Discrimination
Q-NOTES • MARCH 23 . 2006
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Soulforce Equality Ride bus
defaced with hate speech
Dmer reports seeing a middle-aged
woman and a teen-age male leave
scene
by Richard Lindsay
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Soulforce’s
Equality Ride bus was defaced
on March 16 outside the hotel
where Riders were in a planning
meeting for their action on
Friday at Lee, University. As the
meeting dispersed riders found
pink letters scrawled
across the side of the bus
reading “Fags Mobile.”
The bus driver reported
that he witnessed a mid
dle-aged woman and a
teenager drive away from
the scene, possibly a
mother and son. The van
dalism and suspect
description were reported
to Cleveland police, who
are investigating the crime.
The Equality Ride had
planned a prayer vigil in
front of the president’s
office to bring attention to
the need for the adminis
tration to allow more open dialogue in
classrooms and on campus about ending
discrimination toward lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender students.
“The attack on the bus is hate speech,
plain and simple, spelled out for everyone
to read,” said Jacob Reitan (pictured).
Equality Ride co-director. “But a more
subtle form of hate speech happens when
students at the schools we are visiting are
told they are sick and sinful just for being
the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
people God made them to be.”
The attack on the bus came after
Equality riders met with students on the
campus of Lee University on March 16,
the first time Riders have been allowed
onto the campus of a school since the
ride began on March 5. Lee University
administration allowed only the slightest
contact through informal conversation
with students on campus. Equality riders
were not allowed to address students in
classroom forums, formally present let
ters from closeted Lee students or pass
out literature.
On the morning of March i 6, several
of the Equality riders joined students in
the Lee University chapel during the
school’s morning worship service. At
noon, the Equality Ride pre
sented a picnic and concert
in a park near campus fea
turing the Christian pop duo
Jason & DeMarco. More than
60 students and community
Vandalized Soulforce bus at Lee University
in Cleveland, Tenn.
members joined the Equality riders for
dialogue, and to hear Jason Warner, an
alumnus of Lee University, sing with his
performing and life partner DeMarco
DeCicco. Students enjoyed the concert
for almost two hours while on their lunch
breaks and appreciated the chance to
talk openly with participants about the
issues surrounding the ride.
“The dialogue we had here with stu
dents was moving and fruitful, despite
the extreme limitations placed on us by
the administration,” said Reitan. “But
after we leave, there will still be lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender students at
Lee University who are living in fear
every day that their secret will be found
out. If it is, they will be expelled from
campus and will lose their scholarships,
their tuition investment, and most impor
tantly, the spiritual and community sup
port of their school.”
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