TABLE 0F C0NTENTS
LETTER FR0M THE EDIT0R
HILLMAN RUMORS
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TRANSITIONING AT PITT 4 REWRITING THE LOVE STORY
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FOOTBALL IS SO GAY 7 PROPER PRONOUNS PLEASE
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SUPPORT OUR ARAB SISTERS 10 12
F4F-WHERE THE LADIES AT? FEMALE COACHES 14
18 LOOK BUT DON’T TOUCH
GRINDR EXPERIENCES 19 BARBIE’S NEW BOD(S) - ONLINE
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There was a time when a “Sex Edition” was oh so risque, when some of us kept a little quieter, when allies were a little harder to find and the world was a little bit colder and a little less colorful. Today is, thankfully, a new day. The Pitt News has now brought you eight years of this carnal holiday package. Over that haul, we’ve talked about our boobs, our bras, our members, our assaults, our loves and our preferences. As society advances — from the stone age, or at least, that’s how it can feel — the conversation deepens. Today, we can seriously address how we all aren’t hims and hers (page 8), and some of us are on the road to transition from one to the other (page 4). We can publicly examine Grindr (page 19) and football as gay spaces (page 7), and we grab ahold of a medium to make it our own, to say “I’m here, and I belong here” (page 6). With every year, we meet new questions. Like, when are we going to get the female version of Grindr (page 12) and when will we see parity in sports hires (page 14)? Today is a new day, but it’s not the end of the narrative. Problems still painfully exist, and we will be here to document them as they come. Outside of sex, this year doesn’t have a theme, and I hope this issue offers something for everyone, no matter where they fall on any of the spectrums. Sexuality is too complex for pristine packaging, but I think we have given you enough here to unwrap. Never forget to ask for consent and wear protection, Danielle Fox Editor-in-Chief
February 12, 2016
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Debunking Hillman’s dirtiest secret Kate Koenig VISUAL EDITOR
Matt Maielli Staff Writer
Playboy Magazine once ranked Hillman Library’s first floor as one of the best places in the country to meet women. Fact or fiction? Urban legends already hold a special place in our culture — Bigfoot, Goatman, Johnny Appleseed — but how does something that is published become an urban legend? Like a hare to the fox, the answer is quite elusive. The legend tying Hillman Library to Playboy comes in a few forms, from the first floor being the best, or one of the top places, to meet women, or more vaguely, the best place to “interact with the opposite sex.” The fact that the legend itself is hard to define foreshadows its uncertainty. Now, with insight from both Hillman’s archives and Playboy itself, we can close the book on the legend — sort of. Playboy has, in fact, previously ranked college libraries as top places in the country to meet women. University of Wisconsin’s College Library made the list in 1994
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and Florida State University’s Strozier Library in 1990. So the real question is, did Hillman Library ever really make the list? The earliest published online mention of Pitt’s sexiest legend is, ironically, on The Pitt News’ website from a 2002 “Best of ...” edition, in which the library w a s named “B est Place to S t u d y.” H i l l m a n’s s u p posed Playboy connection is tacked onto the beginning of the blurb before going into the building’s studying merits. The Google search’s next hit brings up, rather inexplicably, in a forum for the Dodge Charger car model. The legend is mentioned under Charger Chat Lounge, in the “Blasts from the past!” archive, where
a member with the username Gladiator quoted the “Best of ...” piece verbatim on May 8, 2011. Perhaps the most recent clue comes from a Pitt-focused article titled “The Best Study Spots on Pitt’s Campus that Aren’t in Hillman Library” on Pitt’s H e r Campus website, p u b lished Oct. 17, 2012. The aut h o r quotes the legend in a paragraph about her and her friends’ studying being interrupted by men in Hillman, but there’s a slight twist. The line reads, “There is an urban legend that at one point Playboy ranked Hillman as one of the top places in the country to meet and interact with the opposite sex,”
...We can close the book on the legend—sort of.
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which changes the legend from meeting women, specifically. This detail also appears on Niche, a school-review website headquartered in Pittsburgh, where it is listed on Pitt’s page under “Urban Legends” as “meet someone of the opposite sex.” The same line can be found in the College Prowler series of guidebooks — the company that would later become Niche — published July 1, 2012. It’s likely that Her Campus got the change from here or word of mouth and published months later. The writer, Alex Riccardi, couldn’t offer much of an explanation either, saying she found it “online somewhere.” Niche also lists the first floor of Hillman as one of the University’s “Popular Places To Chill.” But in a poll lower on the page asking, “What is the most interesting urban legend about campus,” none of 18 responses mentioned Playboy. As for a paper trail, the results are just as dry. A search at Hillman Library’s help desk found no results connecting Hillman See Hillman on page 16
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Trans students outsourcing for health care Rather than get trans health care on campus, Pitt students travel to Edgewood
Madeline Barber is a trans student studying theater and English. Kate Koenig VISUAL EDITOR
Josh Ye
Staff Writer Every morning and night, Summer Wright takes two pills. The first is her daily dose of estrogen. The second blocks the testosterone her body produces. When her insurance plan expires in a few months, Wright, a transgender woman and first-year social work major, may have to pay out of pocket to maintain the body that feels like home. Wright said she never considered using Pitt’s health care services because she didn’t think it was an option. For now, she’s right. Currently, Student Health Services can only assist trans students interested in hormone replacement therapy by referring them to local mental health or transgender-related services at other facilities.
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But this hasn’t always been the case. Just two years ago, if transgender students at Pitt needed to see a doctor who understood their specific medical needs, they could go to the Student Health Center and talk to Melanie Gold. Gold was a clinical professor of pediatrics at Pitt and could write prescriptions for hormones for trans students, covered by students’ yearly $210 wellness fee. Gold’s trans care program, open to undergraduate and graduate students, initially started with simply refilling prescriptions for trans students who wanted to maintain their hormone levels. But when her name became well known on campus, students started requesting more comprehensive trans health care, such as prescribing medicine and teaching students how to inject hormones. In late 2008, Gold formally put together
a multidisciplinary team at Student Health to care for trans students at Pitt, including nurses, pharmacists, psychiatrists, therapists and physicians. But in August 2014, Gold left Pitt for personal reasons and began working at Columbia University Medical Center. Since then, Pitt’s Student Health Services has been searching for clinicians to fill Gold’s position in order to continue its in-house medical services for Pitt’s trans students. Although still the same price, the wellness fee now only covers primary health services, co-pays and educational programs while Pitt still searches for Gold’s replacement. What Pitt offers According to Marian Vanek, the director of Student Health, hormonal therapy is specialty care that requires specific training and is not typically available at student health centers. Pitt currently refers students who need assistance with hormonal therapy, like Wright, to Metro Community Health Center, a federally qualified nonprofit that provides medical help for the underserved members of the society. At Metro, located in Edgewood, students can use their UPMC student h e a lt h insuranc e p l a n or any other major insuranc e company plan to get hormone replacement therapy and mental health services. Martin Seltman at Metro said in an email that the center provides holistic general medical care, including hormone ther-
apy, for more than 500 trans individuals, but said he doesn’t keep track of how many go to Pitt. Metro also assists trans individuals who are interested in gender confirmation surgeries with referrals. Currently, while Pitt is looking for Gold’s replacement, Vanek refers students to Seltman. “We are in the process of exploring the possibility of having one of our clinicians receive specialty training in order to provide additional services in-house or contracting with one of Metro’s physicians to provide periodic care on site,” Vanek said. According to Alexander McCarthy, the former president of Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance, members of the club have been meeting with Pitt administrators since spring of 2012, including Vanek and former Vice Provost and Dean of Students, and current vice chancellor and chief of staff Kathy Humphrey, about how to make campus more LGBTQ+ inclusive, particularly by improving care for trans students. “Apparently, a lot of doctors do not want to work with [trans] students. [Pitt administrators] have definitely been looking for a while to find someone who can replace Dr. Gold,” McCarthy, a transmasculine senior studying urban studies, said. “But they are definitely committed to bringing [a trans health specialist] back to the Student Health Center.” Although trans care is not exceptionally difficult, Gold said by the time she left Pitt, no one agreed to take over her position. She said not many people are experienced in the field, but a good
I deal with dysphoria every single day. This is not
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cosmetic. It’s who I am.
