a freshman at University of Texas at Austin. And we think he's totally adorable. Check back next week for even more exciting news!

Hi. My name is Paul. I’m a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin, and I’m a gay male. And if that’s all you remember about me, then you don’t know me at all.

To me, being gay is not my whole identity, but rather a piece of a much larger puzzle. A few of the more obvious pieces (the corner pieces, maybe, or the edge ones, if the jigsaw puzzle metaphor is working for you) are my passions. For starters, as a Music major, I have this intense draw to all kinds of music and, in general, art. I love being around people, and understanding people, and finding out more about people. I guess that makes me a people person. I enjoy watching sports, but not playing them. I like working out… really, all of this is uninteresting. I have found that the most interesting things you can find about a person’s personality is not anything one can put into a language: it is an impression of how that person interacts with the world around them, how they find happiness.
Hopefully this blog gives you some insight into me.

But I’m pretty sure that’s not what this is about. It’s about the macro, not the micro (as I am learning at an alarming rate in my Sociology class); it’s about what a modern, queer college student experiences. I will try to take you with me out on campus and into the Austin area to let you vicariously experience this through me, and though my point of view might be a big part of this, I hope that I can give an unbiased report of what it’s like out here.

Already, I’ve been to a gay event in Austin called Camp Camp, which happens once a month and is a night where queers can come and let the creativity flow on a barely structured open mic. I’ve been to Oilcan Harry’s, one of the more popular gay bars in town, and noticed the division of the gay community into the promiscuous and the intellectual, the sexual and the mental. And I’ve thought to myself:
can’t we have our cake and eat it to? Can’t I flirt and do so with a vocabulary? Can’t I go to class during the day and go on a date with a boy at night? Can I be part of both, or will queer culture force me to chose a side, pick my battles? It’s the road I see before me, and it’s the road I’ll be navigating for, if nothing else, a semester.