DEAR EDITOR:

As I walk across campus these days checking out the student body, I have to turn-up my gaydar super-high before I can detect any response at all. Even then, it’s mixed signals.

“Oh, there’s a couple of cute butch baby dykes (or maybe they’re just a couple Goth chicks). That handsome young man pays such meticulous attention to his grooming that he must be gay (or maybe he’s just a metrosexual).”

Statistically speaking, I know you’re out there.

Roughly one out of ten of you are not heterosexual, about the same number of you are left-handed. But I wonder why you’re not more visible on campus.

Maybe it’s just because I’m becoming an old man, but when I was your age, a rebellious punk rocker going to community college in the early-1980’s while slowly but surely coming out of the closet, it was all about being totally in-your-face about it. Because remember, back then there was nothing about it on TV.

We formed a club on campus and then organized a “Homo-Hop” in the Student Union. Later on when AIDS hit, it was all about “act up, fight back!” Then came my personal favorite group in the early 90’s: “Queer Nation! We’re here, we’re queer. Get used to it!”

Ah yes, Memory Lane. Now where was I? Oh yeah, so that was over 20 or 30 years ago, and you know what, America has sort of gotten used to it.

It’s highly likely that the Supreme Court will overturn all laws barring same-sex marriage and throw out the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” by the end of this year. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act will finally now pass. LGBTQ people may now serve openly and honestly in the military. Slowly but surely, we’ve been chipping away at the inequalities we’ve faced from society. It’s been a long-a** haul, I tell you.

Hold on, I need to sit down for a moment.

So, it would be nice to see a crop of young new energetic LGBTQ whippersnapper activists pop-up and get involved with tying the bow on top of the present that you’re currently living in.

It hasn’t always been this way. Do you think our society no longer needs LGBTQ political activism? Or is it that you simply can’t be bothered?

What about socializing with other LGBTQ students here at LMC? Is that something you’ll be interested in?

— Jeff Mitchell