ike a junior high dance, but a lot more sexual.”
First-year Ted Wilkinson reflected on Saturday’s Gender Bend with his tongue firmly in his cheek. “I was let down by the lack of nudity. I heard there was going to be a lot of nakedness, but I didn’t see a single naked person running around.”
Granted, it was a strictly PG-13 affair, but one filled with more lace, pleather, and creative use of duct tape than the civilized world has ever seen … at least since the fall’s Coming Out Ball.
Once again, PRIDE has sponsored an event designed to promote tolerance, understanding, and cross-dressing, all in the name of good fun.
PRIDE’s Gender Bend “attracted lots of varied groups of people,” said sophomore PRIDE Member Leise Geigerly. “Guilford isn’t super-cliquey, but there are definite separate groups. But they all came together (at the Gender Bend).”
Junior PRIDE member Cori Parmenter agreed that the focus of the Gender Bend was primarily on enjoying the evening.
“I think a lot of people were afraid we were going to shove (PRIDE’s message) down their throats,” she said. “We had some condoms out, and that was it.”
It’s impossible to tell how many people filtered into the lobby of Dana Hall between 10:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., though faculty, staff, and students were all in attendance, as were a handful of Greensboro community members.
Though no CCE or Early College students made it to the event, PRIDE President Sarah Everette said some had stopped by the PRIDE Resource Center to ask about it.
Everette said that many Early College students may not have come because of the late/early hours of the dance, and besides, “what parents are going to let their gay child who they’re trying to make straight go to the Gender Bend?”
Everette also suggested that the Gender Bend, while “open to everyone” might not be the best place for people who are uncomfortable with homosexuality to go for their first PRIDE event.
“The Gender Bend plays into all the stereotypes of what homosexuality is, and does not represent the true image,” she said.
Despite the serious foundations of the event, the mood was decidedly lighthearted. People danced, and even those who couldn’t were able to fake it under the dizzying array of rainbow strobe lights. Those same lights occasionally made it impossible for me to tell the gender of the person I was dancing with, which made me realize that it didn’t really matter.
Gay or straight, everyone was there to have fun.
Close to the end, I found myself sitting standing in the corner, trying to catch my breath in my pleather pants. A man in his early 40s came over to me, and asked if I was a Guilford student. I told him I was.
“I went to UNCG about 18 years ago,” he said. “We never had anything like this. It’s wonderful you have this on your campus … You’re really lucky to go to school here.”
Indeed.