In the Sept. 25 Daily Orange article, “Students protest man preaching on Waverly” an SU student is quoted as having said that the protest of Jim Deferio, a Syracuse resident who was preaching homophobic and racist ideologies, is reflective of “the attitude on campus [being] supportive and positive.”

I couldn’t disagree more. 

A few students did a good thing on Wednesday by actively and publicly protesting hateful language; however, this is not demonstrative of the larger campus climate. By assuming so, we risk ignoring the experiences of students with marginalized identities. 

When I am interrogated about my identity by my peers, it doesn’t feel positive. 

When my friends are called “f*ggot” by other students as they walk home, I don’t think that’s supportive. 

When comments such as “queers shouldn’t have children” go unchallenged in the classroom, I don’t find that positive.

When professors refer to my community as “the LGB-whatever,” that is certainly not supportive.

It is easy to stand up against someone you have never met, whose ideas seem so foreign to you. Students must understand that, for many of their peers on this campus, homophobia and transphobia are daily, subtle struggles perpetrated by friends, family, classmates and professors. Often it is people we love, respect, or who have authority over us who make it possible for hate and apathy to take root in spaces that are touted as “safe.”

As Albus Dumbledore, from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, once said, “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

Protesting hate speech is sometimes as simple as asking your friend to stop using the phrase “That’s so gay.” Or asking a professor to correct students who use words like “tranny” or “he-she.” It is awkward and sometimes embarrassing to be the one fish swimming against the current, but it is necessary if we wish to see a transformation from pockets of safe spaces scattered across campus, to the entire Syracuse University community being one safe space for all students.

When we make space for hateful attitudes and language, we also make space for physical violence. There are histories of burning and killing and raping behind these words; they must be as unacceptable from your friends as they are from some guy on the street.

Farrell Greenwald Brenner
Class of 2017
Citizenship & Civic Engagement and Women’s & Gender Studies Majors
Editor-in-Chief of The OutCrowd Magazine

Published on September 29, 2014 at 12:42 am