An act of homophobic vandalism has put administrators and students at N.C. State University on edge.
Campus police are investigating derogatory comments spray painted Monday night in a campus building — an incident that Police Chief Jack Moorman said is being investigated as a hate crime.
“Fags burn” and “Die” was scrawled in purple spray paint on the outside of the GLBT Center’s door and display case.
Offensive comments targeting the gay community have been found in the school’s Free Expression Tunnel prior to the incident, but Justine Hollingshead, director of the center, said Monday night’s acts are elevated out of the free speech realm.
“We really struggle with trying to make a line between free speech and hateful speech,” she said. “They crossed over the line (Monday) night.”
The university’s housekeeping was able to clean off the display case several hours after the incident occurred, but Hollingshead said it took a paint crew working to remove the varnish on the door in order to get rid of the “Fags burn.”
“We try to have a physical place where faculty and staff and students can go and be comfortable and safe, and last night that was taken away,” Hollingshead said.
“The one question that I would ask that probably everyone wants to know is, ‘Why?’ And what about me?” she said. “What about me makes you think that you have the right to say that I should die, and I should burn and how do you get to decide that?”
The vandalism discovered on the GBLT Center, which aims to serve as a safe and welcoming environment for faculty and students of all sexual orientations, has ignited an outcry from students.
