About 150 students and supporters rallied Monday night following three anti-gay incidents at Georgetown University. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

By LOU CHIBBARO JR, Washington Blade
Nov 3 2009, 10:01 AM  |     |     |  

More than 150 students participated in a candlelight vigil Monday night at Georgetown University to draw attention to three anti-gay incidents, including assaults against two students and the posting of an anti-gay message on the door of the campus gay resource center.

The university’s Department of Public Safety reported that two unidentified males struck a female student with her book bag and knocked her to the ground on Canal Road near the entrance to the campus at about 9:10 p.m. Oct. 27. The DPS reported in a statement that the assault took place after the two suspects noticed the woman was wearing a shirt “with a logo indicating support for gay rights.”

According to the DPS report, the suspects “began insulting her with derogatory comments based on her perceived sexual orientation.” It said the woman sustained minor injuries that did not require medical attention.

The suspects fled west on Canal Road, and campus officials notified D.C. police about the incident, the report says.

It says the suspects were described as two white males in their late 20s who were about six feet tall and weighed about 170 pounds. One was wearing blue jeans, a blue jacket, white shirt and a New York Yankees baseball cap. The other was said to be wearing blue jeans, a brown jacket, a dark blue shirt and a baseball cap.

DPS said the second incident occurred four days later in the early morning, post-Halloween hours of Nov. 1, when an unidentified male assaulted a male student in the area of 36th and N Streets, N.W., less than two blocks from the main entrance to the campus. A DPS report says the suspect physically attacked the student after asking the student several times, “Are you a homo?”

It says witnesses reported the incident at 1:32 a.m. Nov. 1, but it doesn’t provide the time of the assault itself.

The student was taken to Georgetown University Hospital, located on the campus, where he was treated for injuries sustained from the assault, the DPS statement says. It says witnesses reported the suspect fled the scene.

Similar to the case of the female student, DPS said it notified D.C. police about the incident.

Witnesses described the suspect as a white male about 6 feet two inches tall with "red and white face paint" and wearing a black leather jacket.

Sgt. Carlos Mejia, who recently replaced Sgt. Brett Parson as commander of the D.C. Police’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, told participants at the campus rally Monday night that D.C. police are investigating the assaults.

“We take these crimes very seriously and we’re doing everything we can to find the suspects and bring them to justice,” he said.

University officials disclosed the third incident in an e-mail letter to students Monday afternoon. The letter says, "a written slur was posted on the door of the LGBTQ Resource Center" on Monday.

Georgetown University spokesperson Andy Pino said the posting of the slur took place hours before Monday's rally. He said he could not provide further details about what the written slur said.

University officials created the LGBTQ Resource Center at the request of Georgetown University Pride, a gay student group, and its supporters following a number of anti-gay incidents that occurred on or near the campus in 2007, including a widely reported anti-gay assault against another GU student.

The assault took place off campus in a location near where the most recent assault against the male student took place.

Members of GU Pride complained at the time that university officials failed to alert students about the assault.

In that case, which took place in September 2007, D.C. police arrested then 19-year-old Philip Cooney, who also was a Georgetown University student. The United States Attorney’s office later dropped an assault charge against Cooney, saying the evidence against him was insufficient to obtain a conviction at trial.

In the letter sent Monday to students, faculty and staff members, university officials expressed their concern over the latest three incidents.

“We do not know whether the person or persons responsible for these incidents are members of the campus community,” the letter says. “If a member of the campus community is found to be responsible for these acts, the matter will be treated very seriously, including as a violation of the student code of conduct.”

The letter was sent by Todd A. Olsen, vice president for Student Affairs; Rosemary Kilkenny, vice president for Institutional Diversity and Equality; and Philip L. Boroughs, vice president for Mission and Ministry.

Pino told the Blade the university sent a safety alert by e-mail to all students about the two assaults shortly after they were reported to campus police.

“The safety of our students is a primary concern for us, and we are continuously working to make our campus a safe place for everyone,” Pino said.

Scott Chessare, an official with GU Pride, told the rally Monday that the latest incidents come two years after the university took significant action to address the concerns of LGBT students at Georgetown about anti-gay violence and harassment. The approval and opening of the LGBTQ Resource Center was among the important steps the university has taken, he said.

“Today we have an administration that’s actively working for the interests of its LGBT students every day,” he said. “What hasn’t changed is the underlying hate and homophobia in Georgetown that reflects the larger citywide and national trend.”

Chessare was referring, in part, to comments made at the rally by Chris Farris, co-chair of the local D.C. group Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV). Farris reported that in D.C., crime statistics show that more than 75 percent of all hate crimes reported in the city are based on the victims’ sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Nationally, that statistic is only 15 percent,” Farris said. “So we clearly have an issue in Washington, D.C. that’s disproportionate to our community.”

Farris said there was a 15 percent increase in anti-LGBT attacks in D.C. from 2007 to 2008 and that anti-LGBT hate crimes rose 33 percent as of this time in 2009.

In the 2007 case where Georgetown student Cooney was arrested for the anti-gay attack against a fellow student, the victim in the case identified Cooney from Cooney’s Facebook page.

Cooney’s lawyer insisted the identification was a mistake and that the novel use of Facebook as a means of identifying a suspect would not hold up in court.

The U.S. Attorney’s office apparently agreed with that assessment, saying it did not believe a jury would vote to convict Cooney based on the available evidence, even though D.C. police said they believed the evidence was strong and that the victim later identified Cooney from a group of police photos after the Facebook identification.

Permalink