Spring Break
He's all that
Gay Homecoming candidate has big plans for future
Janelle Gergen
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Student Life
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"The organization's never had a candidate before, and they asked if I would do it," he said. "I was like, 'Yeah! I would love to do this; it's going to be a lot of fun.'"
Riedel has been involved in Spectrum for the past couple years, and he was excited about the opportunity to represent the group as its royalty candidate, he said. He added that he loved having the chance to meet all the other candidates and spend the week getting to know them. "It was really, really a changing experience," he said.
His reason for accepting the invitation to run was simply because he could, he said.
"Everyone asked me, 'Why are you doing this? Why do you put so much effort into this?' And I was like, "Because I can. Because I have the opportunity in front of me, and I might as well do it."
Even his Homecoming T-shirts relayed that idea; they all had written on them "Because I can."
Sophomore Elle McGee, a fellow Homecoming royalty candidate running for Bridgman Hall, met Riedel during the campaign.
"I had known of him because he's kind of a big deal on campus," she said. "… I was really proud of him when I heard he was running for Spectrum, and I thought that he was going to do very well. … I thought it was great to see the first openly gay candidate running."
McGee said she had a lot of fun getting to know Riedel, "just supporting each other out on the campus mall and ... just hanging out."
"We had a lot of fun together," she said. "… Everyone should get to know Josh Riedel."
Riedel grew up in Chippewa Falls, the youngest of three children. He has a brother, and his sister died when he was 11. His parents are divorced.
"Coming out to them was really difficult," he said. "It was really hard just for my mother, especially. She's very religious, and I actually ended up moving out about four months short of graduating from high school."
He lived with his best friend until he was done with school, he said.
It was a difficult experience for him, he said, but he learned a lot about himself because of it.
"If I hadn't had to have gone through it, I don't think that I'd have the same goals that I do now," he said. "I don't think that some of the things that matter so much to me now would even cross my mind."
Riedel and his mother were estranged for a while, he said, and now their relationship could best be described as cordial.
"But I've got my father and my stepmother," he said. "They're wonderful - wonderfully supportive."
During his high school years, Riedel was instrumental in the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance at his school.
"It didn't get set up before I left high school, but … I took care of most of the logistics for that, got supporters from the staff, got a faculty adviser and got the students together, and actually got that all put together right as I was graduating."
He decided to come to Eau Claire after graduation because he wasn't ready to leave the area yet, he said.
"I wanted to go to a big city - a bigger city, I guess - but I realized that I needed to grow up a little bit more, and I really needed to find out who I was as a person first, before I would do well in that environment."
He added he was very happy with his decision.
Riedel discovered Spectrum as a freshman, but he wasn't terribly involved with the group his first year at the university.
"I was kind of still adjusting to school," he said, "still … getting used to everything."
Starting last year, though, he participated a lot more in the organization, he said.
"I was the media coordinator, so I took care of all the advertisements for our events, and I was also the emcee for the drag show we put on."
He has also helped out with a few other events for Spectrum, including National Coming Out Day, he said.
He's trying to become more involved with the Women's and Gender Equity Center as well.
"I haven't really gotten to do much yet, but I want to help just (with) some of their upcoming events," he said.
Also this year for the first time, Riedel participated in the Tunnel of Oppression in Davies Center. During the event, he talked about issues he sees on campus - just little things, he said - such as people saying 'That's so gay,' when they mean 'That's so stupid.'
He also discussed how people treat him differently on campus.
"When they find out you're gay, either they're overly polite," he said, "… and then it's uncomfortable because they're trying so hard to show you that they have no problem with it …, or else they're a little weird about it, and so it's always a little awkward at first."
One of the hardest things he deals with because of his sexuality, however, isn't necessarily on campus.
"It's more … in my future," he said. "When I'm going to class, and I'm working so hard to get my degrees … it's really difficult to think that some day I might not even be judged based on the fact that I can perform this job very well or based on my competency at the job that I'm applying for, but on just … that I'm obviously gay."
Riedel plans to graduate in spring of 2011 with a major in English literature and a minor in anthropological studies, and he wants to apply to the University of Minnesota for graduate school. He would like to get a master's degree in anthropology and gender studies, and possibly another master's in psychology.
Eventually, he said, he wants to open up a clinic to "help teens who have run away from their homes because their families couldn't accept that they were gay," he said. "… And then I also want to open up a separate division of the clinic to help people with coming out in general, people who … just don't have the resources to know how to deal with everything."
The clinic would also help with gender reassignment surgery therapy, he said.
Though he admitted he has some pretty big goals, he really wants to help people.
"Shoot high," he said.
For information on getting involved with Spectrum or WAGE, go to http://www.uwec.edu/spectrum/ or http://www.uwec.edu/wage/, respectively.
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