Eleven women participated Saturday in the first Lesbian Speed Dating Benefit held by the ASUO Women’s Center.
At the dating event, community members and students took turns chatting with each potential date for five minutes across a circular table in the EMU Fir Room. To meet a partner for a second date, the women were instructed to mark a box on their dating cards indicating their desire to meet that person again.
The center sponsored the event to raise money for the upcoming Queer Women’s Expository Entertainment Film Festival. Entry fees collected will also help fund the OUT/LOUD Queer Women’s Music Festival.
QWEEFF will be held May 5 through 7 and will be the first such film festival held by the ASUO. OUT/LOUD will be held May 13 on the east lawn of the EMU.
Tara Allred, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Issues Coordinator for the Women’s Center, spontaneously created the event, center spokeswoman Stefanie Loh said.
“Tara just suddenly came to the office one day and said, ‘Let’s do lesbian speed dating,’” Loh said.
Events like this are bound to gain in popularity because it can be hard to identify and connect with others who are gay, said Noelle Osborn, a 31-year-old Eugene resident who participated in the event.
“You never know who’s gay or not,” said Osborn, a member of the Soromundi Lesbian Chorus of Eugene, where one of her friends informed her about the event.
There are a few gay-friendly bars in Eugene including Sam’s Place and Snafu, but one popular gay bar, Neighbors Bar and Bistro, recently closed. Despite these venues, it can still be hard to find other gay people in the community, said Ariel Watkins, a 50-year-old Eugene resident.
The main way that people meet each other is through close social circles and through mutual friends, Watkins said.
“It’s just hard to meet people,” she said.
Watkins added that a positive side of living in Eugene is that gay people in the community feel welcomed. Osborn agreed.
“Eugene is just a city full of a lot of people who believe in free expression, people who respect other’s differences. That’s the unique thing about Eugene,” she said. “This is a great community to be gay in.”
Allred said that she plans to hold the event again next year, perhaps in a more open format that will invite gay males as well as females. Allred speculated about having three different areas, one for straight people, one for gay men and one for lesbians.
The small turnout doesn’t seem to be indicative of a lack of interest in the gay community and was probably caused by timing, Allred said.
“We threw this together pretty quickly,” she said. “At least we got sweet food.”