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Wesleyan’s upperclassmen may not have found anything particularly unusual Thursday morning. They may not have even noticed anything at all. But first year students as well as visiting tours may have been a bit taken aback as they wandered around campus. 

Wednesday night, members of Wesleyan’s Queer Alliance (QA) chalked sidewalks all around the campus, in the same way other student groups spread their message. 

The messages themselves ranged from the mild "Hewitt boys are cute," chalked outside Hewitt 8, to the more outspoken, "practice safe sex, clean off your strap on" outside of Olin. Some of the messages were entirely graphical, in the case of a giant phallic symbol near the campus center.

Phil Gentry ’02, one of the co-organizers of the chalking, pointed out that none of the messages were pre-decided by the QA, and everything that was written was based on the choice of the writer. 

"All Queer Alliance does is buy buckets of chalk and give it out on a specific night. There is no collective agenda, no reasoning, no rearrangement. At the meeting before we talk about what our own reasons for chalking are, but there are such diverse opinions that any kind of general goal or purpose would be silly," Gentry said.

Several students said they felt the chalkings were good because they were able to provide students with a voice they do not ordinarily get to use.

"I think it’s important to have a group around campus that raises awareness about an issue that gets so quickly swept under the rug," said Joseph Kraft ’03. "Basically the chalkings served several purposes. Each person doing the chalkings had an opportunity to express themselves that they usually don’t have."

According to Gentry, the date of the chalking was chosen for a specific reason. October 11th is National Coming Out Day, an event that has been celebrated in many communities for almost a decade. In addition, Coming Out Day coincides with one of the heaviest times for pre-frosh traffic. 

"The timing is that coincidentally the Office of Admissions tends to hold their pre-frosh open houses near National Coming Out Day, and we certainly love to have as large an audience as possible," Gentry said.

Not all students, however, had a positive response to the chalking. 

"You know, I’m all for what they’re trying to do here," said one student who did not wish to be identified. "But some of what they write is just offensive." 

Gentry said he felt that the chalkings’ offensiveness was relative.

"There is as much ‘vulgarity’ in your average party or Argus issue as there are in the chalkings," Gentry said. "I thought the Presidential Debate was rather vulgar."

"I think that what makes most people feel uncomfortable is that for a day or two, Wesleyan becomes a queer space. You can’t escape us. The other 364 days of the year Wesleyan is a straight space, but for this one day it’s ours," Gentry added.

Ultimately, the greatest foe to the QA may not have been homophobia, hatred or fear, but rather, mother nature Thursday afternoon. 

"Too bad it rained," Gentry said.