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Rhett Butler/The Daily Reflector
Symbolic tombstones were set up on East Carolina’s campus with names of people killed for being open about their sexuality.

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Scott Davis for The Daily Reflector
Drag Diva Michelle Michaels performs at the March 25 drag show in Hendrix Theater.

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Rhett Butler/The Daily Reflector
Jaslyn Grullon talks with Derick Coe on the campus of East Carolina University about a display set up to honor those who have been killed for being open about their sexuality.

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Students take up gay cause

By Kristin Day
The Daily Reflector

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Shawn Michaels does not want to be a woman.

The 6'1” son of a military man got involved in the drag business after a successful dare in Texas. He won the nightclub's contest and three months rent, and spent the next 10 years taking his show to new audiences as Michelle Michaels.

“I was really good at drag,” Michaels said. “I didn't want to go out and be pretty. I wanted to shock the audience.”

He's good at that, too.

On Wednesday, March 25, the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender) Student Union at East Carolina University held a drag show for Diversity Week with Michaels acting as hostess. She, along with former double for Reba McEntire Coti Collins, Dorea Saunders from “America's Got Talent,” and former Miss NC USofA Ebony Addams, entertained more than 600 cheering and screaming students, dancing along the aisles of Hendrix Theater throughout a show complete with hit music, risqué comedy and athletics.

On Thursday, March 26, reflector.com posted a slide show of the event. Readers quickly responded.

Some supported the decision to cover the event. More said the slide show was appalling. Commenters said it was irresponsible for ECU to expose students to such filth, or the entertainers were disgusting, fat and destined for hell for their sexual orientation. Comments rolled in for 16 days.

“It is very sad that our precious students have to be exposed to this at the university. They can find this kind of perversion on their own.” — Gail, on reflector.com

A few weeks later, the GLBT Student Union had its final meeting for the year to hold elections and prepare for today, the National Day of Silence. Supporters will spend a portion — if not all — of today in silence to recognize those who remain voiceless about their sexual orientation out of fear. They, along with the Student Health Center, College of Human Ecology, the Ledonia Wright Cultural Center and the Office of Institutional Diversity, sponsored events all week and will conclude with the March of Silence — from College Hill Drive to the Free Speech Zone in front of Joyner Library — at 2:30 p.m. Once they reach the end, they will break their silence with an explosion of screams.

Members are no strangers to discrimination. Even next year's female vice president Shiloh Canale, a heterosexual, says she's been subject to hate speech just for being involved in the GLBTSU. Still, some remarks left on the Reflector's Web page were hard to swallow for Christien Harden, current president of the GLBTSU.

“A lot of comments were expected,” Harden said. “But I didn't expect so many supporters.”

“I've run into a lot of discrimination,” Michaels said a few days later. “But the very closed-minded opinions that were publicized were very shocking.”

It's something GLBTSU members remain baffled over. They say it's a world of confusing give and take when Vermont and Iowa approve gay marriage laws, but during the same week, 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover of Massachusetts hangs himself after years of schoolmates' taunts calling him gay.

Early Tuesday morning, Fayetteville police answered a call that led them to drag performer Jimmy Ali McCollough, 34, dead on Joseph Street. Officials hadn't yet released details, but WRAL.com reported that McCollough had been stabbed and police were investigating a possible hate crime.

When it comes to bigoted words, members of the GLBTSU say they've learned to simply smile back and reply “sorry you feel that way” or maybe blow a kiss.

“I guess humor goes a long way,” said GLBTSU member Moses.

Michaels believes most of the negative reactions occur when people feel homosexuality and drag is being thrown in their faces.

“But drag queens have been such a fixture in the gay community,” he said, adding that Diversity Week events also included a showing of the film “Milk,” a biographical movie about the life of an American gay activist, and a presentation from a bisexual speaker. “You can't do a gay event and not have a drag queen.”

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To Reality

04/23/2009 01:01:53 PM

A eunuch is not a gay man, but a castrated man or a boy whose testes did not fully develop

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