Stop sexualizing transgender children

Opinion | 3 months ago

Correction: An error in editing resulted in Coy Mathis being referred to as a “transgendered” individual rather than a “transgender” individual. The Collegian regrets its error. Public restrooms are the opposite of sexy. The words “public restroom” conjure images of unclean stalls and determined hand-washing. Sure, individual stalls offer some privacy that could technically be [...]

Stop sexualizing transgender children

Tyanna Slobe
Author

March 5, 2013

Correction: An error in editing resulted in Coy Mathis being referred to as a “transgendered” individual rather than a “transgender” individual. The Collegian regrets its error.

Public restrooms are the opposite of sexy. The words “public restroom” conjure images of unclean stalls and determined hand-washing. Sure, individual stalls offer some privacy that could technically be turned into sexy-zones by consenting adults, but in general there is nothing innately sexual about a public restroom.

Coy Mathis of Fountain, Colo. is a six-year-old girl who has been denied access to the girls’ bathroom at her school because she is transgender. Until this past winter break, Coy was allowed to use girls’ bathroom at Eagleside Elementary School. In December, however, her parents received a letter from the school stating that Coy would no longer be able to use the girls’ bathroom because she was “born a male” and “the future impact a boy with male genitals using a girls’ bathroom would have.”

The school district’s lawyer, W. Kelly Dude, has been quoted by the media claiming, “I’m certain you can appreciate that as Coy grows older and his male genitals develop along with the rest of his body, at least some parents and students are likely to become uncomfortable with his continued use of the girls’ restroom.”

I have my own opinions about the transgender community, and while I have written many an article about the amazing trans people I know, those views are absolutely not what this article about.

Let me be explicit: this article is about the sexualization of children.

Sexualization means attributing sex or sexuality to someone. People’s assuming that Coy Mathis’ bathroom usage is going to have dangerous repercussions because of her body is an example of sexualization.

To claim that a child does not have the right to use a bathroom that appropriately matches their gender identity because of a supposed threat posed by their presumed genitalia is to effectively sexualize that child. It is to suggest that there is something sexual about this child’s body that is threatening. In fact, this claim goes beyond sexualizing a child and suggests that the child is a potential sexual predator because they are transgender — which is, of course, completely false.

Six-year-olds do not deserve to be sexualized. They deserve to be able to go to the bathroom without hassle. Making a child out to be a dangerous sexual being and focusing on a child’s body says a lot more about the adults who are doing so than it says about the child herself.

Walking into a men’s bathroom or a women’s bathroom is a public display of gender identity. I dress like a girl, act like a girl and am a girl. When I am in public I use the women’s bathroom. I, like Coy, would not feel comfortable walking into the men’s bathroom while dressing, acting and being a girl.

Both women and men’s public restrooms have private stalls. Even if a child’s genitals were relevant to their bathroom use — which is not the case — there would not be an issue. I have never seen a bathroom with a guard at the door who makes everyone pull down their pants as proof before entering. That would be utterly inappropriate, especially in an elementary school. However, any institution that makes a claim that bathroom usage is dependent on genitalia is doing exactly this; suggesting that there is some sort of need for policing people’s bodies.

The nature of a child’s genitals is not up for public scrutiny. Ever.

According to the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, 89 percent of transgender youth are bullied every year at school based on their gender identity. LGBT youth are four times more likely than their peers to attempt suicide.

These staggering statistics are largely due to institutions like the Fountain-Fort Carson school district and adults like Mr. Dude who sexualize children by seeing them only as bodies and not as people.

