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.

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Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier spoke to WTOP about the recent anti-gay incidents on and around campus and said she believes the incidents qualify as hate crimes.

Contrary to what MPD Lieutenant John Hedgecock, who covers Georgetown and Burleith, told the Advisory Neighborhood Commission yesterday, Lanier says MPD will be pursing the cases.

Lanier told WTOP:

“These assaults, on or off campus are a serious concern for us. We will do everything in our power to bring those responsible to justice. We have aggressive laws in the District to prosecute hate crimes to the fullest extent of the law, and we intend to use them.”

According to WTOP, MPD is encouraging anyone with information about the incidents to come forward.

At tonight’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting (which Vox will have a full write-up of tomorrow), Lieutenant John Hedgecock said that Metropolitan Police Department was not investigating either of the recent hate crimes because the victims would not talk to police. Hedgecock said both victims were contacted multiple times by MPD, including by the Gay and Lesbian Liason Unit.

Hedgecock added that the description of the assailant involved in Sunday’s assault is vague, because the victim could not remember much about the attack.

“He had really no recollection of what had occurred,” Hedgecock said.

University spokesperson Andy Pino said University had referred the crimes to MPD and did not know the status of any investigations.

A couple hundred students gathered in Red Square Monday evening holding candles to speak out against the recent anti-gay violence.

Representatives of student groups from GU Pride to the Georgetown branch of the NAACP spoke at the vigil, as well as Georgetown faculty, staff, and administrators. Chris Farris and Todd Metrokin, Co-Chairs of the D.C. group Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence, and Sergeant Carlos Mejia from MPD’s Gay and Lesbian Liason Unit also made an appearance.

“We are here today in solidarity with the victims of these crimes,” Co-President of GU Pride Joseph Graumann (SFS ‘11) said. “But solidarity is more than sympathy. It’s more than just standing by. It’s about action.”

Students at the vigil advocated a range of responses to improve student safety and address what they perceive as a campus culture that tolerates homophobia. Among the suggestions were a student community watch program and higher pay for DPS officers, as well as individual precautions like programming the DPS number into cell phones and reporting crimes when they occur.

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A campus-wide e-mail was just sent out regarding the recent bias-related assaults and announced that today there was another anti-gay hate crime: a slur was written on the door of the LGBTQ Center.

According to the e-mail:

As a Catholic and Jesuit university, we are committed to fostering a community that is welcoming to all and values understanding, tolerance, inclusion and respect.  Over the past week, we have seen several incidents take place on or near campus that are especially troubling because they have targeted members of our community with homophobic language and disrespect. Two incidents were off campus assaults and today a written slur was posted on the door of the LGBTQ Resource Center. These acts are unacceptable. We take these incidents and the safety of our campus community very seriously and are taking steps to address the needs of our students at this time.

The e-mail, sent from Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson, Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity Rosemary Kilkenny and Vice President for Mission and Ministry Philip L. Boroughs, strongly condemns the attacks and says that the University has been working with the Metropolitan Police Department on the cases.

Full e-mail after the jump…

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Tracy Flick for GUSA Senate!

SPECIAL ELECTION RESULTS: The election commission ran a successful special election that culminated in the election of the following senators:

• Townhouses: Matthew Ginsberg with 35 votes
• Harbin 6-9: Clara Gustafson with 46 votes
• Copley: Shaalin Parekh with 52 votes
• Village A E-H: Nolan Johnson with 15 votes

The only apparent glitch was that students in the districts received “about three emails or so” for ballots because of a problem with Hoyamail, according to the election commissioners. Nick Troiano (COL ’11—Village A A-D) thanked the election commissioners for running such an impressive election, compared to last year’s chaotic special elections.

The election commissioners noted there were far more candidates per capita for the special election than the actual election. The Harbin seat had nine candidates, the Copley seat had seven candidates, the Townhouses seat had five candidates, and the Village A seat had three candidates. They said in the normal election, there were 35 candidates running for 34 seats, whereas in this election, there were 24 candidates running for four seats.

GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) attributed the peak in interest to run for GUSA Senate to the timing of the elections.

“You have to have the Senate in place at a certain time, and I think students don’t have their lives together until a certain time,” Angert said. “I think this was a very good indicator of why there wasn’t a good turnout [of candidates] at the start and why there was a good turnout now. There wasn’t any additional advertisement.”

The new senators agreed with Angert’s reasoning and added that the seats seemed more accessible because no one had the elections “wrapped up.”

GEORGETOWN FUND PLANS: Angert told the Senate there was “nothing super new to report on,” but the senators wanted to hear more about the executive’s plans for the proposed GUSA Georgetown Fund. Angert said the current plans are only a rough outline that have not yet been sent to the Finances and Appropriations Committee, but the Senate discussed several aspects of the potential Georgetown Fund.

