September 7, 2016
University of Tenn. Pride Center Vandalized With 'Fags Get AIDS' Note
READ TIME: 3 MIN.
Students at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville found Tuesday that the college's pride center was vandalized over the Labor Day weekend. They discovered several rainbow pride flags were destroyed and vandals left behind a hateful message that read, "fags get AIDS more often," Knoxville's CBS-affiliate station WVLT-TV reports.
A photo of the note shows the hashtag "#ImWithHer" was also written.
"They could have just taken it off and ran with it, but they cut it. That sends a deeper message than anything," Thomas Tran, who frequents the Pride Center, told WVLT-TV of the destroyed pride flags.
"To some people, it's words they've had thrown at them while they've been pushed in lockers, while they've been thrown on the ground. It's a word that has a very violent connotation with it," Chesnea Skeen, a Pride Ambassador, added.
Skeen told Knoxville's NBC-affiliate WBIR the flags were put up after the Pulse gay club shooting in Orlando.
"One of the reasons we tried so hard to be open this year is so students would have a safe space for events like Orlando or whatever," Skeen said.
A spokesperson for the University of Tennessee commented on the vandalism.
"Incidents like this have no place on our campus. A bias incident report has been filed, and UTPD is investigating," they said.
This isn't the first time the college's pride center has been attacked. Skeen said someone broke a window in the center last winter and someone scratched out the "LGBT" on the center's sign outside the building over the summer.
"To have that violated almost on a frequent basis can be kind of unnerving because we just want to come and hang out," she told WBIR.
Tran told WVLT-TV the school "needs to address the issue of this really hostile campus climate. The administrators need to understand the needs of the LGBT students."
Tran also took photos of the vandalism and wrote a message on his Facebook.
Officials for the college confirmed to WVLT-TV they are looking into the incident.
"The university obviously needs to condemn this in the strongest terms," Ben Byers, the president of the East Tennessee Equality Council, told WBIR. "They need to encourage more diversity focused activities."
The Twitter account for the college's pride center wrote the latest incident of vandalism occurred on the one year anniversary when the University of Tennessee removed an article written by the center's director, which urged the college to use gender-neutral pronouns.
The article upset many local lawmakers, sparking them to vote on a bill that stripped funding from the college's diversity office earlier this year. The Associated Press reported in May:
A bill to strip funding from the diversity office at Tennessee's flagship public university became law without Gov. Bill Haslam's signature.
Lawmakers had been angered by the University of Tennessee's diversity office recommendations to use gender-neutral pronouns for transgender students and to avoid religious-themed holiday parties. So they voted to remove about $446,000 in state funds for the office and instead use the money to pay for minority scholarships.
Conservative lawmakers have also been upset at the annual student-run Sex Week at the school, though the diversity office plays no role in that event. The bill bans the school from funding or supporting Sex Week.
Click here to support the University of Tennessee's pride center. Watch WVLT-TV's report on the vandalism, and WBIR's report, below.