-Summer Wright
See Health Care on page 5
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Health Care, pg. 4 doctor can train easily for the position. “It is not rocket science. It is not hard. There are so many things we do in medicine that are so much more complex than this,” Gold said. “Monitoring hypovirus and diabetes is more challenging than this. Taking care of people’s hypertension is harder than this.” The physical side Madeline Barber, a transgender Pitt junior studying theatre arts and English writing, travels to Metro regularly. Barber said she has heard very little about Pitt’s trans care program. Barber, who has never considered using UPMC insurance because of its $200 premium fee, uses Medicaid to pay for the hormone replacement therapy she started three years ago. She said she visits her Metro doctor regularly and always receives her hormones, but it was a long road to get where she is now. “You have to be exclusively, stereotypically feminine or exclusively, stereotypically masculine in order to receive any kind of care,” Barber said. “Gender is as varied and diverse as people are.” When Pitt refers a student to Metro, Seltman said doctors first lead patients through an initial history, a physical exam and several lab tests. If the student doesn’t have any contraindications — any reason to withhold medical treatment because it could be harmful — to hormone treatment, the student could start receiving doses of hormones at their second appointment. After Metro prescribes a student hormones, doctors will follow up every three months for the first year and then every six to 12 months after that, if the process is going smoothly. According to Gold, most transgender health clinics follow Standards of Care, a clinical guideline published by The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, as well as the Clinical Practice Guidelines, which is published by the Endocrine Society. Standards of Care has been amended so trans individuals no longer have to present themselves in certain genders for an extend-
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ed period of time and mental health therapy is no longer required to receive hormones. According to Lori Fell, the director of clinical programs at Persad, an organization for outreach, education and advocacy for LGBTQ+ communities on Butler Street, doctors now only require informed consent, in which they must inform patients of the risks and benefits of beginning to transition. “Trans clients are free to pursue any avenue to transform their bodies. It is not up to anyone to say yea or nay,” Fell said. Joanne Goodall, a nurse practitioner at the Center for Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at UPMC, said her UPMC program has provided health care for more than 100 transgender people under 26-yearsold, including 10 Pitt students, six of which are actively working with her. Goodall said she thinks the amendment in the Standards of Care requirements makes for a more inclusive process. “For some people, it is not safe to physically transition 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They have to go to work in one presentation and they live the rest of their life in their preferred gender,” Goodall said. Barber said the older version of Standards of Care, which she underwent during her transition, required her to present herself as a female for one whole year before she started taking hormones. “That would mean growing my hair out longer, just presenting myself as a stereotypically feminine role,” Barber said. Barber considered herself lucky because people around her started to accept her as a woman fairly quickly, but before a doctor could prescribe her hormones, she needed a letter from her therapist who monitored her transition process and mental health. “For me right now, it is pretty simple. I visit my doctor every month. I tell her about my transition for a little bit. She puts in her prescription — usually refill, but actually always refill. And I go to my pharmacy and pick it up,” Barber said.
[Pitt administrators] have definitely been looking for a while to find someone who can replace Dr. Gold.
-Alexander McCarthy Alexander McCarthy is working to bring trans health care back to Pitt. Kate Koenig VISUAL EDITOR Wright, on the other hand, said the old version of Standards of Care hindered her transition. “It made everything slower, very frustrating. It actually blocked me from being able to get bottom surgery one year because of unrelated mental health issues,” Wright said. Although sometimes a slow, tedious process, Goodall said her patients undergo transitions because they have no other choice. “Transitioning is not like changing your hair color because you want to. Transitioning your body for many transgender people is as important as asthma medicine is to asthmatics. It is something that is medically necessary. It is not a whim. It is not, ‘I want a new pair of jeans,’” Goodall said. “It is taking medicine to transition your body so that you can feel good in your own skin.” Mental health Many transgender people feel “isolated and alienated” because people fear who they are, according to Barber.
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“When we come out, a lot of [family and friends] disown us, stop talking to us,” Barber said. “The only person from my family that is still talking to me is my mother. When I came out I lost half of my friends.” Barber said it is important to ensure that trans people have access to mental health help and to educate the masses about trans issues to block discrimination and oppression. According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 46 percent of surveyed trans men and 42 percent of trans women attempted suicide. While Pitt does not currently offer any trans-specific support groups, students can join three trans-specific mental health support groups — one for teenagers and two for adults — that Persad facilitates, according to Fell. In the past, Pitt had a trans-specific support group with the counseling center, which Gold founded and ran from 2009 to 2014. See Health Care on page 16
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Rewriting the love story
Michelle Reagle Copy Chief
When asked to name the last thing I read, I usually internally debate whether I should answer with the book I read three months ago or the 42,000-word fanfiction I read last night. But I get funny looks when I opt for the latter. For those outside of Internet fan culture, fanfiction repurposes characters from popular movies, books or TV shows to tell original stories. Usually writers do this to right the wrongs of creators who didn’t understand why their characters are absolutely destined for each other. The fanfic writers then post their work online so other fans can cry about how perfect Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are together. The main difference between the original content and fan content often lies in who the characters want to kiss. A lot of people falsely believe fanfiction is all depraved boy-on-boy smut. Some of it is — we don’t have nearly enough female characters to craft depraved girl-on-girl smut. But most writers are more invested in telling a story that doesn’t come through in the original work or revisiting old favor-
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ite characters in new situations. Often that means establishing the LGBTQ+ relationships that popular culture teases but never executes. This “queerbaiting” is endlessly frustrating, as it makes it feel like queer relationships aren’t as important as heterosexual ones. A n d fanfic writers’ efforts are worth it. One of my favorite fanfictions clocks in at more than 230,000 words — which is a just little shorter than “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the longest book of the series. In this particular fic, “The Shoebox Project” by Jaida Jones and Rave, the authors retell the Marauders’ Hogwarts years through letters, pictures and pivotal scenes. Their readers get to see how James Potter and Lily Evans fell
in love, how Peter Pettigrew drifted away from the group and most importantly, how Sirius Black and Remus Lupin totally got it on all over the school. What, you don’t remember that from the books? Dumbledore couldn’t have been the only boy who liked to kiss boys in “Harry Potter.” And I’m sure J.K. Rowling’s just holding off for the right moment to reveal on Twitter that Sirius and Remus were definitely a thing.
