By Erika Hobart DailyEvergreen staff It’s a Wednesday night but the hallways are filled with loud dueling music – techno from one room, rock from another – and people are treating the middle of the week with festive spirits that are likely better suited for a Friday. Diego Goding looks amused. He’s holding a large bag of beef jerky from which he hands out pieces to random intoxicated people who wander into his room. He doesn’t notice – or maybe he just doesn’t care – that three people have decided to take residency on his bed and tear into a bag of barbecue chips.

“I would rather drink hard-A,” Diego says about his preference for a Rockstar vodka over beer, oblivious to the buffet that has apparently opened up in his room. Diego is a junior management information systems major, a fraternity member and, judging from the current situation, a rather generous guy. He has a typical college student wardrobe that consists of a lot of jeans and sweatshirts – although a photo of him reveals he’s donned a Viking hat on some occasion, for which he has no real explanation. Perhaps more obscure than the Viking hat is that Diego is the product of artificial insemination, something other people regard with much more surprise than he ever thinks it’s worthy of. “Everyone expects my life to be really different, but it’s not,” he said laughing. “The only thing I can really think of is that a lot of kids have their dads introduce them to sports, but it was my mom who taught me baseball.” It started when Diego’s mother, Susan, who is a lesbian, decided she wanted a child. She asked one of her male friends to be a sperm donor. Susan Goding has a close friend, Joan Pettijones, with a daughter, Rockit, who was also artificially inseminated and born a month after Diego. Susan and Joan are not partners, but close friends who helped raise each other’s children. He regards them as family; they are like another mother and a sister to him. “I grew up surrounded by women,” Diego said. “When we celebrated Christmas with other family members and friends, I was one of two males there.” Diego and Rockit split holidays and weekends, with his mother and her mother. Despite their closeness, Diego decided to attend WSU because he wanted to try something different – namely living in a small town. He also decided to join a fraternity. “You always hear all these stereotypes about a frat,” Diego said, a Phi Delta Theta member. “But I was interested in the brotherhood aspect and I got along with all the guys. To be honest, I expected everyone to be a lot more conventional than they actually turned out to be.” His fellow members are pleased to have Diego in their fraternity – partly because of the experiences he brings to the house.

“Diego came from a unique background and that makes him more unique as a person,” sophomore history and education major Brian Smith said. “But our fraternity is a whole bunch of people who have different backgrounds and we accept that because we’re brothers. I respect him a lot. He’s a good-hearted guy and he always speaks what he feels.” Diego isn’t content with remaining quiet about his opinions. For instance, he is not all right with people substituting the word “gay” in place of “stupid,” and thinks nothing of saying his mind when he is displeased. “I’ve been told that I go to a conservative school in a small town and therefore I should realize people aren’t going to be as accepting of gay people,” he said. “I understand that there are going to be people that are prejudiced. But the biggest thing that catches me off-guard is when people say that I should accept it.” Diego comes off as approachable and easygoing despite his well-versed and adamant political beliefs. He’s a self-proclaimed computer nerd, a Cougars sports fanatic and, at times, a dedicated consumer of vodka. Diego knows his upbringing appears unusual on the surface, but he insists it’s nothing particularly special or different at the core.

“I don’t go around announcing I’ve been raised by lesbians,” he says laughing. “It’s not really something that comes up on a regular basis. If it comes up, I’ll talk about it, but really, I’m just like anyone else. I’m lucky; I was raised by a happy family and that’s really all there is to it.”