To Our Loving Queer and Queer Friendly Community:
This has been a very eventful few weeks, and not necessarily all in the positive. I apologize for being on hiatus while dealing with these various incidents, on top of being a student as well.
On Sunday November 9, the Purdue chapter of the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] held an open discussion of recent hate crimes which had occurred in and around Purdue. The original intent of the discussion was to inform the Purdue and West Lafayette community of two incidents, which were racially based, that had occurred that week. However, the president of the Purdue chapter of the NAACP, Ronard Black, was informed of an incident against the Queer Student Union during Homecoming weekend (October 25).
First off, allow me to explain the Homecoming incident in detail, as it is chronologically first, and most relevant to our community. Also, this event has not been chronicled very well in the local media. Information on the other two incidents, which were the vandalization of a tree, and an incident involving the restaurant Triple XXX, can be found in the Exponent and the Journal & Courrier. I personally recommend the J&C.
The Queer Student Union decided to take part in Homecoming events this year to show our school spirit. One of the events we decided to take part in was Window Painting. In the Window Painting event, we paint the window of a local business with a sports theme, which was sponsored and organized by PSUB [Purdue Student Union Board]. We applied for Hotbox Pizza but were assigned Purdue Wrestling as a theme by PSUB.
Early that week, we painted the Hotbox Pizza window with the theme of Purdue Wrestling. It included the title “Big 10 Champions”, years in which Purdue Wrestling had won Big Ten, an image of two generic wrestlers ready to attack each other, and the words “Purdue Queer Student Union” and “All Allies Welcome”. We received many compliments, and overall the atmosphere was very welcoming.
On Saturday afternoon [Oct 25], a group of individuals took offense at the QSU window decoration. Some of them identified themselves as members of Purdue’s wrestling team. The group proceeded to scratch off the name “Purdue Queer Student Union”. Also, a small group of them also went inside to harass the employees of Hot Box. To prevent damage to the window, Hot Box employees provided the group with materials to remove the paint safely.
By the next day [Oct 26], the executive board of the QSU was well aware of the incident. Hot Box promised (and later gave) a written report of the incident. QSU’s president, Clare Ford, emailed the Dean of Students, the Athletics Department, PSUB, Provost Woodson and the LGBT Advisory Board. By Monday we had received enough responses, including a list of names from Scott Henkle, the head coach of the wrestling team, that we comfortable enough to approach the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.
There are clearly two violations: 1) a damaged window decoration, and 2) the targeting of an organization due to sexual orientation. QSU requests that apologies be made to us and to Hot Box, and that perhaps the team or the athletic department as a whole make some sort of statement condemning homophobia**. Also, the team could also consider undertaking some sort of diversity training in order to learn from this experience.
QSU will be taking part in an anti-hate crime rally on today (Tuesday November 11). It will be at the tree outside Recitation and Class of 50, at 3 pm. I will speaking about the Hot Box incident, and other speakers will explain the Triple XXX and tree incident as well. Please come out and pledge your support against hate crimes.
Your friendly (except when she’s being activist) queer librarian,
Jessica Lee
Edit 11/16 used the word "condoning" when I meant to use "condemning". Um, can I use the excuse that English is not my first language?
