It is one of the most deep-seeded rivalries on campus. The conservative Orange and Blue Observer and the liberal Feminst Majority and PRIDE groups, with two very different ideologies, met on the Quad to showcase their views Wednesday.

The Observer, a conservative newspaper published by University students, had control of the microphone from noon until one to attract student attention to its cause, Conservative Coming Out Day.

A small group of conservative students gathered by a table decorated with American flags and red, white and blue balloons. Behind the table and microphone stood a homemade wooden closet to be stepped through as a symbolic way for conservative students to find their voice on campus.

Ten feet beyond the Conservative Coming Out Day was a larger gathering of students. Nearly 300 people, dressed in black clothing to represent mourning, turned their backs towards the speakers and stood quietly in protest. They handed out hundreds of leaflets to students passing by that stated their objections to this event. Most were members of the Feminist Majority and/or PRIDE, a club for supporters of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students.

Two University police officers stood along the sides with a watchful eye for any potential conflict, reminded of past interactions with these two groups that were far more riotous than Wednesday.

Leo Buchignani, editor-in-chief of the Observer and senior in communications, brought this national event to campus to criticize a University that he finds oppressive, terming it a “coddling womb of campus liberalism.” Buchignani voiced into the microphone his three main concerns for conservatives on campus: text book bias, hostile classroom environments and unfair grading.

“Coming Out Day is not to say that we feel like victims or that we are oppressed,” said Adam Feil, graduate student and president of OBO. “What we are fighting is the lack of political diversity on campus. It is a disservice to students to be taught in liberal classrooms, then go out into the real world and not be able to relate with half the population.”

Jeff Ginger, senior in LAS and president of the Sociology Club, emphasized that the protesters embrace free speech but not when it’s disrespectful.

“I’m glad for free speech and glad that there are people courageous enough to announce their political status,” Ginger said.

Many of the protesters felt that the Observer was mocking the LGBT community, said Emily Kaffel, junior in LAS and co-president of PRIDE, referring to the similarities between the Conservative Coming Out Day and National LGBT Coming Out Day that will occur on Oct. 11.

Both events use the metaphor of coming out of the closet. The Observer made posters and stickers that featured the Conservative Coming Out Day logo, an upside-down triangle colored in with an American flag resembling the gay pride symbol of an upside-down pink triangle – something sacred to the LGBT community, said Megan Kough, junior in LAS and president of the Feminist Majority.

“Nobody owns the symbols that they are using,” said Kevin Otten, graduate student and PRIDE member. “Still, they are co-opting cultural symbols that the LGBT community uses during the very painful, hard process of coming out. Their intention is antagonistic and mocking.”

Feil and Buchignani insist that using the “coming out of the closet” symbolism was not done in a mocking way.

“It’s a good concept, although we don’t agree with their view,” Feil said. The closet is just about not feeling free to express the way you feel.”

The Observer also held a gun raffle on Conservative Coming Out Day.

The University has stalled the Observer’s original plan of raffling off two small handguns, called derringers. This raffle, in a process mimicking the University admissions policy, would have allowed only women and homosexual men to win, according Buchignani’s e-mail sent to the Observer list serve.

Several members of PRIDE read that e-mail that included the phrase, “Only women or homosexuals will be eligible to win (anything that carries a purse).”

“As a gay student, I am grossly offended by the publicity for this. Using the phrase ‘anything’ and alluding to gay men carrying purses is a hateful, bigoted stereotype,” Otten said.

Much of PRIDE and Feminist Majority’s protest was fueled by this. During their protest they held up signs that read “No room in my purse for sexism or homophobia.”

Buchignani said the protestors misunderstood his hyperbole and he refuses to “police his language for humorless political correctness enforcers.” The derringer was supposed to be given to only women and homosexuals because it is too small a weapon to protect others.

“It’s a man’s duty to protect the weaker,” Buchignani said. “A two-shot gun just won’t do that. And if you don’t subscribe to the traditional role of manhood, we will not impose traditional gender roles on you.”

During Buchignani’s speech, he and the Observer reversed the protest on the protesters, calling for PRIDE to rid their secretary, Chris Perardi, of his position. Buchignani read a blog passage of Perardi’s, saying that Perardi had threatened violence against Observer members by saying, “It’s too bad I can’t go bust some skulls.”

Both sides of the political spectrum said that a dialogue between them may have been more productive but see it unlikely because both view the other group as such an opposing extreme.