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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WWW.KANSAN.COM News WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2008
GAY PRIDE
Festival celebrates sexuality
Austin Young, Tonganoxie junior, gets blood drawn for a free anonymous HIV and STD test at KC's 30th annual Gay Pride Festival. The three-day event offered dancing, performances and celebration of sexuality.
Name/KANSAN
BY RAMSEY COX
rcox@kansan.com
Kansas City's 30th annual Gay Pride Festival gave KU students and others a chance to celebrate their sexuality last weekend.
The celebration spanned three days and included music, merchandise giveaways, free HIV and STD testing, food and drinks and a variety of vendor booths at Liberty Memorial Park in Kansas City, Mo. The entertainment varied from singers Martha Wash and Deborah Cox to the dance group DC Cowboys.
This year the festival moved to a different side of Liberty Memorial Park to accommodate the growing number of participants. The Kansas City Gay Pride Organization estimated that more than 17,000 people participated last year and this year was expected to exceed that number.
Andrew Kuttler, Wichita senior, said the festival was not all about
partying for him.
"The pride festival is just a time to let things go and come together," Kuttler said. "It's about being proud of who you are, not necessarily because you are gay, but just because you are proud of who you are as a person."
Not all of the KU students who attended the festival were gay, though. Gabrielle McBride, a Leawood junior, has come the last three years in a row to support her gay friends.
"When I come to the festival, it is like I feel what [my gay friends] feel all the time," McBride said. "Here, I have a hard time picking out the straight people and for them that is every day because they have a hard time picking out the gay people."
For Austin Young, Tonganoxie junior, and his boyfriend of one year, Tyler Long, a junior at Ottawa University, this was their
first time at the festival.
"It is my first time to be around a lot of gay people and just celebrate my sexuality," Young said. "It gives you a real sense of community."
Billy Griffin, Leawood junior, likes the festival because of the relaxed atmosphere and remembers his first time, three years ago, as being slightly scary.
With free admission, many families come to enjoy the festivities during the day at the park, while an older crowd enjoyed the music and dancing at night.
"I didn't know what to expect," Griffin said. "Everything was so new. I had just come out, but now I'm in my element here. I'm not the odd person out."
"It's not as scandalous as people might think," McBride said. "It's not like people are making out everywhere. It's just about pride and friends."
— Edited by Mandy Earles
AP BRIEFS
International, national Associated Press news
Obama clinches Democratic nomination after primaries
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois sealed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation's first black president. A defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket.
Obama's victory set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a 46-year-old opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current U.S. military mission.
Obama, a first-term Illinois senator who was virtually unknown on the national stage four years ago, defeated Clinton, the former first lady and one-time campaign front-runner, in a 17-month marathon for the Democratic nomination.
Car bomb kills eight outside Danish embassy
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) An apparent car bomb exploded outside the Danish embassy in Pakistan's capital on Monday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens more, officials and witnesses said.
The blast echoed through Islamabad and left a crater more than three feet deep in the road in front of the embassy. Shattered glass, fallen masonry and dozens of wrecked vehicles littered the area. A plume of smoke rose above the scene as people, some bloodied, ran back and forth in a state of panic.
Amir Ali, deputy commissioner of Islamabad, said four people were killed and six were wounded, although witnesses said many more were injured by flying debris. There was no immediate information on the identities of the casualties.
Myanmar reopens schools one month after cyclone
YAW PAR GYI, Myanmar (AP) — One month after a cyclone left more than 130,000 people dead or missing, Myanmar's military government reopened many of the country's schools Monday despite worries that the extent of damage could put children in harm's way.
And although the military rulers pledge a speedy rehabilitation, demand and prices have soared for the material needed to rebuild homes. Many survivors say they have been forced to pick through the storm's rubble in search of anything left intact.
-Associated Press,
complied by Ramsey Cox
CAMPUS
KU's'Nooks & Crannies Korean War Memorial
BY RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
The names are in alphabetical order. William B. Askren...John Ast..Bayard Atwood.
Forty-four names in all. They're a reminder of the Kansas students who lost their lives in a war that began 58 years ago this month. The University's Korean War Memorial sits on the hill above Potter Lake. The Memorial turned three-years-old in April.
It's easy to miss the memorial, or at least miss its significance. A single
sculpture of twisted metal — John Havener's "Korean Cranes Rising" — sits in the middle of a brick circle, while the plaque with the names is a few feet away.
The plaque reads:
This memorial commemorates the contest that began on June 25, 1950, when North Korean military forces crossed the 38th parallel and launched a massive invasion of South Korea...
A few shriveled up flowers lay beneath the sculpture, and the list of the names keeps on going. Carl F Barlow...