tl19920402_001 "NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS Now You Know... � Baltimore's new Light Rail Service will open April 3, for limited service to and from Orioles games. � The USS Missouri, famous as the site of the Japanese surrender in World War II, was decommissioned yesterday in Long Beach, Ca. The ""Mighty Mo,"" as known by its crew, last saw action in the Persian Gulf. NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS 2 � The Towerlight � April 2, 1992 Student battered for supporting gay rights Conversation in Union ends in violence, death threat Lisa Goldberg Editor-in-Chief When Hollie Rice stood up for a gay professor's right to teach at Towson State three weeks ago, she never expected to be nursing a black eye. But the sophomore English ed-ucation major did expect the death threat that came in the mail last week. ""Yes, I did expect the letter,"" she said. ""Once they find you care... you get a threat."" On March 11, Rice and a friend were standing by the old infor-mation desk on the second floor of the University Union dis-cussing the classes and profes-sors they were taking this semester when a man walked over and stood near them. At the mention of Dr. David Bergman, who teaches Rice's British literature survey course, the man joined the conversation and proceeded to label the pro-fessor a ""fag,"" according to Rice. In the confrontation tat fol-lowed, the man began gay-bash-ing, saying such things as ""Hitler was great because he tried to kill off all these people"" and ""Dr. Bergman is trying to convert us all to homosexuality,"" Rice said. The conversation fi-nally settled on the man's belief that Bergman should not be teaching at Towson State. ""I said I supported Dr. Bergman's right to be a profes-sor,"" Rice said. ""I said I don't think his personal life should re-flect on his ability as a profes-sor."" When Rice told the man, ""This is the most ignorant conversa-tion I've had in my life,"" he punched her in the face and walked away. Rice notified the police the next day after discussing the incident with Bergman,. ""It's not my lifestyle. If it was my lifestyle, I would be afraid to come out with [the attack],"" said Rice, who suffered swelling on her right eye and cheek. ""But it's important to me that nobody gets 'bashed' whether they are gay or of another race."" On March 24, Rice received an intimidating letter that had been sent through a friend's campus mail. Rice gave the let-ter, which she said contained a death threat toward all gay men and women on campus, to the police. The letter also said that Rice would be killed if she per-sisted in involving herself in gay issues. ""You tend to think something like this wouldn't happen, that people wouldn't be that igno-rant,"" she added. Rice said there were no wit-nesses to the assault because the Union was sparsely populat-ed that afternoon and her friend had already left. To date, no suspects matching the man's description have been found according to University Police Chief Stephen Murphy. The assailant is described as a 22-year-old white male, about 6 feet 2 inches tall and 210 pounds, with dark hair and eyes. He was wearing an un-marked sweatshirt and jeans at the time of the assault. Bergman, who is also the advi-sor for the Diverse Sexual Ori-entation Collective (DSOC), said that when Rice notified him of the attack, he was outraged and encouraged her to report the in-cident to the police so the perpe-trator could be found. ""Hollie felt perhaps she had done something wrong,"" Bergman said. ""But there is nothing one can say that can justify physical violence."" Bergman said he has gotten his share of threatening letters through his work with gay liter-ature and AIDS in the Balti-more community. He finds the letters ""sort of funny and desper-ate and pathetic,"" he said. But for Rice, the experience was probably more frightening since she had already been hit for ex-pressing her opinion, Bergman said. ""Although I know I'm not re-sponsible for other people's ac-tions,"" Bergman said, ""I don't want anyone to be hurt as a con-sequence of me being who I am. ""If a person really has an objec-tion, he should be talking to me and not beating up a defenseless woman."" And, Bergman said, when the man is found, he should be kicked off campus. ""We have, on campus, a greater obligation than society as a whole,"" he said. ""This has to be a place where there is a free ex-change of ideas... [The attacker] has no sense of the real purpose of what a University is,"" when he suppresses that free ex-change. The administration needs to address the problem by finding ways to inform students about different minority groups, Bergman said. Many students come to the University from pro-tected backgrounds and little contact with minorities, he said. ""I don't think we've done enough in sensitizing these peo-ple,"" he said. ""Programs for in-coming students should provide information. Anyone who was truly informed would have to give up a number of his or her prejudices."" The assault is the second re-ported hate crime this year, Murphy said. In his 20 years at Towson State, Murphy said this is the first time he can recall that the hate crime has involved a physical attack. A hate crime is any action which ""appears to be motivated or is perceived to be motivated by the victim's race, religion ethnic background or sexual on entation,"" according to Murphy. The earlier incident involved hate literature which was sent to the Campus Violence Preven. tion Center. And of the six hate crimes reported in 1991, all were written or verbal attacks. Campus hate crimes often go unreported Corene Dee Bruce News Editor Although Hollie Rice's case is unique because it involves a het-erosexual woman who was assaulted for standing up for gay rights, ""Hate crimes happen all the time and go unreported,"" said Clarinda Raymond, a director of the Campus Violence Preven-tion Center. According to a study the center conducted of 440 colleges and universities, 74 had reported incidents of hate crimes against . African Americans and 47 had reports of hate crimes against gays and lesbians. The sampling also showed that hate crimes occurred against Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, Jews, and women but that African Americans and gays were singled out more than the others. ""It is difficult to take action against these crimes when they go unreported,"" said Raymond. ""Sometimes people who have been victimized don't report the incident because they are afraid they brought it on themselves, or are afraid to bring attention and create a backlash against the group. ""Hollie didn't report the incident at first because she was afraid it would bring trouble to Dr. Bergman. Also, she couldn't believe that it had actually happened to her,"" said Raymond. Julio Aguello, co-president of the Diverse Sexual Orientation Collective can remember being harrassed over the telephone as a freshman because of his sexual orientation. ""I never reported it,"" Aguello said. ""I regret that because it is an issue that needs to be addressed."" ""I'm not quite sure why I never reported [the phone calls]. I think it might have been that I felt powerless that even if I had reported the incidents they wouldn't have been caught. But the fact that these things happen at all needs to go on record,"" added Aguello. ""With motivation being anti-gay, it is particularly troubling for garstudents to report things because people don't Want to be la-beled or brought out,"" said Chief Murphy of the University Police. ""I want people to be courageous and come forward,"" Murphy said, ""but I understand their reluctance."" Last Thursday, Hollie Rice visited a DSOC meeting to tell her story. ""We were shocked because we thought any act of violence would be done against one of us,"" said Chris Bowling, a DSOC member ""and we were shocked that someone would actually strike anoth-er for standing up for their beliefs."" The DSOC is pursuing plans to hold a rally on campus that would show support for homosexuals and promote awareness of gay issues. "