The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act ensures protection for transgender youth by prohibiting discrimination. While there is no current statewide law about what this means for bathroom usage, some districts like Boulder Valley have explicitly stated that children should use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

A person’s rights do not depend on their body. Coy Mathis dresses like a girl, acts like a girl and is a girl. Making her perform according to boy gender by forcing her to use the boys’ bathroom because the treatment of her body is a very clear example of sexualization of a child from the Fountain-Fort Carson school district.

http://twitter.com/bugbrennan Cathy Brennan

Bathrooms are segregated by sex. Girls and women have a right to use the restroom without men and boys present. And this isn’t about “sexuality.” This is about male violence. Bathrooms are unsafe for women and girls as it is. nametheproblem.com
- Adrian
  
  By your definition, intersexxed people would have no place to pee. Neither would the yound sons of single mothers who have to go to the ladies room with their boys.
  
  Besides, Coy is a young lady, not some predatory rapist.
  
  You should learn about transgenderism and the real gender spectrum. Your ignorance abounds.
- http://www.facebook.com/nathan.goodman.90 Nathan Goodman
  
  Do you have evidence that transgender women, particularly those who transition as girls, pose a threat to women and girls in bathrooms? I could perhaps understand if you were making a “male gender socialization” argument against a trans woman who transitioned in adulthood, but with someone who transitions so young and thus is subjected to feminine gender socialization from a very young age, that argument does not seem to work. In other words, the only causal basis you would seem to have is biological determinism. Yet this seems like a bizarre position for a radical feminist like you to hold, given that Andrea Dworkin directly repudiated such views. http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIIID.html
  
  Meanwhile, while you have not presented evidence that transgender girls and women pose a threat to other girls and women in bathrooms, we do know that transgender women and girls face serious violence when they are outed, and that using men’s bathrooms would absolutely out them.
  
  Of course, if transgender women and girls sharing bathrooms with FAAB women and girls does somehow pose a risk, the violence and bigotry trans women face means that continuing our current system of sex segregated bathrooms is an acceptable solution. In the event your conjecture is correct, we should strive to create safe spaces for both trans and cis women by promoting safe, single occupancy unisex restrooms in public spaces.
  - alytron
    
    Perfectly said.
- sheila moss
  
  we love that Cathy Brennan feels the need to weigh in here. Transphobia, well, your damaged sense of what was done to you by men has become out of control. Loss of perspective. .Unprofessional. And on the wrong side of history ,you’ll see!
- devin_mb
  
  She is six. You are one sick fuck.
- AS
  
  I would also like to point out that woman can also be violent. I’m sure you will not believe this but men can be raped and victimized too but because of culture they often do not report and are not believed. Also a woman can hurt another woman or child. Violent behavior is not limited by gender. Your argument is flawed for many of the reasons mentioned but also because gender does not dictate violence, sex does not dictate violence, nothing but the individual truly dictates violence(and by individual I do include genetics, mental health, life experience. I say this to keep from the issue of someone assuming all of *blank* are naturally violent). I, as a man (and a trans one at that), have been the victim of violent females and violent males (actually the same number for each). I feel that saying just because someone is male means that they are violent is right up there with saying that just because someone is black that they are uneducated and violent. It is a stereotype, and one that lacks true substance.
  
  If you were really concerned with the safety of children then you would have no objection to this little girl using the bathroom that SHE will be most safe in and feel most comfortable in. Stereotypes are truly what does damage and harm to our children. When I am around my mother there is an expectation that I continue to use the women’s restroom and that she can refer to me as she, that is outing me and putting me and others in an uncomfortable situation because I look male (facial hair and all). The only time someone might notice that I do not have a penis is if they happen to break into the stall that I am in.
  
  Also the website you used can not truly be considered credible because there is an inherent bias (yes I know that I hold a bias as well but I also do not publish crap parading as scholarly). The way it is set up does not even read as being something of reputable information.
- KaraConnor
  
  Trans women or trans girls are not men or boys. Nor do they present a threat,
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Victoria-Freeman/100000689306569 Victoria Freeman
  
  See, this is what people are talking about when they talk about rape culture. The only way that this situation is somehow conducive to rape (ignoring for a moment the girl’s age) is if rape is something that just naturally happens when people with external genitals don’t have enough barriers between them and other people’s internal genitalia. (Ignoring, of course, those locks on the stall doors)
  
  JUST TO BE CLEAR: It’s important to note that we’re discussing stranger rape. It’s quite rare compared to other kinds of rape, although our rape culture would have you believe that it is the typical or even the only kind of rape.
  
