Hetero Kissing Contest: Homophobic or Not?

Rainbow, originally uploaded by haileydai.

When I saw the picture and read the head of this story by Demond Reid of The Shorthorn, I thought “Cute! A kissing contest!” And then I read the whole story. Turns out it’s a heterosexual kissing contest — called the Celebration of Heterosexuality Kissing Contest — at the University of Texas at Arlington. I was disturbed.

The event’s organizers claim it wasn’t a homophobic activity, but rather a celebration of sexuality, period. To quote Kat Miller, the College Republicans President: “How can homosexuals expect Americans to accept homosexuality, when we don’t accept sexuality?” Okay, I see where she’s going there, kind of. Important to add though that she said this while wearing a pink shirt that read “Straight N’ Proud”, and, across campus the University Democrats, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance and the Gay, Lesbian and Everybody Else Organization were staging a counter-event called “Celebration of Human Pride”.

Also, last time I checked, heterosexuality didn’t represent all of sexuality, as this event seems to suggest. Sexuality is made up of many colours, and hetero is not the only shade.