For both writers and
readers, fanfiction becomes a queer haven. I n “Shoebox,” the plot and the reinterpreted characters’ kept me reading — but the sex was a nice bonus. Plus, I like to read queer characters, and, unlike in traditional media, there’s no shortage of them in fanfiction. Through fanfiction, writers transform mainstream media into something more
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palatable for minorities of all sexual orientations and race. In most fanfictions, writers at least change characters’ sexualities, but many writers also swap characters’ race or gender identity. They think that two, or more, characters have chemistry that wasn’t developed in the original work. And I usually agree. Unlike mainstream work, where writing must appeal to the largest audience possible, fanfiction writers just want to see their favorite pairing smooch, and they don’t care if no one else wants to see how Ron Weasley fell for Winky the House-elf. Someone has to write it. For fanfiction writers, the stakes are low when it comes to publishing their work. Once an author posts a fic online, either people read it or they don’t — and maybe they leave a comment. But there’s no financial investment or stinging possibility of readers not liking your original characters. Plus, most fanfiction readers know how to find what they like and ignore what they don’t, so a writer’s more likely to have readers already invested in the storyline and those characters. As a result, fanfiction gets specific. I’m almost certain that I’ll never see a genderfluid, polyamorous bisexual on television, but it wouldn’t be out of place in my fanfiction circles. That’s why I read more fanfiction than See Fanfiction on page 11
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football is so gay FORCED MASCULINITY IN PRO SPORTS HALTS SOCIETAL PROGRESS Elizabeth Lepro
Assistant Sports Editor John Kichi thinks football players are kidding themselves. That’s an understatement — the Sewickley, Pennsylvania, author and illustrator actually thinks the entire sport is really, really gay. Kichi’s most recent picture book, “Football is Soooo Gay” is a diatribe to what he considers an essential truth: football is an inherently homosexual sport. Men only play it, obsess over it and dedicate their lives to it, according to Kichi — who is openly gay — to fake their way through heterosexuality. “The homosexual phenomena is not so passive. Science documents the homosexual urge [exists] in one degree or another in a majority of men,” Kichi said in an email. Watching men watch men in tight spandex lightly spank each other for support before they head in for a group shower does make me think there’s something innately homoerotic happening. But Kichi said it’s all a ruse so men can prove they’re straight by acting gay and not getting turned on. “But then I have to ask, prove to who?” said Emily Deering Crosby, a visiting instructor in Pitt’s Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies program. Crosby, who focuses mainly on gender and race, has also written about double-bind rhetoric in sports culture. “Gender is the process of becoming,” Crosby said, adding that as we grow up, we’re taught to reaffirm our gender over and over again. For self-identified men, growing up often means shedding any trace of femininity or homosexuality — two characteristics many people mistakenly associate. “By high school, [young men are] completely isolated from each other,” Crosby said, adding that they’ve become repressed and angry — and what better place to take out that identity confusion than on the football field? Crosby’s theory isn’t out of left field. The simple existence of scores of theories related to masculinity and homosexuality is a sign of the times.
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Our generation is much more apt to believe that sexuality is a spectrum and not a checkbox, so why are the pro leagues — namely the NFL and the NBA — so far behind? A few athletes, including 49ers running back David Kopay, have come out after retirement, but haven’t inspired many followers. NBA athlete Jason Collins made history when he publicly came
out in 2014. Michael Sam, the St. Louis Rams’ draft pick in 2014, was going to be the first openly gay man to play in the NFL — until he wasn’t. Crosby noted that football fans lauded Michael Sam for his athletic prowess, but when he came out, people changed their opinion to “Oh, he wasn’t that good anyway.” That’s because the culture of the NFL, according to Crosby, is built and maintained by older, white men. “[Football] is built on myths of masculinity that people have bought into to such an extent they don’t want that to be dismantled,” Crosby said. The NFL, an industry so distraught over a rainbowified Coldplay performance at the Super Bowl that Brazzers offered an alternative live-stream of an all-female porn show, is obsessed with its own perceived masculinity.
And the gender and sexuality anxieties don’t just manifest in men’s sports. Sports historian and Pitt professor Rob Ruck said that, for years, women athletes were afraid of falling into typecasts of their own. “Women athletes, gay or straight, faced people calling them butch, calling them lesbians,” Ruck said. In the same way that men put on shows of intense masculinity to deny any trace of homosexuality, women began playing what Crosby called the “hetero sexy game.” “Typically, athletes who present as heterosexual often do better commercially,” Crosby said. Which isn’t to say that gay pro football and basketb a l l playe r s are hopeless — and trust me, considering that Will Miller STAFF ILLUSTRATOR there are over 1,600 players in the NFL and around 400 players in the NBA, there are more homosexual athletes than Sam and Collins. It’s just that the intensity of coming out in that culture is so high, many men probably decide to dodge the spotlight. After Sam came out, that became his legacy, and it’s one that he’ll probably retain for the rest of his life. It’s hard for male athletes to be open about their sexualities because, as perceived anomalies, the media expects them to become the face of the LGBTQ+ community in sports. So the paradox becomes that a lack of openly gay men in highly-publicized pro
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sports discourages young men from breaking the forced heterosexual facade early on. But as those men grow up and start playing professionally, the narrow array of openly homosexual men makes it harder and harder to be the first. Tony Jovenitti, a Pitt alum and college hockey sports writer who came out in a column he wrote for Outsports, said he didn’t have anyone to look up to when he was growing up. He spent a lot of time pushing away anything feminine. “Any little thing I did that was considered fem would be called out and pointed out by my peers,” Jovenitti said. “There was no push to change it, even coaches encouraged it.” Jovenitti, who’s now a software specialist in Wisconsin, worked with the Penguins his senior year at Pitt, where he said he encountered “coded homophobia.” “It may be a little more challenging [to come out] in Pittsburgh,” Jovenitti said. “It’s a very intense sports town and it’s a small city ... every fan has an opinion.” Jovenitti was at a bar in Boston for college ice hockey’s Frozen Four tournament last year when he and his friend befriended someone else. Months later, the man messaged Jovenitti on Facebook to tell him that he had an awakening after meeting the two friends in the bar. “It blew me away,” Jovenitti said. It was seeing them being open and comfortable and attending a hockey game that made the man realize he didn’t have to separate his sexuality and his passion for the game. It was three years ago that NBA player Jason Collins inspired Jovenitti to come out publicly, paving the way for one impactful moment in Wisconsin.. Small steps, but maybe that’s the way it will happen in an industry so reluctant to kick down the closet doors. “I don’t know if we’re going to see a slow trickle of people or if the floodgates will open,” Jovenitti said. “[But] more of these stories need to be told.”
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EMBRACE PRONOUNS AND EACH OTHER Alyssa Lieberman Columnist
Skimming over the syllabus in my gender studies class, I noticed something new amid the usual blocks of deadlines and grading policies — a paragraph on gender-neutral pronouns. I was happily surprised to see the emphasis on gender-neutral pronouns, which are often they/them/theirs pronouns, especially in light of criticism that attempts to invalidate these pronouns by claiming that they are grammatically incorrect. Syllabi inclusion is an important step, but it should only be a start to make our campus more welcoming to students of all gender identities. Since kindergarten, schools instill us with a reverence for the English language. From slow, deliberate cursive writing to countless “Schoolhouse Rock” videos, we learn to value and unconditionally respect the rules of language.
