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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1998)
he Battalion ggielife Page 3 • Monday, October 12, 1998 MIN ay students say accepting sexuality lifts emotional weight Coorda itor. ii tea irguys? ingdeal I BY MARIUM MOHIUDDIN The Battalion 11 is like being on the I edge of a diving I board. You are look- over the edge, and you nt to jump. But you know ilwill be safer and easier to back to the platform. But ou do jump, it is an awe- me emotional release be- luseyou finally can be true )t of e T-sfe t irtsavi proiffi:: need bet borhood. not co: iaregoslyourself." — President of Gay, Lesbian, 'iisexual and Transsexual Aggies on coming out. i. “1 don't! tnanents o better, said be najornoffl througb ■edstobe Living a lite of a gay man or man at Texas A&M may seem jGcult. However, to a handful of idents, being gay at A&M is not difficult as they first thought. One student said he always nted to be an Aggie but was red to come to A&M because of \ stereotypes. “It was kind of ironic,” he said. |nce I came, 1 was expecting the rst, but it has been different. I jnk the majority of Aggies are ndly to gays. ” tizens. iCollege is where an individual ly finds themself, but that first , the sow p in the journey of individuality hit, andiii rften times the most difficult, on. A student said she had many 9 footbi yfriends in high school, and she Seated an I not know she was gay. alChanipl"With men it was different,” she 'Hilane®. “When it came to getting in- Bowl. Bte if didn’t click. One day it A deteniphappened that me and my best at year b a neigbk e will cod solution rl friend fell in love. It took me a while to realize it.” She said her realization came when she would get jealous about her girlfriend dating other guys. “I got mad at the thought of her going out with a guy,” she said. “I didn’t think I was gay, and 1 think that I was suppressing it sub consciously. “After we broke up, she got mar ried to a man. It was really hard for me to accept that, but I realized that it was hard for her to be gay. It is much easier to be straight.” She said after their breakup, she found she was still attracted to women, but it still took her a while to come out to her family. “I did not know I was gay in high school,” she said. “When I got to college and I saw that people could live productive lives, it made me realize that it was okay. When I was 26, I finally told my mom. That was a long time after I real ized I was gay. But it came to a point like, ‘Here I am, I am gay.’ It was like a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders.” She said her mom was accep tive of her choice, but she has known some students who have lost their families. “I have talked to people who have told me how their families have kicked them out, disowned them and cut them off financially,” she said. “That is when depression settles in. They want to be straight so badly, but they are just not at tracted to the opposite sex.” Dr. Mara Latts, a volunteer with the ALLY program and a psy chologist with the Student Coun seling Services, said a student will MOVIE REVIEWS Neighbors, Midnight revive Stiller’s career experience an extreme range of emotions when accepting their sexuality. “A lot go through depression and have suicidal thoughts,” Latts said. “People think, ‘Everyone is going to reject me, and no one is going to accept me.’ It is really a hard process for them to go through.” The student said she encounters others who are afraid she may hit on them. “I have a lot of straight friends, and I am not going to pick them up,” she said. “It is a big stereotype that when we see any woman, we are going to look them up and down and that we are going to try and pick them up.” She said she realizes the con servative atmosphere of A&M. “You can’t have an in-your-face mentality,” she said. “I am not say ing it is wrong, it is just that you have to look at where you are. You ram i i four nto nic p i f.Y ‘ 5:00 pit 5:( Avnet, Inc. One of the World’s Largest Electronics Distributors You may not know the name, but Avnet is a leading electronics distribution employer, with over 9500 employees worldwide. Avnet is a fortune 500 company with 272 locations worldwide. If this interests you, please join us Tuesday, October 13, 1998 for a company information session from 5:30 to 6:30 pm in Room 402 Rudder. Currently we are recruiting for December 1998 graduates who are interested in computer/component sales and marketing positions. If you are unable to attend the presentation and have an interest in employment with Avnet, please send your resume to: Avnet, Inc. Human Resources/GRAD 2211 S. 47 th St. Phoenix, AZ 85034 BRANDON BOLLOM/Tlli: 15 vnv\l ic>> have to take baby steps.” The other student said coming out week is an attempt to tell gay students they are not alone. “It is a national event to raise awareness,” he said. “It is for peo ple who are gay to come out and tell someone who does not know. It could be telling someone for the first time or it could be telling a friend or telling your parents. “For a new student on campus, they have many worries about Who is going to find out, especially their parents. No one likes to be made fun of or to hear comments about themselves.” Latts said if a student feels as if they need to talk to someone, they should contact the student coun seling service or find an ALLY. “ALLYs are identified people on campus who are not going to judge students,” Latts said. “They have been trained and are here just to listen and to talk.” Your Friends and Neighbors Starring Jason Patric and Ben Stiller Directed by Neil LaBute Rated R Playing at Hollywood 16 In the Company of Men direc tor LaBute has established him self as a harsher and more sar donic Woody Allen. With his brutally honest touch, LaBute is becoming the next great Ameri can director, and his second film. Your Friends and Neighbors, is proof of this. The film follows six “sad- sacks,” with nbn-descript names — Mary, Barry, Terri, Cheri, Cari and Jerry — because their names are inconsequential. All of them are shooting blanks sexually — hopping from bed to bed and looking for something they will never find — love. The characters are too selfish for their own good, and they all fail in their quest. Patric steals the show with one of the most jaw-dropping mono logues in film history. Your Friends and Neighbors has some of the sharpest, wittiest and most scathing dialogue of any film in recent memory. LaBute’s minimalistic direction makes the viewer concentrate more on the words. PHOTO COURTESY OF GRAMERCY PICTURES Ben Stiller and Catherine Keener star in Your Friends and neighbors. The film doesn’t unfold with the contempt of In the Company of Men, but its brutality and pow er overcome its weaknesses. (Grade: A-) — Jeff Schmidt Permanent Midnight Starring Ben Stiller and Elizabeth Hurley Directed by David Veloz Rated R Playing at Hollywood 16 In the 1980s Jerry Stahl was a successful Hollywood writer for such hit TV shows as “thir tysomething,” “Moonlighting” and “ALF,” but a heroin addiction destroyed both his life and career. Permanent Midnight is adapted from Stahl’s autobiography about his fall from fame and hard strug gle back from his addiction. Stiller plays Stahl in a good performance, another in a series of good roles for an actor who has seen his share of bad roles in the past. This summer Stiller re gained some of his recognition with the hits There’s Something About Mary and Your Friends and Neighbors. Also giving notewor thy performances in the film are Owen Wilson and Hurley. The story is one everyone has seen before. The plot was very static, probably a bad adaption from the acclaimed book, but the actor’s performances give a re deeming quality to the depressing film. Permanent Midnight stands out from other drug-addiction re lated films because of its good un derlying story and acting, but it still falls into the category of just another drug-redemption story. (Grade: B-) — Kyle Whit acre .jhmnmnM .... # m Tells you when your term paper is due. (Now if you could only find the time to do it.) The Palm 111“ connected organizer keeps track of what’s due and other important ilii stuff, like your cute lab partner's phone number and Saturday's parties. Touch the HotSync® button to exchange and back up info with your PC (even download e-mail f you haven't read yet). About the only thing it can't do to make your life easier is write that paper. 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