I promise I’ll write something soon. Things have been busy. Real busy.

Have fun in classes everyone! If you have time, check out this chick Rachel Zylstra. I saw her perform this summer and loved her stuff.

Also, if you know anyone in Cru, tell them to answer their email! I’ve got some questions.

You’re a freshman. The only friends you have are the annoying people from high school that you can’t seem to shake. You’re gay and you are already realizing that college is not a big fuck fest where homos line the streets and are just begging for you to get up on them and grind grind grind.

Sorry about the repetitive thing right there. I’ve been reading Chuck Palahniuk these past few weeks and most verbs I think of come out in triple.

All that aside, you’re dead wrong. Being at college IS a big fuck fest. Well, sort of. If you’re into that sort of thing, it can definitely be arranged. But for those of you who are new in town and looking to get your feet wet in some sort of metaphorical gay pool, you’ve come to the right place. This, my fresh meat friends, is

The Illini Gay Guide

Welcome! Back when I was a freshman, it was really easy to find out where all the gayz were hiding. All one really had to do was jump on Facebook and search for Males intererested in Men at UIUC. A list of nearly every out gay guy would pop up and all it took was a few messages of, “Hey, I’m new here and looking to meet people. Have any advice on where to meet people?” and within a few hours you’d be at a kegger and watching someone crash through a glass table.

Alas, this specific search function has been taken away from Facebook. I’ve searched high and low, but an explanation for its deletion is nowhere to be found. Maybe I should have Binged instead of Googled. So, my dear friends, I have compiled a list of places where you can go to meet some gays. And yeah, I know it’s not necessary to have only gay friends, but sometimes hanging out with your straight guy friends gets old. You can only watch them make out with sorostitutes so many times before you want a little frat boy of your own, something that isn’t as easy to find (but trust me, it can be done).

Here are some places to check out:

IUB Late Nighter: August 21, 8 PM - 2 AM

The Union (that big building on the north end of the Quad) will be hosting a Late Nighter. A shit ton of you freshmen go to this and have fun playing games and receiving cheap pizza. Some of you might even go bowling. While you’re there, make sure you check out the LGBT Resource Center. To get to the LGBT Resource Center (aka The Office), go to the northwest end of the building. Take the stairs or the elevator to the third floor, take a left and then another left and you have arrived! The LGBT Resource Center is gonna be the one with all the gay people in it. It may be a little intimidating at first, but most of the people in there are actually really friendly, especially the woman in charge: Leslie. She’s awesome. So make sure you stop by and say hey sometime between 8 PM and 2 AM.

THE LGBT BBQ

The LGBT BBQ is on Friday, August 28th between 5 PM and 9 PM at Illini Grove. This is a foresty area on the east side of campus south of Allen Hall and north of FAR and PAR residence halls. There’s free food and last year there was volleyball, so you should definitely come out.

Rainbow Coffeehouse

Every Tuesday night a bunch of people meet to hang out and just chat, play games, drink coffee, or even attempt studying. The environment is incredibly chill and it can be found in the Etc. Coffeehouse at 1203 W. Green St. You’ll be able to find it because they hang a rainbow flag on the outside of the building when they’re there: Tuesday nights 6:30 - 9:00. This starts back up on September 1st, so ya gotta be patient!

C St.

If you’re at least 19, you can get into the bars on campus and one bar in particular that’s downtown: Chester Street. C St. is one of two gay bars in town (the other one of which I haven’t heard much about). C St. is a great place to go if you want to go dancing and not feel stared at while dancing with someone of the same sex. Before it was thought that Friday was lesbian night and Saturday was the most crowded night, but thanks to their new Friday night DJ that’s beginning to change. My prediction for this year is that Friday is the new Saturday, but then again, that might just be because I refuse to go to the same bar two nights in a row, and I really love this DJ.

PRIDE

Pride is an LGBT group here on campus that meets every Monday at 8 PM in the LGBT office. You can find their facebook page here.

Q

Q is a group at Allen Hall that meets and discusses an issue in the LGBT community, or at least that’s what it was when I was going to it. It’s a great place to go if you like to debate about topics that usually revolve around the homosexual community. Finding information for a lot of these groups online isn’t really working out for me, so keep an eye out for posters.

Thursgays

Thursgays is an unofficial group that meets every Thursday at Murphy’s Pub on Green St. every Thursday. Murphy’s is 19+ and has more of a chill atmosphere than some of the other bars on campus. Thursday nights are great ’cause they have specialty pints at 2 bucks a pop.

Ladies Loving Ladies, aka L³

Lesbians. Hot lesbians. That are smart. That’s all I can say. You can find ‘em here.

Colors of PRIDE

Like Pride, but Black. Okay, and Asians and Latinos too. And probably some white kids. This is where discussions revolve around where sexuality meets race.

Caffe Paradiso

Okay, so it’s not a gay cafe, but it’s pretty damn liberal, has great Intelligentsia coffee, good sandwiches, and is very gay friendly. There’s often cool art on the walls and the music, though varied, tends to be stuff that you don’t often get to hear. It’s at Lincoln and Nevada in Urbana and you should check it out. And not just ’cause I work there, but because it’s actually pretty cool. You can follow them on Twitter here.

The ARC

Just like they said in Bruno, there’s no better place to act manly with men than at the gym. I live maybe 3 blocks away from CRCE, but the ARC is really where it’s at. Not only do they have a shit ton more equipment, classes, a rock climbing wall, pools galore, and a sauna, but they also have, get this, cookies. Why they have cookies I’m not sure, but it couldn’t really hurt. Right?

The Arboretum

Located near the south farms, this is probably the gayest place on campus. They have a shit ton of flowers and a Japanese house with this little zen garden. Totally gay. Totes gay, if you will. It’s actually a really great place to just be lazy or play a game of bocce ball or go on a picnic or play frisbee AND it’s not littered with too many people. AKA it’s a good place to bring a date.

The Women’s Resource Center
Um. I’ll write about this later. Promise. I think.

That’s it for now. I’m pretty sure there are quite a few other great places and clubs, but I’m at work right now and I can’t really keep talking to you guys. I really ought to finish because, frankly, I want to close on time tonight and head to Thursgays. See ya there?

YO!

It’s that time of year again. The time when freshman frollick about the campus, running from building to building hoping they can find their classes in time so their professors don’t tear them apart in front of hundreds of other students.

Well, friends, you know what that means:

IT’S TIME FOR A REALLY GAY BARBECUE!!!

You heard it hear first (that is if you didn’t check Facebook already), the LGBT Welcome Back BBQ is coming up. Here’s the skinny:

Host: University of Illinois LGBT Resource Center <— Note the new fan page on Facebook!
Price: Free
Date: Friday, August 28, 2009
Time: 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Illini Grove
Street: http://www.campusrec.illinois.edu/facilities/illini_grove.html
City/Town: Urbana, IL

You can check out the event page here.

See ya there!