Elijah Clarke, Staff Writer
The Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) held their second mixer for the 2015-2016 school year with music blasting from the doorways of the Student Union ballroom well before the scheduled start time of 8 p.m.
Over 50 people were in attendance by 8:20 p.m., as many of them made a beeline straight for the dance floor where DJs such as Armstrong’s own Marisa Cataldi were spinning a wide arrangement of songs.
“I had a great time dancing with everyone. There was a great variety of songs so that
everybody could enjoy their time, which I respect,” said junior communication science and disorders major Andrew Jones. “My favorite part was being able to see my friends and other people I haven’t seen in a while that I missed.”
The ballroom was beautifully decorated with streamers while rainbow tables and flags dotted the room. A projection that demanded attention sent colors flying all over the dimly lit room, but the real attention grabbers were the giant G, S and A letters, resplendent in rainbow paint.
Committee members were in attendance to greet everyone who walked through the door, handing out specific glowing jewelry to match the person’s sexual orientation. The colors were red for straight, orange for gay, yellow for lesbian, green for queer/questioning, blue for bisexual/polysexual, pink for asexual/aromantic, and aqua for transgender/nonbinary.
Charles Breazeale, a sophomore Chemistry major and treasurer of GSA, was hopeful that everyone who attended the mixer will also attend future events and meetings such as Drag Bingo on March 1.
“We had one [Drag Bingo] last semester and we will be using the proceeds from both to help fund our big Drag Show. Our Drag Show itself will be April 5 as part of GSA’s first LGBT+ Week from March 29 to April 6, and will be free to attend.”
Sophomore engineering major and GSA vice president Hunter Hart, said “There weren’t too many differences between this Mixer and the one we had in August. Both events share the same goal of allowing students to just have fun during the first few weeks back from break.”
The Gay Straight Alliance meets every Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Fine Arts Hall room 206 and accepts all who are interested, regardless of sexual orientation.
