Vandals Mar Cube With Homophobic Graffiti

According to police reports, the slurs made reference to a "movie" with characters named "Princess Bill," "Hans Homo" and "Gay J" as "Darth Gaydor." The vandals also made reference to Nov. 22, which is Thanksgiving.

A Student Union employee painted over the offensive material Sunday night after the vandalism was reported at about 8:40 p.m., police reports stated.

According to the Student Union policy, "The (cube) is available for University officially recognized student organizations for publicizing on-campus events open to the University community."

Fred Hashagen, the LGBT administrative assistant, reported the incident to University police.

While Hashagen said the vandalism was disturbing, he said he would like the people who committed the crime to come out and express their opinions. Because the vandalism occurred at night, it is difficult to confront the perpetrators, Hashagen said. "The issue of hate cannot really be addressed head-on."

Hashagen said he is concerned about an air of close-mindedness on UNC's campus in light of other anti-gay incidents on campus in the last month. On Sept. 24, The Daily Tar Heel ran a false announcement for a gay pride march in the Campus Calendar that apparently was submitted to the newspaper as a prank.

"It's a shame that homophobes have used the freedom that UNC gives its students in order to hurt people," he said.

Hashagen said he is not concerned about the reference to Nov. 22 or about any potential anti-gay activity on Thanksgiving because most students will be out of town.

But Glenn Grossman, president of the Carolina Alternative Meetings of Graduate and Professional Students, expressed concern about students' safety and questioned the University's response to such incidents.

Grossman recognized the efforts of Provost Robert Shelton for addressing the concerns of LGBT students, but he said more needs to be done. "There does need to be a systematic and systemwide response to (the vandalism)," he said.

Grossman said incidents like these are common on campus, but the average student doesn't hear much about them. He said when the student organization Queer Network for Change hangs banners in the Pit, they are almost always stolen within 24 hours.

"There is widespread support (on campus), but a minority of students are not gay-friendly," Grossman said.

"We have a long way to go."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.