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But a culture of blind obedience for traditionall language rules does more re harm than good, as it polices ices and shames those who do not conform to the gender binary: ary: she or he. This shaming overlookss the long history of the singular “they” y” within English language and literature, terature, present in works by renowned nowned authors that range from Geoffrey Chaucer to C.S. Lewis. People ignore this detail tail because they don’t really care about ut the English language rules — they only ly care about societal regulations and gett stuck on the predominant use of “they”” for a plural subject. These critics and I could uld agree on one point, though, if theyy were honest about their hangups — thee grammatical rules of the English language ge are of little to no consequence in society. ty. Our language has changed and
evolved throughout time — try to find me a speaker fluent in English that can read Olde English, which dates back to fifth century Germanic tribes and bares minimal
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resemblance to our language today. I am continually in awe of the vocabulary differences within my own home. I’ve never met anyone other than my dad who calls a couch a davenport, and he’s still grappling with the idea of a selfie. We continue to constantly create new nouns, verbs and phrases to meet sociSee Lieberman on page 9
Illustration by Terry Tan
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Lieberman, pg. 8 ety’s needs and ease the growing pains of communication. Our language is not a set, archaic algorithm with only so many outcomes — it continues to change so long as its speakers do. Language should not be something that limits our gender expression, but dismantles the restrictive gender binary, a malleable social construct. In nearly all tenets of society, from childhood books to college dorms and public restrooms, we grow up learning that there are only two gender options — man and woman — and attach stereotypes as so. People who identify as non-binary have been around for a long, long time — across the globe and throughout history, there have been people who do not identify exclusively with one gender or another. For example, the creation myth of the Mohave tribe — located on the West coast — has terms for four genders, and Navajo culture recognizes and reveres nadleehi, or people who are neither just man or woman. Those who are non-binary are not making a political statement or trying to destroy gender binary from the inside out — they are people trying to live as they truly are in a world that constantly tells them that they are wrong. Right now, we meet someone and automatically refer to them as either she or he. But it is time to consider “they” as an option during our first introductions, and support those who use this pronoun without petty grammatical reproach. Pitt’s Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program made strides by including guidelines regarding gender-neutral pronouns in their syllabi, which pulls from an in-depth document of gender inclusive and non-sexist guidelines and resources. Todd Reeser, program director of the GSWS department, hopes these inclusions will allow GSWS to lead by example so that “departments across campus will comes to us as they think about how to incorporate gender-inclusivity into student writing and into the classroom.”
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Pitt’s recent addition of gender-neutral housing is a great first step, as was the addition of the preferred name option. While it is important the GSWS department has set a standard for other departments to live up to, we need to take greater steps toward making Pitt a more gender-inclusive school. Gender-inclusive guidelines should appear in every syllabus. A policy regarding gender inclusivity should not be limited to just the GSWS program, but mandated in all departments. Pitt should give its faculty, students and workers an opportunity to indicate their gender pronouns across all fronts — from job and college applications to classroom introductions. University spokesperson John Fedele said that while there are currently no plans to require that Pitt faculty include name preference information in their syllabi, Pitt is committed to gender inclusivity. “The Provost’s Office was instrumental in working with the Registrar’s Office to create the preferred name option and will continue to work towards creating an open and inclusive environment for all members of the Pitt community,” Fedele said. Pitt’s preferred name option allows students to use a name different than their legal birth name in “the course of University business and education.” It’s an important administrative provision, but it’s time to move this acceptance into the classroom. Our society imposes an invisible line in the sand when it comes to gender expression, which our language’s two predominant pronouns only fortify. These limited options condition us to constantly wonder whether someone is “a man or woman,” so we know how to refer to them. Instead of allowing the English language to limit us, we must recognize our ability to change it. Our conception of English is in our minds, not our textbooks. We write the rules that govern our interactions, and it is time we replace archaic conceptions with pronouns that provide linguistic justice for all. Don’t let past generations dictate the conversation.
The Pitt News SuDoku 2/12/16 courtesy of dailysudoku.com
February 12, 2016
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s u p p o r t a r a b w o m e n
A
t 19, I only have a faint recollection of the sexism that imbued my traditional, Syrian upbringing. I was never hit, stoned or raped. My father never forced me to swathe myself in a black Niqab. I was fortunate enough to have a Syrian mother who knew her worth and taught me mine — and who raised me to never rely on men. Despite being raised in Pittsburgh by immigrant parents from the Middle East, relatives would still tell me to “cover up” if I bared my navel in a crop top. My family raised me to avoid precarious circumstances around men so I wouldn’t get sexually assaulted — because I would have been at fault for instigating my doom, and purity is sacred in Syrian culture. I never chalked these experiences up to systematic sexism in Syrian culture until I matured. But, as benign as the instances
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I’ve described may sound relative to the plight of women in the Middle East, Arab women fight against the same culture as I — the culture that forbids them from wearing crop tops and normalizes rape culture and abuse. Arab women resent their cultural roles as disenfranchised, doe-eyed, translucent, second-class citizens hidden away in harems. They are becoming activists — boldly and brazenly shunning their critics with mini skirts, picket signs and the outright damnation of their oppressors. They are catalyzing a woman’s Arab Spring, which, with enough support, can set off a domino effect to inspire women to reject their default placement as breeding machines and homemakers. And we need to help them. The international community needs to provide the women in the Middle East with support by incentivizing basic human rights. Countries with status, such as the United States, need to advocate for the empowerment of Arab women and hold countries that mistreat their women accountable by implementing sanctions. We need to inspire mothers to instill a sense of autonomy and independence in their daughters like my mother did with me. We need to express our solidarity with our Syrian, Iraqi and Egyptian sisters through
continued participation in social media campaigns. We must encourage Arab women to continue telling their stores to dissolve the silence that masks them. In December, Iraq crowned its first Miss Iraq, Shaymaa Abdelrahman, in 43 years. Despite being inundated with death threats by ISIS — which caused other contestants to opt out of the pageant — Miss Iraq stayed in, valiantly won and received an outpouring of support on Instagram. “I want to prove that the Iraqi woman has her own existence in society, she has her rights like men,” Abdelrahman told NBC News. Although the attention the media gave Abdelrahman may seem like an ephemeral 15 minutes of fame to us Westerners, her message reached 15 million young girls and women in Middle Eastern countries. This support may be exactly what young girls need. According to a 2011 UNICEF survey, 57 percent of adolescent Iraqi girls believe husbands are justified in hitting their wives. In a society where women are indoctrinated to believe domestic violence is an acceptable norm, women like Abdelraham are doing more than just going against the grain. In Western society, dresses that bare knees and tight skirts are staples of
February 12, 2016
Marlo Safi
Assistant Opinions Editor
many wardrobes. In the Middle East, however, wearing anything short or tight is a punishable crime. So much so, the Miss Iraq contestants cannot wear bikinis or dresses that fall above the knee. For women in Morocco, like those in Iraq, an outfit could equal jail time. Last July, women in Inezgane, Morocco, were arrested for “gross indecency” because of their short skirts. The women described merchants heckling them for wearing “flimsy and immoral” clothing, and the police reported noting the women’s clothes were “too tight.” Under Moroccan law, anyone guilty of gross indecency can face up to two years in prison. The arrest spurred a virtual protest where women across the globe posted See Safi on page 11
Courtesy of Marlo Safi
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Safi, pg. 10
Fanfiction, pg. 6
pictures on social media wearing short skirts along with a petition that more than 27,000 people signed. After the outcry and petition, the women were acquitted, disseminating the message calling for fair treatment of women even further. With continued support, Arab women are making the trek often encumbered with animosity and outrage — but it’s a trek to independence and empowerment, nevertheless. There are stumbling blocks, but they are inching toward the top. Much like the Arab Spring that facilitated rebellion and toppled regimes across the peril-laden region, women are following this same sequence, and we need to help arm their artillery. With each protest comes a tide of reform that many Arabs are embracing. It is a movement that requires us to beam the spotlight on our sisters who have emerged from the shadows. As salaam wa allaykum, my Arab sisters, and may we achieve it together.
