This Saturday, along thousands of other students, I packed myself in to the football stadium to watch our Cavaliers take on VMI. As predicted, we scored touchdown after touchdown, and sang the Good ‘Ol Song after each and every one. This is a great UVA tradition—but at this game a few guys sitting near me ruined the tradition. They took it upon themselves to, at the point in the song where “…all is bright and gay” is sung, loudly insert “NOT GAY!”.
While I understand that everyone is entitled to his or her own beliefs, this seemed an incredibly immature and disrespectful way to express oneself. I find it completely unacceptable that someone in my community would act in this way, especially when issues of sexual orientation are in no way related. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the Good ‘Ol Song is not trying to express that at Virginia “all is bright and homosexual”. This type of close minded behavior frustrates me beyond belief and very nearly ruined the game for me.
But, something positive did come out of the situation. As I was about to turn around and tell these guys off, a girl sitting closer to them beat me to it, saying simply, “Why would you say that? That offends me.” Their response was less than satisfactory—they gave a shrug and a dismissive, “Whatever,” but the fact that I was not the only one bothered enough to speak up was reassuring. Though it harms the atmosphere and openness of our UVA community every time such an ignorant comment is made, we become infinitely strong every time some speaks out against it. We at UVA are responsible for defining through our words and actions what we value, and must demand that that standard be upheld. Don’t sit back and watch what you value undermined.
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