  In the real world, rape is a choice that the rapist makes. It isn’t some magical spell cast on them by short skirts; it’s something they plan ahead for. In nearly all cases of rape the perpetrator knows exactly what they’re doing, even if they don’t know that what they’re doing is called rape. In the case of stranger rape, it’s safe to assume premeditation. Bathrooms are literally a room that everybody needs to visit multiple times a day whether they want to or not. They’re busy and ladies’ rooms doubly so.
  
  While being a trans woman makes it less likely someone will call the cops on you for going to the bathroom, people will still call the cops on you if you rape someone in there regardless of whether or not they think you have the right to pee there. There is no benefit to being a transwoman in that situation; there is only added risk.
- Ronan Kelly
  
  All girls, including trans girls, have the right to use the bathroom safely. This includes not having our genitals judged, speculated about, or tossed out for public debate. And yes, this is absolutely about sexualization – it is sexualization when adults project sexual ideas onto children, not to mention when they use those projections as a pretext to mistreat a child. Your adherence to transmisogyny is leading you to side with adults who are sexualizing and attacking a young girl.
- Robert
  
  I absolutely never, ever respond to comments on the internet. I’ll make an exception here.
  
  As a father (of three girls, 13, 8 and 4) I must say I would be perfectly comfortable with trans girls using the girls bathrooms at my daughters’ schools.
  
  Cathy, you are seriously one messed up deranged person. Sick, sick, sick. How the heck is this about male violence? She’s a little trans girl who is in elementary school, not a rapist or murderer. She does not in any way make a bathroom unsafe for anyone. You should be ashamed of yourself. Sick and twisted is all I have to say.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=592385166 Pan Dimensional
  
  Sorry but you’re the kind of feminist that makes the rest of us look bad. You’re not aonly naming all men as rapists, you’rwe naming trans-girls as men. Please educate yourself into the last 20 years of feminism.
- Torako
  
  that’s great, except that trans women and girls are, by definition, just that: women and girls!
Adrian

Thank you so much for this article. My gender identity has nothing to do with my sexuality, and being male doesn’t suddenly make me a predator(despite what the previous comment would have you believe).
EC

I don’t disagree with the author that Coy should be able to use whatever restroom fits her identity, but I do find fault with the core argument that anyone is ‘sexualizing’ the child.

The author predicated her entire argument on this, but didn’t offer any explanation or evidence as to why this was true – it was merely stated as fact with no rationale, and then lambasted for the rest of the article. I understand the constraint word limits place on opinion writers, but to just assert your main point with no reasoning is completely unacceptable.

Though in the grand scheme of things I do agree with the author, this article is at best extremely poorly written, but I also suspect that the author is just burning a straw man in lieu of addressing her real opposition.
- devin_mb
  
  Did you not read the quote from Mr Dude, where he talks about a six year old child’s genitals?
  - EC
    
    How is referencing the body parts they are using as the criterion for gender classification sexualization?
    
    While we are discussing six year olds, we are not ourselves six year olds. We do not need to blush and giggle at the word genitals and assign it connotations that the word simply does not have.
    - devin_mb
      
      When Dude says “I’m certain you can appreciate that as Coy grows older and his male genitals develop along with the rest of his body, at least some parents and students are likely to become uncomfortable with his continued use of the girls’ restroom.”, why is it that he brought the word “genitals” into this at all? Your position is that he isn’t, at all, referring to sexuality in doing so?
      
