The American Civil Liberties Union has issued a letter to superintendents in Utah informing them it is unconstitutional to ban same-sex couples from attending school events.

A female high school student was asked to leave a school dance because she brought a girl as a date. Equality Utah instructed the student to contact the ACLU. Based on previous court precedence under the First Amendment banning a same-sex couple is a violation of equal rights.

Allowing high schools students to bring same-sex dates to school dances has been a highly contentious issue over the last few years. Last week the first lesbian homecoming king and queen couple in the US  received hate mail after receiving national media coverage for their titles. One step forward, one leap back. Read More »

YouTube trends range from the adorable (kittens and babies, anyone?) to the grimace-worthy (FAILblog’s YouTube channel has over 1 million subscribers). Recently, though, a trend has popped up that is downright inspirational- the It Gets Better Project.

I didn’t hear about the campaign when Dan Savage, a gay columnist and activist, first started it a month ago in response to Billy Lucas’ death. Lucas, a 15-year-old high school freshman from Indiana, hung himself in his grandmother’s barn when the endless name-calling and physical abuse by bullies at his school became too much. Savage had a message for any gay teenager who was considering similar action- it gets better. The feelings of loneliness, worthlessness, and confusion fade away, and so do the close-minded bullies. He and his partner posted a video describing their life together to try to show teens that a happy, gay lifestyle is attainable, even if it seems impossible now. Read More »

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like whether we date men like our dads!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

It’s no secret that getting admission to a college (especially big names like the Ivy League) is kind of a crap shoot. Sure, you need the grades, the activities, the involvement; but we all also know that sometimes you can give your application a little nudge that has nothing to do with academics. Your parents worked two jobs each to help take care of you and your three siblings and it taught you the value of responsibility and family — admissions gold. Or you spent half of your childhood in another country and had to learn the wonder and struggles of adapting your proud cultural heritage to life in the Midwest — brilliant. These kinds of things have been a leg-up in the admissions process for years and now, it turns out, there’s a brand new one that schools are actively seeking out — LGBT.

That’s right, when just a couple of decades ago many people couldn’t RISK coming out in college, now schools are trying to recruit applicants from the LGBT community and while I have no qualms about that, I gotta wonder if it’s fair.

I have a long-standing record on this column of being pro gay rights, and that’s not a streak I plan on breaking, but this is one area where I have some serious mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s great that schools are being active with the gay community and embracing their students’ sexualities as a part of who they are. It’s wonderful that they’re going to an effort to show students that they can be open, active and comfortable in their school and embracing that the challenges faced by many LGBT students are character shaping  and meaningful. Good job, colleges! It’s also not really affirmative action, so it’s not as though schools are trying to fill a certain quota; it’s just that if a good applicant comes along with the added twist of being LGBT, then it might give him or her a little boost.

Read More »

Before I graduated high school, my friends and I had an ongoing joke about the college life. More specifically, we would semi-kid about the drunken “lesbian experience” that the crazy nights of college parties would inevitably bring. As it turns out, many of my ideas about college life that I learned from Van Wilder and American Pie movies aren’t quite accurate. I don’t wake up in the morning and have a beer for breakfast, I’ve never woken up naked next to someone I don’t know (yet…  only kidding!), and I don’t live solely off of KD and hot dogs (although I would like to).  But I did prove the one stereotype correct – I did have that drunken “lesbian experience”, and to my surprise, I really liked it.

Sorry CollegeCandy readers, but I’m not sharing details. All I can say is it was a fun night that involved a lot of alcohol and a we-really-hope-she’s-sleeping roommate situation. Good times. Anyways, while this was something I was hoping to cross off of my bucket list, I never really realized that I was actually interested in women. Did this make me a lesbian? Was I bisexual? Pansexual? Bi-curious? The labels didn’t really matter to me. I just accepted that I like what I like, and that’s okay.

If you allow me to make some broad generalizations, here are my favorite and least favorite things about being with both guys and girls: Read More »

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman, so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like a textbook throwdown!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Two weeks into the semester and most of my friends are already sick enough of their new roommates to have practically moved in with their boyfriends. All this shuffle got me to wondering – wouldn’t it be easier if they could all just live with the boys the way they almost are now?

Turns out that I’m not the only one thinking along these lines. In fact, murmurs have been floating around for the last couple of years about some schools that are not only making their dorms coed, but their dorm rooms.

That’s right, mixed gender roomies. Read More »

It’s back-to-school time, and I’ve been spending some time lately thinking about what college means for our sex lives. College is our time to explore anything that interests us to find out what we really like and what type of people we want to become. We explore different majors, career paths, friendships, relationships, and sexualities. College is the first time in our lives most of us can really embrace our sexuality, explore it, and figure out how to truly enjoy it.

I go to a women’s college, so my first year was filled with questions from friends back home asking if I’d become a lesbian. My answer: so what if I had? And why did they care?

Despite the freedom we gain in college from adults, we are still constrained by our peers’ expectations of us, which can make it difficult to remain true to ourselves and create a healthy personal (and sexual) identity.

Here are some tips I hope you girls (and guys) can keep in mind while exploring sex in college. Read More »

Soulforce Equality Ride 2008 is a tour through the country by 17 activists looking to promote gay and lesbian rights at conservative southern schools.

Seems harmless enough, unless you are a religious Southern school.

On Monday, Soulforce Equal Riders made an appearance at Columbia International University in Columbia, SC to help reform their ideas on homosexuality and change their ban on homosexuality on campus, as stated in the school’s handbook. CIU is a privately funded fundamentalist school that promotes Christian faith and values.

Prior to the arrival of the activist group, CIU issued a statement saying that the university would not allow Soulforce’s bus to enter the campus, though they did propose that Soulforce meet off-campus. Soulforce refused to do so.

Upon their arrival, Equal Riders were welcomed with police tape and barriers, secluding them to a limited area to talk to the students. Dialogue between the young activists and CIU students was monitored by school officials and faculty. The discussion was eventually broken up by police and Equal Riders were asked to leave the campus.

When a simple discussion about the rights of people on a college campus is seen as such a horrible thing and broken up so forcefully, it really makes a person think back to the days of civil rights marches and meetings. Have we really progressed so little after so long?

We’ve got a serious case of the Issues this year. But what to care about? Where do you aim your burgeoning, passionate fury? Trick question! Everywhere, of course! We’re all such furious young people. But you’d be remiss if these weren’t on your political plate:

-The New Russia

Does Russia actually have the national cojones to start a second Cold War? Honestly, it seems unlikely; as a nation, we’re not as fresh around nukes as we used to be, and I’d hope there have been enough near misses since then that’d we’d be leery of another round of brinkmanship. But it’s clear that the Motherland is tired of playing second fiddle to emerging powerhouses like China, and with all the god-knows-what they’ve been getting into recently, we’ll definitely want a Prez who can play both hardball and group hugs with the Russians. Of course, this probably won’t affect the average college student much, though you might want to bug your facilities management about getting some sturdier desks. Read More »