Washington & Lee: Openly gay student assaulted and vandalized at W&L

[General2010]

Honestly, and some people will probably not like the political incorrectness of this, I don't think it means the assault was motivated by homophobia. Let's take this for example: if I got into a fight with someone who was very overweight, and while fighting them I called them fat, does that mean that I hate fat people or that I'm fighting him because he's fat? Possible, sure, but it doesn't necessarily mean any of those things. If someone is angry enough to assault someone else, they will use language to hurt the other person as well.

[n/a]

Honestly, and some people will probably not like the political incorrectness of this, I don't think it means the assault was motivated by homophobia. Let's take this for example: if I got into a fight with someone who was very overweight, and while fighting them I called them fat, does that mean that I hate fat people or that I'm fighting him because he's fat? Possible, sure, but it doesn't necessarily mean any of those things. If someone is angry enough to assault someone else, they will use language to hurt the other person as well.

A SMART PERSON!!!!

[H4CS]

Here comes the apologist brigade!

[Lenny]

it's in Lexington/Southwest VA...as un-PC as this may be, a school in that part of the country can't be that diverse/open-minded no matter how hard the administration tries to diversify the student body.

agreed.

It always makes me chuckle when people decry alleged close-mindedness by making baseless, generalized, close-minded assertions.

I have no clue about the circumstances of this incident.  But, even if it was motivated by anti-gay animus, I can assure you it was an isolated, albeit terrible and deplorable, incident that could have happened anywhere.  That it happened at W&L is an unfortunate coincidence, but there is certainly no causation or positive correlation here.  The W&L student body is generally very open minded.  I predict that whoever did this will now become pilloried.

[2122]

How does someone get vandalized? 

[Zam]

I'm pretty shocked. I just emailed a current student to find out if it is true; you can't really trust xoxo as a news source.

[Hank Rearden]

tag

[S.A.]

tag

[S.A.]

After living through the hell that has been the Duke lacrosse scandal, stories like these just make me tired...

[ANBUDOM]

Yes it's true that an openly gay student was assaulted and vandalized here but that is all we know.  I can tell you that it was OFF CAMPUS and it was a STUDENT assaulting another STUDENT.  Law students, particularly at W&L, tend to gossip as if this was high school and they run their mouths without knowing all the facts.  I can tell you that the law students here are exaggerating the facts to make life interesting for themselves.  The facts were not yet released and until they are, anything that is said about this issue is purely speculative. 

The fact of the matter is that it was a student assaulting another student.  It also happened OFF CAMPUS.  The administration did not condone or encourage this.  Rather than blaming ourselves, like responsible adults, the students here are whining at the administration.  I am not sure what some of the students here expect the administration to do.  Since the facts were not yet released as this is still being investigated, it is mere speculation as to whether or not the student was assaulted because of his sexual orientation (though it appears to be). 

As a minority student here, I can tell you that the environment here is NOT intolerant of any group or culture.  While I have a few criticisms of the school, any claim that the administration or the student body here is intolerant is simply untrue.  A similar incident occurred numerous times on my undergraduate campus and there was barely a peep from the administration or the student body.  The attacker was simply kicked out of school and the incident was marginalized.  Here, a few student organizations just sprang up in response to this incident, I received about 10 e-mails from various administrators and student group leaders, the Dean called us all into the moot courtroom and tried to have a discussion with us about the environment here at W&L, and we had some sort of "Black Shirt Day" where all the students wore black to show solidarity. 

Unfortunately, intolerance and discrimination against minority groups happen every single day out in the real world.  Once I leave the W&L campus and go back home, I will be called a chink or be told to go back to my country at least 3-4 times a week.  Also, I don't appreciate people claiming that sh*t like this happens only in the South because I am from the North and it happens often there too.  Since most of you have been sheltered in a college setting, I don't think you all understand the harsh reality of the world.  Rather than judging a school by bull incidents like this, you should judge the school by the reaction from the student body and the administration and I can tell you that the reaction here has been more than adequate.