      I mean if you think he referenced “genitals” just cause that’s where pee comes from, I guess you can believe that, and we will just have to disagree. But I’d ask you to just make sure you are convinced of that claim, and maybe to consider why that would make some parents “uncomfortable” if he isn’t referring to sexuality at all.
      - EC
        
        He referenced genitals because genitals are what those who hold a heteronormative mindset use to determine a person’s sex. Which is exactly what I said above:
        
        “How is referencing the body parts they are using as the criterion for gender classification sexualization?”
        
        Boys have penises. Girls have vaginas. There is nothing sexual about this – these are clear physical differences in the sexes, and all he’s doing is using that distinction to assign a gender identity to the child. While this is not considered PC to LBGTQ-informed people, this is still the mainstream distinction that people have used for thousands of years. While I don’t think this is an appropriate way to classify people, and am sympathetic to the plight of trans people, you can hardly fault the guy and claim that he is sexualizing children for using what is the commonly accepted scientific standard for determining a person’s gender.
      - devin_mb
        
        “Different plumbing therefore different bathroom” could be a rule that people make, but the different plumbing is already there. Why the heavy emphasis on future bodily development? There is one reason and one reason only: that future bodily development is freighted with sexual connotations.
        
        The only change that people’s genitals make as they enter puberty and their bodies develop is sexual. That’s the only change. That future is what Dude is referencing. If it wasn’t, he (and the school district) would talk about the problem as a present tense problem, but they don’t.
      - Amy
        
        In the future, boys and girls will have to share locker rooms to change for PE classes. Most schools do not have private changing rooms. I agree that Coy can and should be able to use the girls bathroom but I also can see where a problem may arise when she gets to middle school.
      - http://www.facebook.com/mitchel.d.lyons Mitchel Daniel Lyons
        
        I understand your arguments, however, you are grouping “sex” and “gender” together. Sex is either male or female assigned at birth. The sex of a person could be female because the child has a vagina. Also, the sex could be female based upon chromosome make-up or genetic defects, but the child could have a penis or vise versa.
        
        Gender is an internal construct of an individual’s feelings or thoughts. A person born with a “normal male sex” body could feel completely detached from the “sex” that person was given and feel more female. In a society like the united States, we often feel the need to place gender and sex within the same category. This is simply not the case. Just because a female sex person was born that way does not conclude that she/he must live their life as a female gender. We have all used the term “tom-boy.” This refers to a woman who dresses more male or alters their appearance to look more male than her peers. This is a reflection of that individual’s self-expression. The way that person presents themselves is what is the most comfortable for them.
        
        As a trans-man, struggling with individuals such as yourself is frustrating. I hope that you see the point. This article was printed to educate and inform. All humans are different and it can be extremely difficult to understand one-another. I struggle with understanding myself sometimes. But we should all have the desencey to respect each other.
- alytron
  
  ” To claim that a child does not have the right to use a bathroom that appropriately matches their gender identity because of a supposed threat posed by their presumed genitalia is to effectively sexualize that child. It is to suggest that there is something sexual about this child’s body that is threatening. In fact, this claim goes beyond sexualizing a child and suggests that the child is a potential sexual predator because they are transgender — which is, of course, completely false.”
  
  Right there.
  - EC
    
    This is the exact line that I am criticizing as the author simply stating her opinion.
    
    The author states as axiom that “if A then B”, when the assertion she is making is hardly immediately apparent as true.
    
    Further, the line “supposed threat posed by their presumed genitalia is to effectively sexualize that child” is purely editorializing. Mr. Dude made no mention of threatening genitalia at all.
    
