“Last Thursday, someone wrote the words ‘Death to all f***s’ in thick black Sharpie across a first-year dorm,” said Dillon Patel, a representative from Duke’s Blue Devils United. “Not just discrimination, not just a hate speech, not an isolated incident, but a death threat to our collective communities.”
The Not Here, Not There, Not Anywhere rally was organized by Sexuality and Gender Alliance President Lauren Martin and junior Morgan McLaughlin, the LGBTQ policy leader for the Multicultural Affairs and Diversity Outreach committee of student government.
After McLaughlin attended the rally held at Duke to support Jack Donahue, the student targeted by the threat, she came back inspired to hold one at UNC.
“If it could happen at Duke, it could happen here,” Martin said.
The program featured various student organizations as speakers, along with Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, Terri Phoenix from the LGBTQ Center and the event organizers themselves.
McLaughlin closed the event by reading some of the demands the group put together since the incident. The list was formed by asking students what they need to feel safe on this campus — responses were tracked with a Google form.
“Minority students on this campus deserve to feel safe,” McLaughlin said. “Safety isn’t just about physical security, but it also includes mental and emotional security as well. When students do not feel safe, do not feel like they belong, do not feel included on this campus, they do not perform at their socially and academically best.”
These demands included gender-neutral bathrooms, gender-neutral housing, better discussions surrounding diversity at orientation, moving the LGBTQ Center to a more central location on campus and a UNC-system president who represents more diverse identities.
