By KATIE MEYER

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

On March 6, dozens of students filled the Keating 3rd auditorium to hear a talk given by Kristin Russo and Dannielle Owens-Reid, the founders and administrators of the popular organization “Everyone is Gay.” The event was sponsored by Fordham’s PRIDE (People Recognizing Identities and Differences for Equality) Alliance and targeted Fordham’s LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning) population. During their approximately two hour talk, Owens-Reid and Russo addressed common issues that the LGBTQ community faces today, offered advice in dealing with those often difficult issues and advocated kindness and tolerance toward everyone, regardless of sexuality.

“Everyone is Gay” may address some very serious issues, but for Owens-Reid and Russo, the project did not start out as a serious one. The pair first met through another website that Owens-Reid created called Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber. Russo was intrigued by the amount of feedback that Owens-Reid was getting on the site and contacted her about it. They struck up a friendship and, in 2010, started “Everyone is Gay” together so they could talk back to all the people who had been commenting on Owens-Reid’s website. They gave advice to anyone who asked for it, shared random thoughts, made jokes, posted pictures of kittens and began to develop a significant online following in the process. The duo says that the evolution of their cause happened fairly spontaneously. Much of what they have done has been based off fan requests.

They also started a YouTube channel in 2010 so they could share their advice in video blog form. Since their first episode in July 2010, they have made 76 more episodes and gained close to 10,000 subscribers.

In 2011, they began touring the country and visiting schools and community centers to promote their cause, which had grown far more than either Owens-Reid or Russo had ever anticipated. As Russo explained, they had no idea how many people were out there looking for answers. “Everyone is Gay” does not claim to have all of the answers, but they still put forth a huge effort to do what they can for as many people as possible.

The numbers that Owens-Reid and Russo reach have, like everything else, increased dramatically. As well as being active on their personal site and on YouTube, the pair also has a large presence on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook. The “about” section of their site proudly proclaims that they have garnered 6,000,000 page views, 60,000 Tumblr followers, 19,000 Facebook fans and over 1,000,000 YouTube views. In addition, they have made appearances at many prestigious colleges such as Harvard University and Stanford University. They have presented at South by Southwest, an annual set of film, interactive and music festivals and conferences in Austin, Texas in 2012 and 2013. They have also been syndicated on MTV and they won the 2012 Bloggie Award for Best LGBT Blog.

Despite their mainstream success, Owens-Reid and Russo have made it a point to stay true to their own personalities and tastes by keeping their website and other social media pages lighthearted, funny and honest.

These distinct personalities translates into their live events as well. Rather than keep their talk at Fordham serious, the pair treated it like an informal conversation with friends. They started off with a choreographed dance and filled the rest of their presentation with jokes about pop culture, LGBTQ culture and their own lives and experiences. They also performed skits and interacted with their audience throughout the event.

Not everything that “Everyone is Gay” does is a joke, however. Its main purpose, after all, is to address real problems faced by LGBTQ people. These problems are wide-ranging. For instance, according to the 2011 Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network National School Climate Survey, 64% of LGBTQ students reportedly experienced verbal harassment that year because of their sexuality, and 34% reported actual physical harassment in that time frame. Words like “gay,” “faggot” and “dyke” have been widely heard by LGBTQ students in their schools, and 55% of students who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual reportedly experienced electronic harassment. Consistent bullying caused 29% of LGBTQ students to skip class at least once in the month before the survey was taken, and 33% missed an entire school day in that month because they felt uncomfortable or afraid. On average, the GPA of students who are frequently harassed because of their gender expression is almost half a grade lower than that of students who are not harassed often.

In order to deal with these problems and many more like them, “Everyone is Gay” has developed a list of “Six Things You Can Do To Change The World.” It urges people to “be kind, idiot,” “don’t be a b**** on the Internet,” “volunteer like a boss,” establish “safe spaces,” know your school’s discrimination policy and “vote or die.”

They also urged their audience to stay informed about what is going on in the world, be considerate of others’ orientations, not place too much stock in labels and acknowledge the centuries of oppression that the homosexual community faced while still looking for ways to change and evolve.

“We don’t want to tell kids that they have to wait to get out of middle school or out of high school for things to get better,” Russo said.

The Fordham students who attended “Everyone is Gay” had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the presentation.

“I thought it was interesting,” Liam Duffy, FCRH ’13, said. “It was funny, [and the emphasis that they put on kindness was] a good surprise.”

After the talk ended, students swarmed the stage to say hello to Owens-Reid and Russo, share their own stories and take pictures.

The pair has a lot of plans for the future; the very day that they spoke at Fordham, they made their first book deal. The book, geared toward parents, who have children who are coming out, is set to be released in fall 2014. They will also continue to run their website, make videos, offer advice and give talks around the country. They both agree that it is a lot of work, but in the end, being able to make a difference in so many lives makes it worth it.

“We’ve learned a lot,” said Russo, “and we’ve got a lot to learn.”