    The dumbass further down the page making claims about ‘male violence in the bathroom’ is making an argument that I would agree is sexualizing children. Mr Dude’s argument that ‘boys have penises, girls have vaginas’, on the other hand, is at worst a misguided attempt at having a clear cut, black and white, scientific interpretation of who is what (more on this in my comments on devin_mb’s response below).
Sarah

Bravo! I don’t understand why we feel the need to assume genetalia= threat. This is the school’s way to skirt (no pun intended) the issue entirely. They’d rather not have to address scenarios that don’t fit into the socialized order that children have been raised into for years. But by handling gender in such a dichotomized way they’re forcing a gender gap that perpetuates sexualization for years to come.
Pingback: calling a six-year old trans girl a “threat” is the flip-side of calling a nine-year old cis girl a “c*nt” | leftytgirl
Pingback: Stop sexualizing transgender children – Rocky Mountain Collegian | GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com
TransMomma

Thank you SO much! You made my day with this article. As the parent of a trangender child I have found this whole case to be so frustrating and insulting. My daughter is not a sexual predator. She is a child.
Jamie

Looking in someone else’s stall: always creepy and violating their reasonable expectation of privacy.

If you’re *NOT* looking in someone else’s stall, why on earth are you EVER seeing their genitals in a women’s room? (Also, am I the only one on the planet who doesn’t sit on the toilet with their legs closed or something? Other than pants/skirt going up/down I’m having trouble figuring out why even someone who is looking in the stall would be looking at my genitals.)

Ostensibly the thing being objected to is the impact viewing her genitalia might have on the other girls. Under what reasonable circumstance do you think they should be seeing anything?
http://www.facebook.com/ahsilab Alisha Ramsey Blackburn

Thank you so much for this well thought out and no nonsense article about a very important issue. It is very true that the problems surrounding bathroom use and trans kids come from adults who don’t understand gender identity differences and who view this through a lense of “boy” parts in a “girl” parts restroom. They are not thinking about the fact that 1) It doesnt’ matter what genitals someone has. They do their business then leave. 2) In the example of Coy and other trans kids, they will NOT be developing Much of the problem is that adults are putting sex or sexuality into a scenario that has nothing to do with that.. It has to do with a person’s right to access facilities that match their gender identity. The continual focus on genitals is incredibly shallow and damaging to the dignity of trans people.
- Transperson
  
  Given that this is a case set in America, it is possible that she will not be able to access the treatment to delay puberty (trans* people don’t usually start HRT for testosterone or oestrogen/progesterone until 16 or 18 years old). GnRH drugs are extremely expensive and a lot of insurance providers do not cover gender reassignment related healthcare. She still should be allowed to use the girl’s toilet though.
Greg Cundiff

Let the little girl go to the “girl’s room”. This isn’t rocket science, and she’s no threat. Thanks for the article.
http://www.facebook.com/tony.giovanni.7 Anthony Giovanni Doubek

Great article! In my blog (boxersandbinders.blogspot.com) I have occasionally written about how ridiculous the bathroom situation is for transgender people. Before you’re passing or when everyone knows your transgender, it almost feels dangerous walking into a bathroom, but being ostracized and told that you don’t have a choice in which one your go to or being forced to use a completely separate bathroom altogether is almost worse.
The sexualization of transgender people in general is out of hand. Like the case for CeCe McDonald. Her attackers claimed that she was only dressing as a woman to rape people. Those claims are unjustified and deeply insulting to a transgender identity. Transgender people are not sexual predators, we are human beings.
http://www.alicethesphynx.com/ Alice The Sphynx

Great article!
http://www.facebook.com/Kalisto.Hart Kalisto Angelique Hart

One question, how did the (ignorant) staff at the school know she has ‘boy parts’?
- Amy
  
  You have to show a birth certificate to register for school.
- Tyanna
  
  Yep, birth certificate. I read somewhere that most staff didn’t know before it became an issue in December on the part of the district. I’m not sure if that’s true though.
Shawn

thank you thank you thank you for posting this article! you put into words what I couldn’t.
http://twitter.com/joshaw400 Josephine Shaw

Tremendous piece. Thank you for writing it. This piece of sickening bigotry is reverberating around the world.
uhuhleuh

Awesome article, thank you. I wonder why people nowadays like so much to issue public opinions outside their expertise: male politicians talking about female’s body; straight lawyers talking about transgender issues; the pope talking about marriage and sex; fox news talking about anything…
- http://twitter.com/amaditalks Amadi
  
