“I’m not a trans person. I’m not a lesbian. I’m not asexual. I’m not intersex. I’m not any of a myriad of other letters that make up the large acronym that describes the queer community. If I was, my sole identity would be alphabet soup. The times I mention these other identities is only through the experiences I have had with these people and the ones I have read about. I am by no means an expert. My experience is only mine, but I feel that it overlaps with others that share some of my identities. My life is on display for this performance to laugh at,” senior Stephen Boyhont said.
On Saturday, March 15, Boyhont’s senior project, a one-man theatrical production written and performed by Boyhont and titled “That’s So Gay!” made its debut on the Gibble Auditorium stage.
Boyhont is a 21-year-old senior theatre performance and English professional writing major here at Elizabethtown College. Born and raised in Lititz, Pa., Boyhont was born gay and raised straight.
“That’s So Gay!” is a personal monologue of Boyhont’s ups and downs, experiences and personal thoughts of living life as a gay man. The show covered his personal experiences and provided its audience with helpful facts and figures of the LGBTQ community. There was a mix between facts and figures and personal experience that helped the audience relate to the topic whether or not they’ve ever had to personally experience it themselves.
“I wasn’t worried about the actual content of the performance. I was more focused on memorization and making sure I could get across the points I wanted to make,” Boyhont stated.
Though the performance started out comical and light-hearted, Boyhont led the audience through his journey, laughing with him at his jokes and, by the end, crying with him at his hardships. Some of his stories were entertaining, such as the one when he was 19 and had his first boyfriend, who he thought was 16. One day he asked him if he wanted to drive somewhere instead of his having to drive like he does all the time, and the boy told him he was actually 15 so he didn’t have his license yet. Also, when he was in kindergarten and realized for the first time that he might be gay, another boy was picking on him. Boyhont said that if he wouldn’t stop teasing him, he was going to kiss the bully and give him cooties.
Boyhont’s story was more than just a senior project; it was an expression of good and bad that comes along with being gay or any other identification that people may have that makes them “different.” The overall message that he wanted the audience to take away from his performance was acceptance. At the end of his performance, he talked about how it doesn’t matter what you are, but that we are all different together as one human race.
