Administrators at the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender Affairs in the Michigan Union found a discriminatory
epithet written on their office door Thursday morning. The
Department of Public Safety reported Friday that it was uncertain
what was written, though LGBT Affairs administrators say it was a
homophobic slur.
A caller from the office reported the incident to DPS on
Thursday and said the slur was written overnight, DPS Lt. Chris
Spork said.
The LGBT Affairs Office has an inner and an outer door and the
epithet was written on the inner one. DPS took photos of the door
and is currently reviewing reports.
DPS currently has no suspects.
“Our officers observed what appeared to be white chalk
marks on the inner door,” Spork said. “Our officers
were unable to read what was written.”
Assistant director of the LGBT Affairs Office Kelly Garrett said
“fag” was written on the office door, though the
writing was difficult to read.
“(It is) unlikely they wrote something else like
‘fig,’ ” she said. “It was so messy
… but when you really looked at it closely, it looked like
it said that.”
Though the epithet was written in chalk, Garrett said there is
no chalk in the LGBT office and that there were student meetings in
the building Wednesday night so any passerby could have written the
slur.
“It was someone just being obnoxious, it wasn’t a
direct attack,” Garrett said. “It looked like an
opportunity for them to be homophobic.”
The Office of LGBT Affairs allows people to report hate crimes
through a link located on its office’s website,
www.umich.edu/~inqueery/newssubscribe.html. Garret said recording
hate crimes allows for the reports to be used in the future if a
pattern develops or if the hate crimes are repeatedly
committed.
“(Hate crimes) create a hostile environment for students,
so we want to keep a record of this happening,” Garrett said.
“In this particular case, it’s unlikely or almost
impossible for us to know who did it, but it’s also worth
documenting. If we don’t document them, people will think
these things don’t happen. It helps to remind us that yes, we
need to keep doing this work because there are people who want to
be homophobic and hurtful to other people,” she added.