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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: THE WEB SITE UNCW DOESN'T WANT ITS STUDENTS TO SEE WILMINGTON, NC (8/21/07) - If you kiss members of the same sex, the University of North Carolina Wilmington may not want to associate with you. This is the message UNCW sent to one local business that was banned from the University's Beach Blast. In June, UNCW approved GossipReport.com to be a sponsor of Beach Blast, an annual event for students held by UNCW, Next Media and ten other sponsors. GossipReport.com paid over $1,000 in sponsorship fees when NextMedia representative Kristine Altman notified the Web site that it could no longer be a sponsor, breaking the University's agreement. "We were told that the reason UNCW kicked us out of Beach Blast was because they saw a picture of two girls kissing on the site and therefore the college does not want to be associated with this kind of behavior or GossipReport.com," says Director of Media Relations Elizabeth Bloch. "This is a freedom of speech issue: College is an environment where students are taught to speak and think for themselves and UNCW is prohibiting this kind of discussion forum from its campus." After UNCW notified GossipReport.com that it could no longer be a sponsor, the company rented an RV in hopes of parking outside of Beach Blast in order to connect with students. With permission from the Town of Wrightsville Beach Parking Program to park a commercial RV in a public parking lot, the company bought all day parking permits and parked nearby the Beach Blast. Two hours before the event, the Wrightsville Beach Chief of Police informed GossipReport.com staff that they were not permitted to park the RV in proximity to the Beach Blast. "They may have kicked us off of Wrightsville Beach, but unless UNCW knows someone in the Coast Guard, GossipReport.com will be in a scuba boat off shore," says Bloch. For additional information or a sample copy, contact: Elizabeth Bloch |
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