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Dealing with Diversity:
‘Gay-bashing’ on campus continues, according to director of diversity
The Advocate
Though the Associated Student Government presidential election ended last week, discrimination that reportedly occurred during campaigning against the ticket of Danielle Pannell and Rae Peres has continued, according to Peres.
Pannell and Peres contacted the Oregon Student Association (OSA) and the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance this week to investigate the “gay-bashing” that they say has occurred since campaigning began three weeks ago and to see what could be done about making the campus more gay-friendly.
“There is a lot of hate-speech by students,” said Pannell. “We want to find out who is doing that. I kind of feel like the fact that Rae (Peres) is gay had a lot more to do with the election itself than the real issues. Her sexuality should have never come into play.”
Peres said Wednesday that the discrimination has continued, saying that earlier in the day she went out to her car to retrieve something and was verbally assaulted by two female driving by.
“They just rolled down their window a little and yelled, ‘We didn’t vote for you because you’re gay,’ ” said Peres. “Obviously, this ticked me off. I went to Meadow (McWhorter’s) office and broke down and told her what happened. We spoke to Robert (Cox), and he took me up to Ernie Cadman’s office.” Cadman is the interim vice president for student success and enrollment management.
Peres said she and Cox, Administrative Chairperson of SAB Heather Nichelle-Peres, a representative of OSA and Elections Committee Head Jennifer Rogers all visited MHCC President John Sygielski later that day.
“Ski took us to the board room and we spoke to the deans (who were having a meeting) about how to stop this,” said Peres. “We will be getting faculty and staff involved somehow in this. We’re going to set up workshops to see what can be done to stop this.”
Peres said speech instructor Shannon Valdivia will be adding anti-discriminatory sections to her syllabi.
“Students need to understand that Ski will support all demographics and students, but will not support hate,” said Peres.
Peres said that while campaigning, she spoke to an individual who said they would not be voting for the Pannell-Peres ticket because the person “did not want the student government run by a couple of lesbians.”
Pannell, whose husband is an Iraq War veteran, thought these comments went too far.
“Whether they were really supporters of Bradley (Best) and John (King) or not is beside the point,” said Pannell. “What matters is that there are problems on campus involving this sort of thing. I’d expect this in Arkansas (where I’m from), but this is Oregon. It’s ridiculous.”
Peres said that in light of what happened during the election, she felt much less safe on campus than she ever had.
“I’m starting to question my role as director of diversity because it’s really disheartening to see and hear these things going on,” said Peres. “I wonder if what I’m doing actually matters or if it’s even being taken into consideration. I’m wondering if I see the same people everyday that said these things about me during the campaign. It makes me feel less safe.”