  An important note, straight isn’t the opposite of transgender. It is a clumsy synonym for heterosexual. The opposite of transgender is cisgender. And transgender people, like cisgender people, can be hetero-, bi-, homo- or asexual. Gender identity and sexuality shouldn’t be conflated in that way.
  - maxh
    
    At least as I’ve seen it used, ‘straight’ is the antonym of queer; that is, straight people are both cis and hetero.
    - http://twitter.com/amaditalks Amadi
      
      That’s just simply not correct.
http://www.facebook.com/DrDalek6 Scott Berg

Good on you I’m a Transman and totally agree people should be able to use whatever toilets they feel most comfortable with without being discriminated against. As you say there are private cubicles and it’s hardy as though she’s at an age where her gentialia will be very developed. SHe can always choose to take hormone blocker swhen she’s older if she decides to.
http://lisainbc.blogspot.com/ Lisa Salazar

In “progressive” Canada, we have a piece of legislation coming up for a vote in Parliament. The proposed bill would amend the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to include gender identity and expression to the list of protected groups/minorities. In 2012, the provinces of Ontario and Nova Scotia passed similar bills to amend their respective Human Rights Codes. A similar bill was introduced a couple of years ago in British Columbia, where I live but it has been stalled in the Legislature. Wouldn’t you know it, those lawmakers who have opposed these bills have used the restroom argument ad nauseum to instill fear that predatory men will be free to stalk women’s washrooms by dressing up as women. It’s just as ridiculous and unsupported as Coy’s school administration’s reasons for banning her from the girls restroom. But more odious, as you have pointed out so eloquently, is how this little girl has been sexualized so unfairly. Thank you, Tannay, for drawing attention to this.
Annie

As a transgender woman, I have long said that I go into the restroom to pee. What are you going in there for that you are so concerned about me?
Fritz

While this debate is going on, family and unisex restrooms are becoming increasing popular across the country. Why is that? Anyone who has small children can tell you. If you’re caring for a child of the opposite sex or several children of both sexes, the only safe way to use the restroom is to take everyone in at the same time. You don’t send a child in alone and you don’t go in and leave the kids unattended. There are privacy stalls. So, there’s really no issue about seeing someone’s genitals. When I took care of my brother’s kids, I used the family restrooms all the time when they were available (mostly at amusement parks and malls). I would go in and there would be women using the same restroom as me. There were kids of both sexes. Who cares? People are there using the toilets and washing up. The idea that children under the age of 12 even need separate restrooms is disgusting. The only purpose it can possibly serve is conditioning them for future gender roles — and isn’t that somewhat backward in the 21st century?
- http://twitter.com/leftytgirl Savannah
  
  This was a really insightful comment Fritz, as a trans woman and a feminist I really appreciated it. This last point you made in particular is too easily lost in all the hyperbolic rhetoric: separating children based on genitalia only serves to reinforce destructive, patriarchal social roles.
hay

Thank you for writing this. You are awesome
LD15

LOVE this article. Thank you for bringing attention to this.
concerned

Great article. I don’t understand making someone use a specific bathroom because of their gender. I have been to many many restaurants, cafes and other places that have a shared male/female bathroom, because there isn’t enough room for dual facilities. So as a woman am I now wrong for going into a bathroom that men use? (or vice-versa). Just the the kid relieve herself! This is ridiculous!
Mike

I think you have the definitions of sexualization turned on it’s ear. How in the world did this young boy get the idea that he is transgendered? That is sexualization. 6 year olds should not normally be thinking sexual orientation. Someone put that idea in his head.
- Maki
  
  Gender identity =/= sexual orientation. Children born with gender dysphoria know what gender they are the same way cisgender children do. Even if people try to get them to conform to the gender they were assigned at birth, trans* kids still know what gender they actually are. It has nothing to do with sexual orientation.
- http://twitter.com/KattoTang KattoTang
  