do “real” books. Fanfiction lets LGBTQ+ writers interpret already popular characters as queer, which, for me, makes it much easier to obsess over stories and draw all the characters in compromising situations. On television and in books and movies, there are — thank God — LGBTQ+ characters, but there’s not that many, they leave out a lot of identities and they’re often just side characters. For both writers and readers, fanfiction becomes a queer haven. Most fanfiction features a central couple, but a lot of writers can’t resist adding in side pairings as well, so the work ends up with a spectrum of LGBTQ+ relationships represented with different sexual orientations. And to combat any naysayers, it’s not weird that there are six queer couples and one straight pair in the same story — I can personally attest that, in real life as well, queer people like to make friends with other queer people. How else would
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we find people to obsess over WolfStar with? Additionally, fanfiction representation of LGBTQ+ characters is a good guide for younger readers. When I was younger, I latched onto the few queer characters in pop culture. But they didn’t teach me to navigate a queer identity or relationship, because while it was entertaining to see queer characters on television, a lot of times they didn’t say it in so many ways. Fanfiction fills these gaps by showing healthy LGBTQ+ relationships. I’ve read a lot of fanfiction with transgender or asexual characters, which are good guides on how to begin to understand a queer identity. Plus, it’s kind of nice to have a fantasy where you flirt with the cute barista and they flirt right back — defying society’s “everyone is straight” etiquette. Fanfiction — because anyone can make it and anyone can read it — covers a lot of ground. Some fanfiction doesn’t show healthy relationships — I mean, unless you think that Harry getting together with the guy who killed his parents is healthy.
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Some fanfics are completely unrealistic in their understanding of how bodies work — for the love of God, don’t use that mayonnaise as lube. And some of it doesn’t have LGBTQ+ characters. What makes fanfiction different, though, is that readers can pick and choose what they want to see in a franchise they already love. I exclusively search in mature-and-up ratings with my favorite pairings, and, thanks to obsessive tagging, I only read fics labeled “angst” and “smut, like a lot of smut.” Fanfiction is a low-stakes medium that allows LGBTQ+ people to read about popular characters who are actually queer. It makes mainstream media feel just a little bit more LGBTQ+ friendly when you know, deep in your heart, that your two favorite characters are madly in love with each other, even if they don’t fit the cookie-cutter mold of boy-meets-girl. I mean, have you seen the way Harry and Draco look at each other? I’ve read an entire book about it.
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NO LUCK FOR WOMEN FISHING FOR WOMEN Alexa Bakalarski Staff Writer
When Estizer Smith logged into her dating accounts, she expected coffee date invites from other women. But instead, her inbox was filled with men — more specifically, men asking her for threesomes. Smith, a bisexual senior at Pitt, used Tinder for a year and Bumble for eight months before growing tired of men’s reactions to her sexual identity. “Had that been ... less creepy, I might have been inclined to stay,” Smith said. Although dating apps, such as Tinder and Grindr, have become cultural phenomena, apps for LGBTQ+ women are struggling to gain popularity — and if few people use a dating app, it loses its entire purpose. According to user reviews, most apps for LGBTQ+ women are riddled with bugs and attract few users, making it difficult for women to connect with other women. Mainstream apps don’t make it any easier — they often make users feel isolated and unvalidated because of limited gender identity and sexual orientation options. Most popular dating apps like Tinder, Hinge and Bumble only offer two or three gender identity and sexual orientations options, but a few, such as OkCupid, Her and Wing Ma’am represent a larger spectrum. OkCupid, a mainstream match-making app, includes 22 possible gender identities and 12 sexual orientations. Her, an app marketed toward women who like women, has 14 sexual orientation options. Wing Ma’am, one of the first LGBTQ+ dating apps, launched in 2012, allows users to identify with 13 sexualities. Smith used mainstream apps because of the low usership on alternative apps, but said the rigid gender binary leads the larger apps to offer only two or three options for sexuality — straight, bisexual or gay. “If someone has taken the time and done the work to discover that their sexual orientation and gender identities lie somewhere else on the spectrum,” Smith said, “they should be able to have enough options such that they can identify in a way that reflects how they see themselves, how they want others to see them and that’s just
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Illustration by Aby Sobotka-Briner
generally true to who they are.” Julie Beaulieu, a visiting lecturer at Pitt’s gender, sexuality and women’s studies department, said all dating apps should include a spectrum of gender identity and sexual orientation options. “One of the clear limits to mainstream — non-LGBTQIA+ — apps is their lack of diversity,” Beaulieu said in an email. “Inclusivity sends a clear message that all of our desires and identities are valid.” Despite the lack of options, many LGBTQ+ singles still gravitate toward mainstream apps because they have a better chance of meeting someone, according to Mariella Mosthof, a sex and relationships contributor for news website Bustle. “Niche dating apps for queer women and trans folks are great. But if they have a tiny us-
ership, then it’s impossible to meet people on them,” Mosthof said in an email. In Community Marketing and Insights 2015 ninth annual LGBTQ+ Community Survey, a total of 20 percent of the more than 3,200 lesbian and bisexual women used a dating app dedicated to lesbians at least once a week in the past month. Twenty percent used a general dating app during the same time frame. The number of downloads for women-seeking-women apps accounts for the small percentage of lesbian and bisexual women using dating apps. Compared to the millions of Tinder users, dating apps for women settle around 500,000 installations overall, according to Google Play, Android’s app store. “People gravitate toward apps and networks that everyone else is already on, because those
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are the most useful to connect on,” Mosthof said in an email. Though relatively young, dating apps for women seeking women have been on the market for a few years. After Tinder came out in 2012, Wing Ma’am was released a month later for LGBTQ+ women. Her, which originally launched in 2013 under the name Dattch, offers global and local feeds for users to post statuses and read LGBTQ+ news. In the Apple App store, Her has four stars out of more than 2,000 ratings. In 2014, another lesbian dating app called Scissr facilitated hook-ups, relationships and friendships. Only Women, launched in 2015, displays recently online and newly added users. “It seems obvious that the market is there, and yet I’m not surprised that developers aren’t focused on this community,” Beaulieu said. Beaulieu said this likely has to do with assumptions of what LGBTQ+ women want, such as thinking women aren’t as interested in hook-ups as men. “We shouldn’t assume that women are more ‘relationship-oriented’ and thus less likely to want to use apps that allow you to ‘swipe’ or ‘hook-up,’” she said. “There’s really no one-toone relationship between sex category and dating habits, or gender identity and romantic and sexual practices, even if people are socialized in really different ways.” Location also plays a role in dating apps. While using Her, Smith had “infinitely more people” available to view on the app when she was near her home in New York, compared to the number of people she could view in the Pittsburgh area. Only 3 percent of Pittsburgh’s population identifies as LGBTQ+, making Pittsburgh one of the nation’s metropolitan areas with the lowest rate of LGBTQ+ people, according to a March 2015 Gallup poll. Although Smith said it’s possible that she’s just not great at online dating, she still checks Her once or twice a week, holding out hope to find friendships rather than relationships. “I guess, since I haven’t deleted it entirely, I’m still kind of hoping something good will come of it,” Smith said.
