Slur found in Holder Hall

Public Safety found an anti-gay slur written in green toothpaste in a bathroom stall in the fifth entryway of Holder Hall on Wednesday evening.

According to the Public Safety report, a Holder RCA reported the graffiti, found in the second floor men’s bathroom, at 8:05 that evening. “Sometime between 10:30 am and 5:00 p.m. on 2/13/10, someone wrote the word ‘FAG[S]’ on the shower stall partition using toothpaste,” Deputy Director of Public Safety Charles Davall said in an e-mail.

Public Safety is investigating the incident and has interviewed residents of the hall, Davall said. “At this point no suspects have been identified and no motive has been determined,” he added.

Beverly Hon ’09, the RCA in the hallway, declined to comment. Hon is also a business staffer for The Daily Princetonian.

“I think it’s unfortunate when homophobic incidents happen because it makes LGBT students and students who are different in general feel unsafe at Princeton,” LGBT Center Director Debra Bazarsky said. “It might make students who are questioning coming out pause and think twice,” she explained.

This sort of incident is particularly disturbing within a dorm facility, Bazarsky said.

“It’s incredibly unsettling especially for it to happen in their living quarters, which is a place that should be sacred,” she said.

Not the first incident

The incident in Holder is not the first graffiti to target members of the LGBT community this academic year. Graffiti in Whitman College in early November featured a similarly offensive message.

“It’s definitely not the first time this has happened on this campus,” Yujhan Claros ’10 said. Claros is an LGBT peer educator in Rockefeller College.

Claros recalled going to Holder earlier this year and conducting a study break to raise awareness about the LGBT community. “As peer educators, we are trying to embody the idea that the more people know, the less likely they are to do things that are insensitive or hurtful,” he said.

“A big component of what I think we should do is work on more education on this,” Claros said.

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Claros was upset by the graffiti but not entirely shocked.

“This doesn’t seem that out of the ordinary, it happens, and it’s even sadder that I feel that way,” he explained.

Claros hopes to use the incident as a launch-pad for discussion.

“I hope that something really good can come out of this. This kind of stuff happens,” he said. “Every time it happens, I hope that it’s going to trouble people and get them talking. I hope that it moves people who ID as allies of the LGBT community to be more vocal and visible about their intolerance or intolerance.”

Campus Support Networks

“Princeton is a really great place to be LGBT,” Bazarsky said. “But unfortunately, homophobic incidents still happen here.”

The LGBT Center has taken action to raise awareness and provide a network for LGBT students. “I think that there are a lot of supportive staff, administrators, faculty [and] fellow students,” Bazarsky said.

The LGBT Center also sponsors study breaks in the residential colleges and operates an online homophobia incident report forum. Students can report incidents they witness or experience and can provide their contact information or remain anonymous.