By Danielle Ruiz, Staff Writer
On Wednesday, March 30th, The Pride Network along with their co-sponsor, MISPO, hosted their annual “Gaydar: Guess the Straight Person” event. The Pride Network has been putting on the “Gaydar” event for the past three years with the intention of breaking down stereotypes.
“Gaydar” events in the past have all had themes—ranging from a lesbian panel to Wednesday night’s Latino theme. Senior AJ Duncan, an active board member of The Pride Network, explained that a person’s sexual orientation is not always apparent.
The event started off in style with Lady Gaga and techno blaring through the speakers before the panelists took the stage. Four panelists were brought on stage and the audience was given the opportunity to vote on whom they believed was straight based off of appearance alone.
The panelists were all dressed very differently from one another giving the audience little help in determining who was gay and who was straight. Each panelist started off with a clean slate as the audience was divided in their opinions on the most “straight-looking” panelist.
After tallies were collected, the floor was opened to the audience as students lined up to ask questions and decide for themselves who was the one straight panelist among the three gay ones. The audience was free to ask any question as long as it did not address the sexuality of any panelist members. The panelists were also given the choice to reject questions they found too forward.
The questions from the audience varied in a number of ways. Questions varied from topics such as favorite movies and music artists to favorite dance move. The event took a fun turn as panelists were asked to wink, as well as demonstrate their “bump and grind” skills with a courageous audience member. One humorous student in the audience went as far as to ask the panelists to do their best Beyonce “Single Ladies” dance interpretation. Many audience members had fun methods of coming to their own conclusions on who was the straight panelist.
At the end of the event when the straight panelist was announced loud applause was heard from audience members who had guessed correctly. Wednesday night was a good lesson for the Hofstra community. With the help of The Pride Network, students learned to not judge a book by it’s cover, or sexual orientation.

The Pride Network hosts Gaydar (Sean M. Gates/The Chronicle)