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GIRLS’ GAME: MORE WOMEN NEEDED IN SPORTS Jessie Wallace Staff Writer
I’ve been an athlete my entire life. As “one of the boys” in grade school, I worked out as often as I attended classes. As a track athlete in college, I’ve been more apt to hurl a shotput than brandish a mascara wand. Every meet, I fall more in love with the “art of competition.” This “art,” this level of commitment, makes me want to work in the sports industry some day. But as I get older — as my passion for the game deepens — my options for a career in sports seem to narrow. While men have claimed coaching positions in women’s sports since Title IX passed in the late 1970s, women are largely shut out of coaching positions for men’s teams. According to a 2013 study the University of Minnesota conducted, titled, “The Decline of Women Coaches in Collegiate Athletics,” men coach 96 to 98 percent of all male college athletes. While rosters show that more than half of the coaches in
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the WNBA coaches are men, and one out of ten coaches in the National Women’s Soccer League is a woman. But women who have stepped into the pro leagues in the past two years give me hope that the status quo is changing, just in time for me to enter the world of professional sports. On Jan. 17, Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan decided to promote seven-year-long administrative assistant Kathryn Smith to a full-time assistant coaching position. Smith follows former WNBA player Becky Hammon, who became the San Antonio Spurs’ first female assistant coach in the 2014-2015 season and Nancy Lieberman, a former WNBA star who joined the Sacramento Kings’ coaching staff this year. That September, the Oakland A’s hired Justine Siegal as a guest instructor for a postseason fall league, making her the first woman to hold a coaching position for an MLB team. Then in 2015, the NFL hired
Victor Gonzalez STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
See Coaching on page 20
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Hillman, pg. 5 desk found no results connecting Hillman Library — or Pitt for that matter — and Playboy. Even an inquiry to the library’s archives was null. Zachary Brodt, a University archivist, only raised more questions. “I was unaware of this claim, but the few references I did find categorized it as an urban legend,” Brodt said in an email. “I could find no mention of this in any digitized Pitt publications, but if anyone would have covered this it would have been The Pitt News. Unfortunately, while it
has been scanned, we have no way of searching the content at this time.” For a campus legend involving one of America’s most notorious publications, Hillman’s brush with Playboy doesn’t seem very popular, at least within Hillman itself. So what did Playboy have to say about it? “Unfortunately our library search did not come up with anything to confirm this,” Christie Hartmann, the senior photo archivist for Playboy Enterprises Inc., said in an email. “Although that doesn’t mean it didn’t run at some point.” University spokesperson John Fedele also
came up empty. “I have not heard of it,” Fedele said in an email. “And we don’t have any facts or figures to back that claim up.” “Club Hillman” describes Hillman’s descent from academic environment to social setting, usually during finals week, with The Pitt News even headlining a story with it. Perhaps this idea of the library as social hangout betrays a connection between the legend and the phrase? Unfortunately, no, a search at the library found no link between the legend and the moniker. Kristen Tideman, the official Club Hillman
Facebook group administrator, said the Playboy legend did not inspire the Facebook group. “We were just a group of [first years] who went to Hillman all the time, and I wanted an easier way for us to tell one another where we were,” Tideman said. “But I would probably agree that most students on the first floor aren’t there to study seriously, so I guess the legend doesn’t surprise me.” Other students would beg to differ. Courtney Oliver, a junior biology major on a pre-med track, said she hasn’t had a guy ask her for her number in Hillman — and couldn’t imagine such an interaction. “I feel like in Hillman there’s a lot of different people with different interests,” she said, “and as a result of that, it’s difficult to meet someone with mutual interests.” With neither Pitt nor Playboy able to confirm or deny the legend, the story lives on, but just as that — a story. For now, until any concrete evidence surfaces, the legend connecting our Hillman Library to Playboy-approved sex appeal should be reclassified as a myth. Or possibly a bad joke.
Health Care, pg. 5 Rainbow Alliance is working on gathering interest from students to re-establish a support group this summer, according to McCarthy. Barber said a group like the one McCarthy wants to reignite is important because trans issues are currently so neglected. “What we need is mental health reform in general. But we need to offer mental health specially to transgender people because we can’t get it, and we feel isolated,” Barber said. The cost of transitioning For $125, a transgender person can purchase a vial of estrogen that will last them for a few months. For $80, they can purchase a vial of testosterone, which can also last for months. Hormone blockers, which block certain hormones in the body, cost $3,500 according to Goodall, but are not vital to a successful transition. Gold said although trans medications in general are not terribly expensive, insurance should still cover trans medicines. See Health Care on page 17
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Health Care, pg. 16 “It doesn’t change the fact that if your antibiotics are covered, why shouldn’t that? If your birth control is covered, why shouldn’t that,” Gold said. Although some insurance companies, such as Keystone Health, which has merged with Blue Cross Blue Shield, offer coverage for trans health care, the specific plan they choose determines whether or not coverage is available. Some states, like New York, have expanded Medicaid programs to cover both medications and surgeries. According to Goodall, Pitt’s Student Pharmacy distributes hormones that last for four to six months at a discounted price of about $40, but they need a prescription, which Pitt’s doctors can’t write. For Pitt trans students, Metro not only accepts all insurances and has a sliding scale for those who are uninsured, but also offers discounted lab tests and medications. Many trans people pay for hormones out of pocket. “I know a fair amount of students who are on hormone replacement therapy. But all of [the trans people] that I talk to haven’t gotten it covered by insurance. But all the ones that I have talked to are on testosterones,” McCarthy said. According to Goodall, estrogen tablets are usually covered by insurance, but testosterone is not. Injectables are also not covered and have the extra cost of buying syringes. “Transitioning is not an easy passage. People lose their jobs, friends and even their families for this. This is how important transition is for transgender people,” Goodall said. Barber, who currently uses Medicaid, previously used employer-sponsored insurance through Starbucks. According to the Starbucks website, Starbucks requires its beneficiaries to work at Starbucks more than 20 hours a week in order to receive its health benefits. “Starbucks has the absolute best health coverage for trans individuals. They cover hormone medication and gender confirmation surgeries, which a lot of health insurance providers don’t,” Barber said. Insurance companies that provide for See Health Care on page 20
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‘Bachelor’ out of touch with modern love
Tarun Sathish Staff Writer
For a show running 20 seasons and counting, “The Bachelor” still doesn’t get modern dating. The show, in which one enticing man whittles 20 women down to just one, and vice versa for “The Bachelorette,” takes participants on dates only millionaires could afford in exquisite and exotic locations. As the tipsy contestants try to stay upright, the directors and editors walk a thin tightrope of trying to create a show that fosters real relationships but ignores a central part of most adult ones — sex. The omission represents a shell of authentic dating today — a facade without the real emotional substance that comes with sex and physicality. Host Chris Harrison calls the show a “search for true love,” while also embracing the awkward, hard-to-explain dating period before a relationship is serious — read: exclusive. It’s “The Notebook” meets “It’s Complicated.” The show romanticizes the wholesome feelings of “firsts” — the first meeting, the first date, the first kiss — as the participants slowly get to know each other and determine if they are compatible. In a distinctly American way, it wants to be the image of modern dating without dealing with all the debauchery and sex. That detail of the show targets an outdated, but loud, part of our culture — the one that still abides by 1950s values of do-
mesticity and family sanctity. But pretending sex isn’t a prevailing part of our modern romantic relationships, however committed, is foolish and simply inaccurate. Sex isn’t explicitly banned in “The Bachelor” by rule, but it’s an unspoken one. Once only three contestants remain, the Bachelor/ ette can offer “overnight dates.” It’s assumed this means sex, but contestants rarely kiss and tell. What’s strange is that a show like “The Bachelor,” with its serial-dating formula, resembles the kind of non-committal flirtation that seems decidedly progressive, and yet still harbors its conservative stigma against sex. During the 2014 s e a s o n’s post-finale, live reaction show, “After the Final Rose,” runner-up Nick Viall torched bachelorette Andi Dorfman, saying, “If you weren’t in love with me, I’m not sure why you made love with me.” The words were a thinly veiled attempt to gain viewer sympathy for himself while sending criticism Dorfman’s way. Dorfman called the shot “below the belt.” “The Bachelor” universe exists much like post-war America did, where sex was more of a theory than an open practice. The show discusses hypotheticals, but actual events are rarely brought to light. It was fair to assume Dorfman and Viall would have slept together, but having it confirmed still sent tremors down many viewers’ spines.
