Haters be hatin' on the EG

Don't want no drama, no, no, no drama. Yet we got drama, some, some, some drama. Most recently from the WSU chapter of GLBTA (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered alliance).

It all started when nationally syndicated sex columnist and Seattle native Dan Savage came to WSU earlier this week for a R-71 (protect marriage referendum) debate and GLBTA started promoting the event.

Now, the Evergreen has come out officially in support of gay rights. And we've had a good working relationship with the GLBTA for as long as I've worked at the E.G. I think they're a good group of people who benefit the community with their events and activities. Plus, we've officially taken a stand for R-71.

So you can imagine our surprise when the event organizers got a conservative Evergreen columnist William Stetson to get on stage with Savage and began promoting the event as an "The Evergreen vs. the gays" kind of thing.

They made it out to be like he was representing us, our views and our organization. Which he was not.

We found out about this about a week before the event. That same day R. King (P.S. thanks for the use of the screen shot) sent the GLBTA a polite e-mail asking them to take us off their promo material. They responded politely and said they would.

But come the day of the debate our name was still being thrown around in association with the event. The GLBTA's Facebook page still had us on its event information and people were tweeting and posting Facebook updates that said things like, "Going to see Dan Savage debate The Evergreen, lolz."

So rather than bite our tongues and allow people to jump the conclusion that the E.G was somehow heterosexist we wrote an editorial and leveled a shot across the GLBTA's bow.

Needless to say, they weren't happy (see above). And all day people have been generously taking time out of their busy schedules to remind us how badly we suck and how much they hate us. So that's been nice.

My favorite comment above though is the first that says "the evergreen is a bunch of little punk asses ... no one likes to REALLY ask questions ... if they had to ask questions then they'd have to WORK, instead of worrying about their next party."

Haha. I was unaware we had such a reputation as party animals. Though we do frequently take reporting breaks to do keg stands and draw on each others' faces with sharpies, it's like Greek week in here guys, srsly.

And I can honestly say, in all my time on earth standing at 6'2 and weighing in at 240 lbs., I have never been called a "little punk ass." It's kind of adorable.

I also liked the original post that instructed people to write us letters and, "Let them know that as a newspaper, their job is to ask questions and not just guess why an intellectual lightweight bigot is on-stage."

Frankly I don't understand this well written, painstakingly crafted pearl of wisdom. First of all "on stage" is two words. But beyond the glaringly obvious fact that the author has a very poor command of the English language we didn't have to guess why Stetson was there, we knew.

He was there because event organizers were scrambling to find ANY country bumpkin conservative who would be foolish enough to get on stage with heavy hitter like Savage. And since Stetson was the ONLY conservative within a 100 square miles they could find who would agree to get publicly mocked by the community and verbally pummeled by Savage, guess who became a whipping boy?

Stetsy-wetsy, that's who.

I attended part of the debate and let's just say, it was like watching Sugar Ray Leonerd beat up a baby. I felt bad for the red-faced, sweating Stetson, but not that bad. No one should have the right to tell anyone else what they can do or where they can stick their penis or vagina, that's why they're called privates.

But my favorite part was when Savage asked Stetson why gay marriage was wrong and Stetson replied, "because it IS!"

Ah sir, your powers of rhetoric and persuasion are powerful and impressive, clearly you have been trained in the art of argument.