he Battalion
ggielife
Page 3 • Monday, October 12, 1998
MIN
ay students say accepting
sexuality lifts emotional weight
Coorda
itor.
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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
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