Offensive graffiti raises difficult questions
Leslie Lim
Issue date: 4/11/07 Section: News
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"We are a strong, open, and resilient community, but we cannot tolerate actions that threaten the safety of community members and target individuals because of their differences," President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz wrote in the e-mail. "We should also remember that the Ross incident, however egregious, is connected by attitude to other recent expressions of homophobia on this campus.
In a letter sent out to Ross residents on March 22, Ross Commons Heads Steve and Katy Abbott described the impact of the graffiti found in the stairwells of Hadley Hall, and the importance of addressing the issue.
"Beyond being simply vandalism, the comments written represented a pointed and offensive attack on an individual using language that was hostile, misogynistic and homophobic," wrote the Abbotts. "This act constitutes harassment and hate speech that is in direct violation of College policy as well as Vermont State law."
In response, the Commons heads proposed an open gathering on April 3 in the Ross Fireplace Lounge to discuss the issue. As students, faculty and staff became more involved with planning the meeting, the initially Ross-based gathering grew into a much larger forum. A Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (MOQA) campaign distributed posters in the dining halls days prior to Tuesday's meeting.
MOQA Co-President Nick Ballen '09, in an interview last Tuesday, described the graffiti as directed at specific individuals, mentioning names along with words and images.
"The campus, in general, is pretty accepting - but there are underlying things that don't come up," said Ballen, on whether the incident was related to a larger sentiment across campus. "Sometimes that is harder for an organization to deal with. These incidents are 'isolated' but 'not' because there are smaller versions [of the graffiti] everywhere. This sort of incident reminds us to pay attention to such things around campus, because when we ignore the little things, something big like this happens."
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Guy Kettelhack
posted 4/11/07 @ 9:35 AM EST
I'd like to suggest, as a gay alumnus, that in addition to fostering entirely laudable discussion about the legal and moral implications of these latest outbursts of homophobia at Middlebury College, you might also want to think of opening the door to talking about underlying issues of sexuality - the bewilderments that I think particularly bedevil men and women in the 18-22 year old realm - which are, I believe, largely at the root of homophobic reaction and expression. (Continued…)
Bing Taylor
posted 4/11/07 @ 3:44 PM EST
As a son of two Middlebury grads Dick Taylor '37 and Patty May '40 and the father of another Zack Taylor '99 and father in law of another Jelena Ignatovic '02 and uncle of another Spencer Taylor '03 I credit Middlebury with instilling a liberal education in the widest sense of that meaning in all our family. (Continued…)
Aubry Threlkeld
posted 4/12/07 @ 4:42 PM EST
As a young gay alumnus, I can remember numerous incidents of homophobia during my stay at Middlebury and I do not think that any of these primarily verbal and written attacks should be colored using the language "small" or "large. (Continued…)
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