Subbaraman in the LGBTQ Center

LGBTQ Center Director Sivagami Subbaraman told the Voice that yesterday’s incident—which was described in the campus-wide email as “a written slur posted on the door of the LGBTQ Resource Center”—involved a note addressed to her personally that was taped to center’s door.

Subbaraman did not reveal the exact wording of the note, but said it was directed at her personally, not the wider gay community.

“I have no idea whether this is because of the recent hate crimes or not, but whatever it is, I just want to say that I’m not afraid of their fear,” Subbaraman said. “They are afraid of me, but I’m not afraid of their fear.”

Subbaraman said she was pleased with the University’s inclusion of her in the response to the crimes through every step of the process, including drafting the emails that went out to students after each incident.

Now, she said, the power to fight homophobia lies with the campus community. Subbaraman encourages students of all orientations to use the LGBTQ Center as a safe space, but also as an informational resource for those who are unfamiliar or disagree with homosexuality.

“We have to put out a call to say, ‘Look, we can talk this out,’” Subbaraman said. “We have made so much progress since the Center was opened. I’m nervous that this is going to set us back.”

Full text of the e-mail Subbaran sent to members of GU Pride Monday afternoon after the jump.

Hello everyone:

I am sorry to be writing to all of you at such a difficult and painful time, but I did want to reach out and let you know a few things:

1. I have been consistently consulted by senior administration and was fully made aware of all the incidents as they happened.

2. I worked with DPS and Office of Public Safety and other senior administrators to draft the PSAs that went out.

3. I have reached out to the students.

I want to let you know that both Matt and I are here for all of you. Thank you all for taking the initiative to organize the vigil.

A campus-wide letter will go out soon from Administration.

Please know that we are taking all this very seriously, and our doors are open if any of you wish to come and talk and share, or just feel the need for support.

We will do everything we need to do to make this campus safer for all of us.

Shiva

Photo by Sarah Vazquez.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm and is filed under News, Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.