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LOU CHIBBARO J
Friday, October 19, 2007
Four
Georgetown
University
professors
joined
the
university’s
gay
student
group
this
week
in
condemning
a
decision
by
campus
police
to
forcibly
block
members
of
the
group
from
delivering
a
gay
rights
petition
to
university
president
John
DeGioia.
The
incident
took
place
Oct.
11,
minutes
after
gay
students
and
their
straight
supporters
participated
in
a
campus
rally
to
observe
National
Coming
Out
Day,
an
annual
gay
rights
event
aimed
at
encouraging
gays
to
live
openly.
“Today
we
were
made
to
feel
not
just
unwelcome,
but
as
total
enemies
and
criminals
at
our
own
school,
simply
for
wanting
to
give
our
president
a
T-shirt
and
more
signatures
from
our
petition,”
said
Scott
Chessare,
co-president
of
the
group
Georgetown
University
Pride.
Chessare
gave
that
assessment
of
the
incident
in
an
e-mail
to
the
group’s
membership,
saying
the
petition,
among
other
things,
called
on
DeGioia
to
agree
to
establish
a
university-funded
and
staffed
“LGBTQ
Resource
Center”
to
address
gay
issues
on
campus.
According
to
accounts
by
Chessare
and
the
Hoya,
the
Georgetown
student
newspaper,
about
10
uniformed
officers
with
the
campus
Department
of
Public
Safety
rushed
to
the
entrance
of
Healy
Hall,
the
administration
building
where
DeGioia’s
office
is
located,
and
blocked
the
gay
students
from
entering.
One
of
the
gay
students
was
“forcibly
removed
from
the
Healy
steps”
by
an
officer,
Chessare
said.
He
said
that
when
officers
were
asked
why
they
were
blocking
the
gay
students’
access
to
the
building,
they
refused
to
give
an
explanation
and
“yelled”
at
the
students
in
a
demeaning
way.
The
officers
initially
allowed
other
students
to
enter
the
building
and
appeared
to
single
out
the
gay
students,
who
were
wearing
Coming
Out
Day
T-shirts
that
displayed
the
words
“I
am,”
Chessare
said.
Julie
Green
Bataille,
a
Georgetown
University
spokesperson,
said
the
campus
police
were
restricting
access
to
the
building
because
a
special
event
was
taking
place
inside.
She
said
the
officers
were
following
a
longstanding
policy
of
limiting
access
to
the
building
during
special
events
to
persons
invited
to
attend
such
events.
Bataille
said
the
event
included
a
reception
and
debate
about
religion
between
political
commentators
Christopher
Hitchens
and
Alister
McGrath.
Chessare
said
the
action
by
campus
police
heightened
tension
between
gay
students
and
the
Georgetown
administration
that
surfaced
last
month,
when
a
19-year-old
student
was
arrested
by
D.C.
police
for
assaulting
a
fellow
student
in
an
incident
that
police
listed
as
an
anti-gay
hate
crime.
Members
of
Georgetown
Pride
complained
that
the
university
withheld
information
about
the
Sept.
9
assault
for
nearly
three
weeks,
until
D.C.
police
arrested
Philip
Cooney,
19,
on
Sept.
27.
The
group
said
the
university
placed
other
gay
students
at
risk
by
not
disclosing
that
someone
had
targeted
a
gay
person
because
of
his
sexual
orientation.
The
assault
took
place
on
a
street
about
one
block
from
the
main
entrance
to
the
campus.
Bataille
said
university
officials
determined
that
the
assault
did
not
meet
federal
criteria
for
a
general
threat
to
the
campus.
She
said
the
university
issued
two
statements
condemning
bias-related
incidents
shortly
after
Cooney’s
arrest.
She
said
DeGioia
has
since
met
with
representatives
of
George-town
University
Pride
and
issued
a
statement
to
the
entire
university
community
by
e-mail
saying
the
university
would
not
tolerate
anti-gay
prejudice.
“Whether
it
is
homophobia,
racism,
sexism,
religious
or
other
discrimination,
intolerance
of
any
kind
is
an
affront
not
only
to
individual
faculty,
staff
and
students,
but
to
our
entire
campus
and
community,”
DeGioia
said
in
his
statement.
Bataille
said
at
DeGioia’s
direction,
the
university’s
president
for
student
affairs,
Todd
Olson,
created
a
special
working
group
consisting
of
students,
faculty
and
staff
to
address
the
issue
of
anti-gay
bias.
She
noted
that
the
university
already
has
a
part-time
staff
member
who
serves
as
coordinator
of
gay
resources.
Chessare
said
that
following
the
incident
with
campus
police,
G.U.
Pride
has
decided
to
boycott
the
working
group,
which
he
called
a
“fig
leaf”
aimed
at
deflecting
attention
from
the
university’s
“inaction”
on
gay
issues
for
more
than
six
years.
In
an
Oct.
16
open
letter
to
Olson,
four
openly
gay
Georgetown
professors,
led
by
professor
of
English
Tommasso
Astarita,
called
on
the
university
to
speak
out
forcefully
against
anti-gay
prejudice.
The
letter
notes
that
the
university’s
reporting
system
for
bias-related
incidents
on
campus
shows
that
sexual
orientation-related
incidents
represented
“at
least
two-thirds
of
all
bias-related
incidents”
reported
on
campus
in
recent
months.
It
says
the
latest
incident
with
the
campus
police,
in
which
“authorities
collectively
treated
these
students
as
enemies
and
suspects,”
combined
with
DeGioia’s
refusal
so
far
to
appear
in
public
with
gay
students,
shows
a
lack
of
will
on
the
part
of
the
university
to
address
gay
issues
effectively.
“These
things
would
be
treated
like
the
unacceptable
scandal
that
they
are
if
they
were
aimed
at
any
other
marginalized
group
on
campus,”
the
professors
state
in
their
letter.
“And
yet,
since
these
things
happen
to
LGBT
people,
Georgetown
waffles,
wishes
it
would
all
go
away
and
calls
in
the
campus
police
when
LGBT
students
and
their
supporters
try
to
do
something
about
it.”
In
addition
to
Astarita,
the
letter
was
signed
by
Dana
Luciano,
assistant
professor
of
English;
Patrick
O’Malley,
associate
professor
of
English;
and
Ricardo
Ortiz,
associate
professor
of
English.
On
Oct.
13,
DeGioia
was
honored
at
the
National
Italian
American
Foundation’s
annual
national
dinner
in
Washington
before
3,000
people
as
a
positive
role
model
for
Italian
Americans
in
their
quest
to
combat
anti-Italian
prejudice
and
stereotyping.
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