Inquiring LGBTQ

Regardless of a person’s views, anti-gay slurs are unacceptable.

On a student’s dormitory door at Guilford College, someone left a note that read, “nobody wants your kind on campus.” Three nights later on the Greensboro, N.C., campus, the same student received another note.

“You don’t deserve life like the rest of the world,” it said. “It’s bad enough with out all the gay crap pulling people down. It’s sick unnatural, and death is almost too good for you. Almost.”

Nearly 400 students attended a nighttime vigil hosted by the Guilford Pride and the Guilford Peace Society to voice their protest.

Thankfully, no such anti-gay hate crime has been reported on Temple’s Main Campus, and The Temple News would like to commend the student body for this. The LGBTQ community at Temple is just that, a community of students. No student deserves the torment the Guilford College student endured.

And as hard as The Temple News tries to keep its eyes open and ears alert, we do not know everything that happens within the confines of dorms, off-campus housing or in side conversations in public on Main Campus. No such incident has been reported, but anti-gay slurs, which open up pathways to more hateful and damaging crimes, are not uncommon.

In March 2007, a gay college student named Ryan Skipper was stabbed to death 20 times. The Tampa Bay Times reported “one of the two accused killers told witnesses he was ‘doing the world a favor by getting rid of one more f——.’”

For anyone to think occurrences like the death of Ryan Skipper and the notes written to the Guilford College student are justifiable is wrong. If students overhear negative conversations regarding the LGBTQ community or witness hate crimes, it is imperative they encourage others to cease.

Students with questions regarding the LGBTQ community are encouraged to attend “Speak” in the Owl Cove of Mitten Hall Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. The session, hosted by Queer Student Union in honor of National Coming Out Week, will include coming out stories as well as a question-and-answer portion. A rally will be held Thursday, Oct. 8 at noon at the Bell Tower for members of the Temple LGBTQ community and their heterosexual allies.

To learn more, check out our coverage of Coming Out Week and LGBTQ issues in News and Living.
Students should do their part in making sure Temple doesn’t have to face the kind of bigotry that Guilford College endured.