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About 70 students met in Red Square this afternoon for a flash protest against the recent anti-gay hate crimes.

The rally was organized by Carter Lavin (SFS ‘10), a supporter of LGBTQ rights but not a member of GU Pride.  Lavin said he was so upset upon hearing about the most recent incident, the assault that occurred at 36th and N Streets early this morning, that he couldn’t focus on his work and decided to organize a protest.

Lavin spread the word by texting 40 to 50 of his friends, many of whom spread the word on Twitter.

“I hope people start caring, start noticing,” Lavin says.  “[I think the protest is important] so we can say students reacted.”

Joseph Graumann (SFS ‘11), Co-Chair of GU Pride said he was “dismayed” by the recent hate crimes but was glad that the LGBTQ community at Georgetown has such strong allies and was “amazed that someone took it upon themselves” to plan the protest.

Graumann said that the campus climate has improved significantly since the 2007 hate crimes that prompted the creation of the LGBTQ Center, but work still needs to be done to “raise awareness that hate is a problem on campus.”

“When LGBTQ students are targeted it’s scary,” Graumann said.

According to Graumann, GU Pride is planning to hold a community event later this week.

During the rally, students made a circle around Red Square and shouted chants “Hate crimes are ridiculous / My Georgetown is better than this!” and “Georgetown students are under attack / What do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

Update 9:30 p.m. There will be a vigil tomorrow night in Red Square at 8:30 p.m. For more information, check out the Facebook event.

Photos by Helen Burton

Early this morning a student was assaulted at 36th and N Streets by an unknown male after being asked repeatedly “Are you a homo?” according to a DPS Public Safety Alert.

According to the PSA:

On November 1, 2009 at approximately 1:32 a.m., witnesses reported to DPS that a student walking in the area of 36th & N Streets, NW was assaulted by an unknown male. Immediately prior to the assault, the suspect asked the victim several times, “Are you a homo?” The suspect fled the scene after physically assaulting the victim.

DPS and GERMS responded to the scene. GERMS transported the victim to Georgetown University Hospital for treatment of the injuries sustained in the assault. DPS gathered information from witnesses and notified MPD. The investigation is ongoing.

According to the PSA, the suspect is described as “a white male with red and white face paint, wearing a black leather jacket.”

This is the second reported bias-related assault this week.  Another student was assaulted on Canal Road on Tuesday because she was wearing a pro-gay rights t-shirt.

According to a Public Safety Alert sent out tonight, a female Georgetown student was assaulted Tuesday based on a pro-gay rights shirt she was wearing:

On Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at approximately 5:44 p.m., a student reported to DPS that she had been assaulted on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 9:10 p.m. The complainant reported that while she was walking on Canal Road in the area adjacent to the entrance to campus, two unknown males began insulting her with derogatory comments based on her perceived sexual orientation. The complainant reported that she was wearing a shirt with a logo indicating support for gay rights.

The suspects would not allow the complainant to pass by, then took her book bag and taunted her. They hit her on her upper torso, pushed her to the pavement, and struck her with the book bag. The suspects left the scene heading west on Canal Road towards Foxhall Road.

The Voice will have more information in tomorrow’s issue.

GUSA, protecting students from tyranical landlords

RATE MY LANDLORD?: During the Executive Briefing, GUSA Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) announced that  the executive wants to tackle the “lack of readily available information” about off-campus student housing. He said there is no official name yet, but the executive wants to create a “Rate my Landlord”-type website to help students with housing.

“It’s miserable, and it’s hard to get a house, and you always feel like you’re getting gypped, and you always feel like there’s so much pressure … Georgetown students are going to get screwed,” Kluger said. “So it’s just another initiative to get more information on it… for kids to know their options so they don’t have to pay as much as they think they might.”

In the rest of his briefing, Kluger mentioned that the executive should be part of an upcoming discussion with the administration about the main campus plan. He also updated the Senate on the free newspaper program.

HATE CRIMES AND THE STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT: Senator Josh Mogil (SFS ‘11—Off Campus) introduced a resolution to start a discussion about updating the Student Code of Conduct.

Mogil wants to make hate crimes—“crimes motivated by race, disability, gender, gender identified, ethnicity, and/or sexual orientation”—a separate offense under category C.

Currently, bias-related incidents are only treated as parameters of other category C violations, but Mogil seeks to make them their own category of offense, and include in the definition of “bias-related incidents” those that are motivated by disability or physical handicap.

“It sends a message because I was a victim [of a hate crime,] and I couldn’t do certain things within the School Code of Conduct,” Mogil said. “I couldn’t face my attacker because it wasn’t its own thing. It was only a parameter. So it still isn’t treated as seriously. I was a victim of assault.”

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