Sex isn’t banned...by rule, but it’s an unspoken one.
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Grind your own business: a horror story Jack Shelly Staff Writer
I once went on a job interview that was advertised on a gay sex app. That might sound strange, especially if you’re not familiar with a little app called Grindr. But hear me out. Much more than the “gay Tinder,” Grindr is a microcosm of the gay male world. For better or for worse, the gay men of my generation came of age on Grindr. Many of us owe our first sexual encounters to the app, which uses GPS to connect nearby Grindr users. In high school and college it can be tricky to find partners — the fear of hitting on a straight guy is ever present. So when it launched in 2009, Grindr became the first major form of social media to streamline that uncomfortable hookup process. Its syntax now pervades nearly all aspects of gay culture. The word “looking,” for example, designates someone seeking quick sex, and, not coincidentally, is also the title of the acclaimed HBO series following three gay men in San Francisco. Conversations on the app often begin with, “What are you looking for” or simply, “Looking?” “NSA fun” translates into “no strings attached.” The body type categories, which users indicate on their profile, have become widely used slang and even gay porn subgenres. “Twink,” such as yours truly, was originally an acronym that stood for “teenage, white, into no kink,” but now mostly just means a slim, baby-faced gay guy. All of that said, you can’t reduce Grindr to a gay sex app. It’s a place to get the word out about parties, happy hour promos and even political causes. I’m not ashamed to say I’ve made close friends on the app. Because as a teenager from a Catholic high school in a sheltered suburb, I had much to learn about the ins and outs of gay culture and, more to the point, the ins and outs of gay sex. Forgive the pun — humor’s been a com-
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mon thread throughout the learning process. Allow me to illustrate. A few weeks ago, while I was at work, I received a message from a user who was looking for a part-time personal assistant. The base pay was $17 an hour, which makes my bus boy wages look like pocket change. His entire profile was an advertisement for the job, with an email address and a list of interview times at the Starbucks in Market Square. There was also a link to an identical Craigslist listing. I had my reservations, of course. The profile had no picture or age information, and Grindr seem like a shady place at best to look for a potential employee. But my curiosity — and want of a pay raise — got the best of me. I decided to schedule an interview against a few of my co-workers’ protests. The next morning, sporting my fanciest jeans and an oxford shirt, I went off to the Starbucks Downtown to meet the mysterious advertiser. I ordered a drink and waited until a well-dressed businessman in his 30s walked in and introduced himself. The interview started off as they usually do, with hollowly pleasant small talk and questions about my current employment, skills and interests. It wasn’t until I asked about what kind of tasks the position entailed that things started to get a bit odd. “They aren’t things I couldn’t easily do myself, and they aren’t things you won’t necessarily not enjoy.” Could you be a little be more specific? “Honestly, it’s more about me helping someone who’s still in school. I know I would have appreciated the chance to work a job with very flexible hours in order to have some extra cash when I was in college.” Huh? I began to sigh internally. This was all starting to seem a little too good to be true. I asked where his office was located.
Find the full story online at
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Coaching, pg. 14 Sarah Thomas as the league’s first-ever full-time female referee. We’re not just talking water girls and cheerleaders anymore — these ladies are helping run the big leagues. And seeing female hires — women who, like me, have dedicated their lives to the art of sport — fill positions in the NFL, MLB and NBA gives me hope. For years, men have dominated the sports industry — pushing aside women’s athletics in the media as sideline coverage and letting women hold less-public spots in sports management, rather than take a spot on the field. The NFL gets plenty of flack for being a macho-centric league, but by placing a woman in such a prominent role, it is finally diversifying and changing the way people think about sports — especially football — as a “guys only” club. I’m fortunate enough that my male coaches and friends have always treated me as an equal when it comes to sports, wheth-
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er I was working with them, writing about them or playing them. Even when I was briefly the only female sports writer at The Pitt News, I didn’t feel the need to defend my ability on the desk. I’m not sure if this is because I’ve always been a known athlete, or because the men I’ve encountered don’t feel threatened by my presence. But despite my personal experiences, I know it’s a universal truth that women in professional athletics have to outdo themselves just to prove they’re worthy of a spot on the sidelines. It’s like that episode of Full House where D.J. wants to be like her “cool” cousin Steve, so she starts talking in a manlier voice and tackling people at touch-football just to get the guys’ attention. Remember my previous quip about neglecting the mascara and being “one of the boys?” Mle-dominated sports culture makethe masses believe that we can’t wear mascara and kick ass on the track field. D.J. never had to put on a “masculine” front to get respect — she just had to be and do what she does best. If Smith is going to succeed in this NFL
coaching position, she can’t sacrifice her personal brand of femininity. She can’t “pull a D.J.” She can’t pretend. Like any newly hired male coach, Smith doesn’t have do anything different — she was hired because of her qualifications, and I’m sure she’ll succeed based on the fresh perspective she’ll offer. A woman in an NFL coaching position will field a barrage of questions challenging her ability to do the job: “Does she know the game well enough to coach?” “Can she handle the pressure?” She’ll be expected to hone her football knowledge down to the detail, more than the men who have filled the position before her. I have yet to come across much skepticism, because I haven’t been fully immersed into the “business aspect” of sports — I’ve always been the one playing. But being that it’s taken this long to give women a chance to advance into substantial roles only shows how little this field has thought of women’s “sports knowledge” until now. I’m in a lucky position where I get to watch and follow women like Smith as they pave the way for girls like me.
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Health Care, pg. 17 hormones often also cover the cost of surgery, which can reach $6,000 for top surgeries and much more for bottom, depending on the hospital fees, according to the Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery. “If things went the way we would like them to, the insurance would cover both medicines, including blockers, and surgeries. But they [currently] don’t cover surgeries. Hopefully in the next few years, it’s going to happen. It’s getting closer. But we are not there yet,” Goodall said. Not every trans person wants surgery, but those who do struggle to afford it. Wright said she wants a vaginoplasty surgery, commonly referred to as bottom surgery, but doesn’t have the spare change. While she continues gathering cash for her surgery and taking hormones daily, Wright dreams of eventually feeling that her body reflects her identity. “I deal with dysphoria every single day,” Wright said. “This is not cosmetic. It’s who I am.”
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I Rentals & Sublet N D E X -NORTH OAKLAND -SOUTH OAKLAND -SHADYSIDE -SQUIRREL HILL -SOUTHSIDE -NORTHSIDE -BLOOMFIELD -ROOMMATES -OTHER
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**Large efficiences, 1 & 2 bedroom apartments available for August 2016. Clean, walking distance to campus. Great location. $575-$630$900-$1100. Utilities included. No pets/ smoking or parties. 412-882-7568. *1 & 2 BEDROOM REMODELED FURNISHED APARTMENTS. Beautiful, clean, large, and spacious. Fullyequipped kitchen and bathroom. Wallto-wall carpeting. Large 2-bedroom, $1200, 1-bedroom, $750. Owner pays heat. Available Aug. 2016. Call 412-247-1900, 412-731-4313.