  Gender identity is NOT sexual orientation and has nothing to do with sex. It has to do with identity. Duh!
- reality
  
  You are exactly right
Guest

Are little boys sexual predators? I ask because boys and girls have separate bathrooms and changing rooms.
gery

i had sex a lot as a kid! age 5 and up, playing doctor, touching, sucking. it’s innocent exploration and i’m a pretty well adjusted adult. kids, cis and trans, are sexual, get over it!
Pingback: Christians and the Transgendered | life of a female bible warrior
reality

In reality, you are either a man or woman. Sorry, there is no in-betweens or I don’t knows
Pingback: Gender Inclusive Bathrooms in the Study Cube
Pingback: My Homepage
Pingback: tatuaggi
Pingback: 888
Pingback: cigarette electronique
Pingback: qjwalozp
Pingback: pudalbvr

Cost of college tuition out of control

Opinion | 16 hours ago

This coming school year we are all in for a surprise with a 9 percent tuition increase which brings the cost of tuition up to $7,494 for the fall and spring semesters of the 2014 school year. Rate increases are a problem seen with all colleges. In the last 13 years, tuition at CU has [...]

The futility of gun-control

Opinion | 1 month ago

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The Second Amendment is very clear on how guns should be handled. The definition of infringed by Merriam-Webster dictionary is, “Act so as to limit or undermine.” After [...]

Fair Trade Lovin’

Opinion | 1 month ago

Fair Trade is a non-profit organization that represents a brand of products being grown and produced on farms where farmers and workers get paid a fair wage for their labor. Along with fair wage and no child labor, Fair trade promotes sustainable farming in disadvantaged communities by educating producers to improve community development, and producing [...]

You are this paper

Opinion | 1 month ago

It was 10:30 p.m. two Saturdays ago and a couple of roommates had made their usual pit stop at our place before heading out into another wild Fort Collins weekend. No, it was nothing special. Just a bunch of burnt-out college juniors getting ready for one last hurrah before feeling the full weight of finals [...]

Pay attention to club sports

Opinion | 1 month ago

Over the weekend the CSU Women’s Lacrosse Team became national champions, defeating the University of California, Santa Barbara. They didn’t lose a single game, making their championship win the crown jewel in a perfect season. The problem is, not everyone really knows that CSU does have championship teams like the lacrosse teams. Anonymity is a problem that [...]

A study abroad attitude for summer

Opinion | 1 month ago

Summer is a time rife with possibilities. Three long months of freedom from the school year yawn before us, beckoning for us to do something besides watch reality TV. Even if a summer job or a few classes interrupt the blissful orb of summer, there are always those moments of apparent “nothing to do:” that [...]

Reflections of a professional theatre goer

Opinion | 1 month ago

The first play I ever saw was a production of “Cabaret” at the Community College of Aurora when I was 10-years-old. Now, if you are familiar with the musical, you may wonder why a 10-year-old would be at such a production. My friend’s mom was the costume designer for the show and they invited me [...]

Confessions from your Friday Columnist

Opinion | 1 month ago

Before you read this last piece of mine, I have to sincerely thank you, my readers, for putting up with my columns all year long. That being said, there are still some things I need to get off my chest before I graduate and enter the real world, where I’ll be a nameless, faceless and [...]

What is your freedom of speech costing you?

Opinion | 1 month ago

I am a diehard Minnesota Vikings fan. Even though they consistently lose and still refuse to draft a decent quarterback, I will continue to wear my jersey and braids with pride. So let’s just say that I wasn’t particularly surprised when I got word that the Vikings released their punter, Chris Kluwe, out of his [...]

Capitalistic companies should not be our ‘vehicle’ for space travel

Opinion | 1 month ago

Late last month, a Netherlands based organization began accepting applications for sending people to Mars. Exciting right? Well actually, it’s more of a mixed bag. Especially when one considers what the future of humanity has in store for it by allowing capitalistic based interests be our representatives in space exploration. Certainly there is great excitement [...]