A simple slogan - gay? fine by me - moved about campus Monday as people donned free T-shirts in support of gay rights.
A group of students began handing out shirts Friday and continued distributing them on the Bryan Center walkway yesterday in an effort to encourage University members to accept people practicing gay lifestyles. Although funding for the shirts came from Duke Allies, the University's official gay-straight alliance, the program was unaffiliated with any official organization on campus.
"I think that Duke has a reputation as being very conservative and unfriendly," said Tyler Pulis, who graduated from Trinity College in December and currently works in a nuclear physics lab on campus. "This is an easy way to show that there are people on campus who are cool with gay rights without any other sort of agenda attached," she added while handing out shirts.
By noon Monday, organizers had run out of the 500 navy blue shirts initially commissioned and placed a rush order for another 228. At 2 p.m., the second batch arrived - this one also including yellow, teal, red and black shirts due to the urgency of the order. Within 17 minutes, swarms of seekers had exhausted the second supply as well. Another 300 shirts will be available on the walkway today starting at 11 this morning.
Organizers created the free-shirt drive in response to discussion among students that the gay community is often stereotyped at Duke.
"It's just a bunch of friends who got together for dinner and said something needs to be done," said Riddhi Mukhopadhyay, a junior who helped to coordinate the project.
The shirt design, she added, is not meant to declare the wearer's sexual preference but merely to express support for the right to practice an openly gay lifestyle. "You don't have to be gay to wear it," she said.
Although some passers-by responded negatively to invitations to take a T-shirt, organizers said the overall response on campus has been positive.
Students, employees and campus visitors took shirts to show their support, with many people changing into them on the spot. Several student leaders also accepted T-shirts, including some Duke Student Government executive committee members and freshman basketball player Shavlik Randolph.
"I think it's important that this is a visible statement to people on campus that this is a safe environment for gay people, like it is for anyone else," said Kim Reyes, a senior.
Sophomore Sean Marshall said he never refuses a free T-shirt, but that he agreed with the message on the shirt. "I have gay friends," he said as he chose a red T-shirt and slung it over his shoulder. "My roommate next year is gay and I don't do anything like beat him up all the time. I'm not ashamed to publicly express [my support for gay rights]."
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