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+++Spacious 5 Bedroom HUGE house, 2 full NICE Baths, Shuttle at Door, Washer/Dryer, photo tinyurl.com/pittnews ad1. August 1, $2795+. 2-3 bedroom South Oakland apartments for rent. For more information or to schedule a viewing, please call 412-849-8694. 2-3-4-5 BR units available August: most have laundry, dishwasher, carpeting; newly renovated 4BR house features hardwood and tile flooring, sunroom, deck, off-street parking. Rents start at $1200+ utilities; call 412-559-3079. 2BR, 3rd Floor apartment. Furnished or unfurnished with laundry. $1000 including utilities. A No-Party Building. Available Aug. 2016 Call 412-683-0363.
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4 Bedroom house, 2 baths, clean, remodeled. Available now or April. Yard, porch, ceramic tile floors in bathrooms, non-smoking, no pets. $1900+ utilities. 412-427-6610. 7 BR house AVAILABLE AUG. 1, 2016. NO PETS. One year lease. Meyran Ave. 5 minute walk to University of Pittsburgh. 412-983-5222. ADDITIONAL PARKING SPACE AVAILABLE FOR RENT. Available 8/1, 1 BR/1 Bath, 5 min. walk to Cathedral, A/C, hardwood floors, newly renovated, starting at $995+, 412.441.1211
Large 1-2-3 BR apartments available August 1st. 3450 Ward Street. 312 and 314 South Bouquet Street. Free parking. Minutes to campus. Cat friendly. Call 412-977-0111.
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Large 6 BR house, 2 full bathrooms, washer/dryer, dishwasher, and many upgrades, Juliette St. 724-825-0033. Last ones remaining! 1 and 6 BR houses and apartments for rent. Right on Pitt shuttle line. $395 and $515/person. Available August 1, 2016. TMK Properties. Deal directly with the owner. Call Tim 412-491-1330.
M.J. Kelly Realty Studio, 1, 2, 3, & 4 Bedroom Apartments, Duplexes, Houses. $750-$2400. mjkellyrealty@gmail.com. 412-271-5550, mjkellyrealty.com
Spacious 4BR apartment within walking distance to Pitt for $2800 per month. Apartment has central A/C, two full baths, eat-in kitchen, spacious living room & bedrooms. Call 412.682.7622 or email sarah@robbrealestate.com for more info on this amazing apartment for FALL 2016. *3 BEDROOM, REMODELED HOUSE -FURNISHED* Beautiful, large, clean and spacious. New fully equipped kitchen. Wall-towall carpeting. Washer/Dryer included. Whole house air-conditioning. Garage Available. $1600+utilities. Aug. 1. Call 412-247-1900, 412-731-4313. 264 Robinson St. 6 bedroom, 3 bath, $2800+utilities. Available August 1st. 412-884-8891.
**5 big bedroom house, 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 3 full baths. Laundry, A/C. Great house for Pitt or Carlow students. About 10 houses away from Pitt shuttle stop. Available August 2016. $2600. Call Ken 412-287-4438.
1,2,3,5,6, & 8 bedroom houses. August & May 2016. Bouquet, Atwood, Meyran. Please call 412-287-5712. 3444 WARD ST. Studio, 1-2-3 BR apartments available Aug. 1, 2016. Free parking, free heating. 320 S. BOUQUET 2BR, great location, move in May 1, 2016. Call 412-361-2695. No evening calls please. 4 BR townhouses, Semple St., available May 1st & August 1st, 2016. Equipped kitchen, full basement. 412-343-4289. Call after 5:00 pm. NIAGARA ST. LARGE 5BR, 2BA APARTMENT. Updated kitchen, dishwasher, laundry, A/C. Across street from bus stop. Available August 2016. Reasonable. 412-445-6117
Oakland/Atwood St., 1BR, wall-to-wall carpet, fully equipped, $575+ electric. Available immediately. 412-561-7964.
pittnews.com
February 12, 2016
Completely updated 2BR apartment within walking distance to Pitt for $1850 per month. Apartment has A/C, stainless steel appliances, washer/dryer in unit, spacious living room & bedrooms, heated bathroom floor, hardwood floors and more! Call 412.682.7622 or email sarah@robbrealestate.com for more info on this amazing apartment for FALL 2016. High quality, newly renovated one, two and three bedroom apartments in Shadyside and surrounding areas. Colebrook Management 412-441-2696 www. colebrook.net 3 & 5 bedroom. May 2016. Sarah St. Large bedroom, new kitchen, air conditioning, washer & dryer, dishwasher, large deck. 412-287-5712. Studios, 1, 2, & 3 Bedroom apartments available August 2016 & sooner. Oakland, Shadyside, Friendship, Squirrel Hill, Highland Park, Point Breeze. Photos & current availability online, check out www.forbesmanagement.net, or call 412.441.1211
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SMOKERS NEEDED! Researchers at UPMC are looking to enroll healthy adult cigarette smokers ages 18-65. This research is examining the influence of brief uses of FDA-approved nicotine patch or nicotine nasal spray on mood and behavior. The study involves a brief physical exam and five sessions lasting two hours each. Eligible participants who complete all sessions will receive up to $250, or $20 per hour. This is NOT a treatment study. For more information, call 412-246-5396 or visit www.SmokingStudies. pitt.edu
pittnews.com
A private, prestigious country club in the East Suburbs of Pittsburgh is currently searching for candidates to fill the following positions:Ala Carte Wait Staff,Banquet Wait Staff,Bartenders. The proper candidates are energetic, trustworthy, and able to adapt in any situation. Although no prior experience is required, it is certainly a positive. You must have reliable transportation. Along with competitive wages, the club also provides scholarship opportunities, free meals, uniforms, parking and flexible scheduling to all employees. All interested persons should email their resume to nleitzel@longuevue.org. Hospitality Staff Needed! Part time openings for upcoming busy season. Call Callos Resource for same or next day interview! 412-246-4828
OFFICE INTERN Shadyside Management Company seeks person w/ min 3 yrs. college, for upcoming spring semester, to interview & process rental applications, do internet postings & help staff in action-central office. Part time or full time OK starting now; full time in summer. $12/hour. Perfect job for graduating seniors set to enter grad school, returning grad students, and first-year law students! Mozart Management 412.682.7003. thane@mozartrents.com SOCCER Assistant Coach needed for a girls’ varsity high school team, City of Pittsburgh, midAug. through Oct. Assistant Coach must be 21 years of age or older. Pay TBD. Contact lappdaniel@hotmail.com.
The Pitt news crossword 2/12/16
ATTENTION OCCASIONAL SMOKERS! UPMC seeks healthy adults ages 18-65 who occasionally smoke cigarettes. This research is examining how smokers respond to cigarettes that are low in nicotine. There are up to seven sessions lasting about three hours each. Research participants completing the study will be compensated up to $60 per session, or $20 per hour. For more information, call 412-246-5393 or visit www.SmokingStudies.pitt.edu
Undergrads needed to test tutoring system: 18 or older, native English speaker, adequate academic background as determined by a brief questionnaire. 2-5 hrs; $10/hr., possible $20 bonus. Contact rimac@pitt.edu
ALEXSFLOWERS.COM now ALEXSEASTENDFLORAL.COM Valentine’s Day delivery. 412-687-4128. Order in person, phone, online. alexseastendfloral.com in Shadyside.
February 12, 2016
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pittnews.com
February 12, 2016
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