By asking random questions, students determined the sexual orientations of a group of people at the Sacramento State PRIDE Center’s annual Guess Who’s Gay event held Thursday in the University Union’s Redwood Room.

“There are a lot of misconceptions and preconceived notions that people have of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and straight individuals,” said junior public relations major Jackson Harris, programs and events coordinator of the PRIDE Center. “Guess Who’s Gay shows that their sexual orientation has nothing to do with their interests, appearance or their mannerisms.”

Joshua O’Connor, host of Guess Who’s Gay and conduct coordinator at the UC Davis residence halls, reserved the right to reject any question if it would too easily reveal the 10 panelists’ sexual orientations. Otherwise, members of the crowd was allowed and encouraged to ask anything they wanted.

“Some people really do think that questions like, “boxers or briefs,’ or, “tacos or burritos,’ are going to determine someone’s sexual orientation,” Harris said.

The panelists, if too uncomfortable, also had the right to not answer any of the questions.

“It was a little nerve-wracking, especially with the fact that people just assume a lot of things about me, but I really appreciated it,” said senior sociology major Addison Pressnall-Duff, a Guess Who’s Gay panelist.

Members of the audience asked the panelists questions about their Halloween costumes this year, their majors, their favorite Lady Gaga songs, favorite colors, their relationships with their mothers and their opinions on Justin Bieber.

They also asked the panelists if they know how to change a tire, how long it takes for them to wake up and get ready in the morning and how much money they spend on a single article of clothing.

About 250 people, most of whom were students, filled the Redwood Room to watch the interactive show.

“The turnout was amazing. Last year we did this event and filled the Hinde Auditorium, which seats 180,” Harris said. “This year we did this event, sat 180, but had to grab more chairs. We grabbed about 30 chairs and there were still 40 people standing after that, so we were thrilled with the turnout.”

Junior biology major Georgina Rodriguez said she has attended the event several times because as a gay individual, she wanted to be more involved with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Ally community.

“It’s funny, it’s very comfortable, very open, and it’s just fun to come and hang out with this bunch of people,” Rodriguez said. “You never expect the outcome of the people.”

The second portion of Guess Who’s Gay was for the crowd to determine by a show of hands whom it considered homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual among the panelists.

Pressnall-Duff said she participated in the event because she thought she could bring a good variety to the panel. A large majority of the audience guessed she was a lesbian before she declared being a bisexual.

“They assume one way, but they also don’t assume the other,” Pressnall-Duff said. “I don’t believe in labels or stereotyping people into boxes.”

After the panelists each revealed their sexual orientation, O’Connor asked the members of the audience to raise their hands if they correctly guessed all 10 of the contestants’ sexualities. One hand was raised.

Words have so much power and by using the right or wrong ones, a straight person has the power to strongly comfort or hurt a gay individual, O’Connor said.

When someone admits being gay to a straight person, O’Connor said, he or she has 100 percent of that gay individual’s trust. He said as a friend, the most important thing a straight person can do is to thank them for their trust and honesty.

O’Connor also referenced to the injuries and suicides that occurred in the United States last month because of anti-gay bullying.

“… and these were just the cases that were reported,” O’Connor said. “This is so real.”

O’Connor told the students they can be allies of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community by simply avoiding hateful jokes.

“I think that Sac State is in a unique position of being a university in the most diverse city in the country,” Harris said. “And it’s really important to celebrate that diversity.”

Harris said Guess Who’s Gay has gained a lot of campus publicity over the years.

“We’re really excited that the Sacramento State campus community was so thrilled to do this event,” Harris said. “The fact that the people and administration of the campus are behind us is phenomenal. We really are here to stay, and we really have value on this campus.”

Aside from Guess Who’s Gay, the PRIDE Center will also show the documentary “Is it a Boy or is it a Girl?” at noon Tuesday in the Union’s Oak Room in honor of Queer History Month. The documentary aims to promote awareness of the intersex community, which, Harris said, is often invisible.

“The PRIDE Center seeks to bring about awareness of all aspects of the queer community &- all of the LGBTIQQA community,” Harris said. “That “I’, that “Intersex’, gets ignored a lot, and so this movie talks about the struggle and explains what intersex is and talks about how people are treated as intersex individuals in this country and others.”

Queer History Month was established in the U.S. on October 1994 and originated during the Civil Rights Era, according to the GLBT History Month website.

“It’s definitely important to celebrate Queer History Month at Sac State because it’s a month that brings awareness of queer identity, queer community and contributions that queer-identified individuals have brought to the world,” Harris said.

Micah Stevenson can be reached at [email protected]