Editor, Daily Nexus,

Call it a hunch, but I don’t think Neil Diamond was aware of his adamant support of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community when he sang, “I’d much rather be forever in blue jeans.”

Even more unaware of their support of the UCSB GLBT community were the thousands of students who regularly wear jeans. A letter published on Thursday, one day before National Coming Out Day, urged queers and their allies to wear jeans to show that they were supportive to the community.

Come on, people – jeans? Whatever happened to the chic fashioned focus queen stereotype? Surely, Mr. Prada would have found some better way to express his love of men than to wear ratty old jeans.

Signs around campus focused on coming out and “joining the Rainbow Revolution.” Denim, my fellow students, is not part of the color spectrum that is visible when light is refracted through moisture in the air; however, blue is.

Why not encourage queers and their allies to wear blue shirts? Or any color on Friday, for that matter – something that is less common than jeans without being blatant. At the unofficial Gay Day at Disneyland, attendees are supposed to wear red T-shirts, for example.

The letter mentioned that some people are less radical than others and denim would be a way to show your support without having to step out of social norms. Did they expect people to paint themselves the colors of the rainbow or drape themselves in pink?

I thought the purpose of Coming Out Day was to make yourself visible and heard, to break free from the fetters that have kept you in the closet and ashamed after all these years. Sure, some people are not ready to come out or want anything to do with the gay community. In fact, some members and organizers of the QSU were that way just a year or two ago, but do you really think they would have worn jeans?

What it boils down to is that the QSU was trying to muster up false support by trying to establish an icon for itself through which thousands of students, faculty and staff would be duped into appearing as though they supported the community.

Was the point of this to fill an inner void within QSU members? Was it to try to bait people out of the closet? Was it to make observers think that more queers exist that actually do? Or was it a more cunning and deceitful strategy?

I hope the QSU uses its 365 days to think of something better for next year’s Casual Friday.