Apr 13, 2007  |  By: ELIZABETH PERRY  | COMMENTS     

Reports have circulated that two gay students at Washington and Lee University’s School of Law in Lexington, Va., were attacked in separate incidents late last month.

Brian Dunkel, 27, was attacked by another law school student on his way home on the morning of March 25, according to Lexington police reports. Steve Crowder, chief of police of Lexington Police Department, said Dunkel was returning from a party given by students of the law school at a private residence on Lexington’s Houston Street at about 2:30 a.m.

Dunkel, who filed the report, was walking to his home on Main Street and was jumped from behind by Todd Harper Lindsey, 26, who put him in a chokehold and wrestled him to the ground, police said. Dunkel was able to get away unharmed.

Crowder said the men got into a conversation at the party where alcohol was consumed. Dunkel’s statement suggested alcohol may have played a part in why he was attacked, police said.

“The police report doesn’t go into exactly what was said,” Crowder said. “In the victim’s statement he states it was an attack that presents a physical threat to gay students.”

An article in the Cavalier Daily, the University of Virginia student newspaper, said the victim in the attack was gay but did not identify Dunkel by name. Dunkel is listed as a member of Outlaw, Washington and Lee’s gay law school organization. He could not be reached for comment by Blade deadline.

A rumor about the attack on Dunkel circulating on a message board for law school students said that Dunkel’s car was vandalized the same night by the same attacker. Crowder said the convertible’s fabric top was slashed by two area teens who are not affiliated with the university. A press release from the school said that incident occurred March 26.

A warrant was issued for Lindsey’s arrest and a Washington and Lee student dean brought him to the Lexington Police Station the next day where he was charged with assault and battery.

“It will be handled as assault and battery,” he said. “I don’t know if they will elevate the seriousness of the charge or not. It depends on the testimony.”

Crowder said Washington and Lee does not have a history of gay-related incidents reported with the Lexington Police Department.

“I want to stress that this attack is highly unusual,” he said.

Diane Meier, another openly gay law student at Washington and Lee, is a friend of Dunkel’s who was at the same party. In an interview with the Cavalier Daily, she said she was verbally and physically harassed at the party when students threw food and yelled anti-gay slurs at her. She told the paper that when she and Dunkel went to school administrators about the incidents, they were “unresponsive.” A police report was not filed in that incident.

“There are only five [openly] gay kids here and we all feel really unsafe,” Meier told the Cavalier Daily.

Meier declined to discuss the incident with the Blade.

Michael Young, director of public safety, and professor Louise Harper, faculty adviser for Outlaw, did not return calls by Blade press time.

Will Chamberlin, co-president of Washington and Lee’s gay-straight alliance, said the group is a separate undergraduate organization from Outlaw and referred questions to John Martin, Outlaw’s executive chair, who declined to comment.

In a March 29 post on Outlaw’s web site, members of the organization voiced concern over what they called an environment of discrimination and intolerance at the university in the past two years.

“Our responses to the firing of gay faculty members, the pervasive use of homophobic slurs, feelings of physical danger and specific incidents of verbal and physical assault based on sexual orientation appear to have fallen on deaf ears,” the post said.

The post said despite meetings with deans and the past two university presidents, Outlaw members are invariably told the administration is “powerless to act.” It concluded by demanding the university enforce its policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and to inform students of the policy and to put together a plan to end intolerance among students, faculty and staff.

Timothy Kolly, vice president for public affairs and communications at Washington and Lee said the school has a strong policy of nondiscrimination and acts on each complaint received.

“We don’t tolerate that kind of thing here,” he said. “The chair of the GSA met with the president and felt the administration was doing everything it could to address the situation.”

In a letter to students, university president Ken Ruscio affirmed the school’s “commitment to a community of inclusion and tolerance.”

“Our actions and response as a University are always guided by concerns for members of the community and respect for individual rights,” Ruscio’s letter said.