Elon University students discussed the fluid nature of sexuality and gender identity in a workshop hosted by Spectrum, the university’s queer-straight alliance, April 16.
Participants filled out a worksheet to help them determine where they fell on the Kinsey scale, a numerical measurement of same-sex attraction. It ranges from zero, exclusively heterosexual, to six, exclusively homosexual. People can fall anywhere on this scale in terms of sexual, romantic and emotional attraction.
As the participants at the workshop soon found out, many people fell in the middle of the scale for most of the questions.
“Most people think that you’re either gay or you’re straight,” said freshman Robert Linklater. “That’s just not true.”
Afterward, those present sat down and discussed the exercise. Students expressed surprise at the spectrum of different sexualities and gender identities, noting most people were neither at zero nor six, but rather somewhere in the middle.
The words used to describe sexuality varied as well, from the stock labels of “gay” and “straight” to more ambiguous labels like “queer” and “straight but appreciative.”
Other events in honor of Pride Week include an open mic night sponsored by Spectrum 9 p.m. April 18 at Trollinger House. The Annual Day of Silence, a day when some students take a one-day vow of silence to commemorate those lost due to anti-gay bullying, will be held April 19. Spectrum will break the silence at 4 p.m. at Speaker’s Corner with a Pride Parade, culminating in a “Bar-B-Queer.”