Student newspaper of Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928

technewsiit.com

OPINION 2
CAMPUS 3-6
AErE 1—8
SLIPSTICK 9
SPORTS 10-11

 

Advocate speaks on campus for GLBT History Month

By Katie Peters
COPY EDITOR AND LAYOUT EDITOR

This month marks GLBT History
Month, which featured Zach Wahls, a speaker
who visited campus last Thursday night and
made a great impression of humor and oration
on our campus

Wahls is the son of two lesbians,
whom he introduced to us with words and
motions as “Tall Teri and“ Jackie" Zach is
most welleknown for the Youtube video feae
turing his passionate speech at the Iowa House
Judiciary Committee defending his values of
what a family is Whatever a person’s views on
sameesex families and marriage might have
been coming into the presentation, it was a re,
freshing talk because Wahls does not condemn
any answer as wrong

The best part of the presentation was
Wahls’ deadeon sense ofhumor As a speaker
that visits all kinds of arenas, he has received
all kinds of questions from his different aue
diences, one of them being, “Which of your
moms is the man" Think for a minute about
that question; does it make any logical kind of
sense?

Wahls gave us his answer in the form

of a brainebending question that seems fool,
ish but is important: “Which chopstick is the

Photo by Katie Peters

fork?" How much more sense does that ques
tion make than the one asked of Wahls? Wahls

i

 

made a good point: it’s the stigma ofa coue
ple being defined as a man and a woman
that created the argument over sameesex
relations, but the notion could be as easily
accepted as the idea of a pair of chopsticks
working towards the same goal as a fork
and knife

Wahls left the night with a great
piece of advice, one that can be applied to
anyone on any side of the situation: “The
most important thing is learning to be a
good person, and that’s not inherently mas,
culine or feminine"

One may read this article and be of,
fended, or one may read it and learn some,
things It is not until one steps outside of
their comfort zone that they can learn to
defend beliefs or maybe even change them

This writer encourages you to step
outside of that comfort zone this month
and come to one of llT’s GLBT His,
tory Month events, or visit Alex Garret in
MTCC 216 or any staff with a Safe Space
sticker to learn more about the LGBT com,
munity or becoming an ally

Visit http://wwwiittedu/student,

life/glbt to find out more information about
the upcoming events

TBTN Week crusades against sexual violence

By Hannah Larson
ASSiSTANT EDiTOR

No means not One sexual assault is
one too many Every two minutes, someone
in the US is sexually assaulted
Feminists United will be advocating for these
messages, and more, during the next few days
for Take Back the Night Week

After kicking off with the popular
speaker Between Friends yesterday, TBTN is
shaping up to be informative and thought,
provoking
FU will have tables on the MTCC bridge
today, tomorrow, and Friday during lunch
to hand out informative pamphlets, collect
pledges from students vowing to not engage
in any sexual acts without consent, and other
goodies
Tonight, there will be a self, defense workshop
with Office of Campus Life and IMPACT at
6:30 pm in the MTCC Ballrooml
Wednesday, October 17 is the week’s keynote
speaker, titled, “Just Trust Me," from Campus
Outreach Services (COS)1 COS is a national
organization that collaborates with entities
like the NFL, Lifetime TV and HBO televie
sion networks to work on educational pieces
on sexual violence, according to their web,
site, campusoutreachserviceslorgl COS is also
sponsored by the Department of Defense
and US Ambassadors for international work
against sexual violence

“Just Trust Me" is a presentation by
a victim, named Stephanie, who was sexue
ally assaulted by a peer in her second year of
college while under the influence of alcohol
Stephanie will relate her experience to the aue
diencel COS says this presentation will sow
seeds of responsible decision making, help at,

tendees rec,
ognize how
alcohol abuse
affects those
d e c i s i 0 ns ,
and increase
a w a r e n e s s
and under,
standing of
sexual assault
and its forms

T h u r s d a y,
October 18
will be an FU
general body
m e e t i n g
with discus,

sions about
the week’s
events, as

well as post,
eremaking

for the rally
on Friday
This event
will take
place in the
MTCC 516,
next to the

post office at
9 pm Come
with your
best TBTN slogansl

Friday, October 19 will be the rally
where participants will symbolically take
back the night by chanting catchphrases, and
making noise with whistles, noisemakers, et
cetera This will begin at 8 pm where we will
meet at the MTCC picnic tables and snake
through campus, ending up at the Quad to

MONDAY OCTOBER 15:

Between Friends, MTCC 5161PM - 2PM

TUESDAY OCTOBER 16:

Self Defense Workshop, MTCC Ballroom, 6:30PM - 7:30PM

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17:

Keynote Speaker: “Just Trust Me", 7PM - 9PM

THURSDAY OCTOBER 18:

General Body Meeting & Rally Posters, MTCC 516, 9PM

FRI DAY OCTOBER 19:

TBTN Rally, Meet @ picnic tables by MTCC @ 8PM, ends at the
Quad, with Porchlight Services' Speaker

Sponsored by SAP & a special thanks tO Women's Services

listen to a speaker from Porchlight Counsel,
ing Services, a Chicagoebased resource center
that specializes in helping collegiate sexual
assault victims

FU encourages everyone to attend at least
one, or more of the events Sexual assault can
happen to anyone, regardless of gender or
sex The Rape, Abuse & lncest National Net,

 

work (RAINN) estimates that 54% of sexual
assault cases are not reported to the proper
authorities, and twoethirds of assaults are
committed by someone known to the victim,
and only through advocacy and events like
TBTN can these numbers and other shocking
statistics be lowered

Image by Hannah Larson