Tuesday, October 2, 2012

No More "Not Gay" At UVA (University of Virginia)

So here's the University of Virginia 'Good Ol' Song'



What you don't hear is that students have been inserting "not" before the word "gay" in the chant for years. Here's the lyrics:

The good ol' song of wah-hoo-wah
We'll sing it o'er and o'er
It cheers our hearts and warms our blood
To hear them shout and roar.

We come from ol' Virginia
Where all is bright and gay
Let's all join hands and give a yell
For the dear old UVA.

Good news is that last week the student council

"unanimously approved a resolution condemning the insertion of the “not gay” chant into the “Good Ol’ Song,” commonly sung at athletic events. The chant has come under scrutiny several times in the past decade and has become increasingly unpopular as support for gay rights has increased across the country."

With the resolution,

"Council seeks to take a stand against the chanting of the unscripted phrase — a phrase that members see as contrary to the safe and welcoming environment the University seeks to provide to all its students. Council members said they hoped the legislation would be a step toward ending disrespectful or derogatory acts toward LGBTQ communities and supporters."

Progress!

Namaste,
Lee

ps- my thanks to Karol for giving me the heads-up on this story!  It's also been reported on the Huffington Post and at Outsports.

1 comment:

Annie said...

I'm a fairly recent UVa grad and I'm SO glad to hear that the student council has taken a stand against the "not gay" chant. It was always done by a core collection of jerks, not the entire community, but I think this is a great step in making sure everyone knows that kind of behavior is unacceptable.