Shhhh! We have your secrets
and our lips are sealed.
(Well, kind of)
Elon PostSecret PAGE 12
Swimming hosts
regional tournament
PAGE 23
the Pendulum
ELON, NORTH CAROLINA | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2008 | VOLUME 34, EDITION 31
www.elon.edu/pendulum
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Students protest
for gay rights
GRACE HELMS | Photographer
Members of the Elon community traveled to Greensboro on Saturday to protest the passage of Propo
sition 8 in California, a law that bans same-sex marriage. Above, a protestor holds a sign to show support.
Whitney Bossie
News Editor
Several Elon students
participated in a nationwide
protest on Saturday in
response to California’s
recent passage of Proposition
8, which banned gay
marriage.
About 200 people
gathered in front of the
Melvin Municipal Office
building in downtown
Greensboro to protest. Some
members of Spectrum,
Elon's lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender awareness
organization, joined the fight
for same-sex marriage.
Grace Helms, a junior and
a member of Spectrum, went
to Greensboro on Saturday.
She said that although
protestors were saddened by
the passage of Proposition
8, the atmosphere remained
upbeat.
“It was kind of a
celebration and a protest, all
at once,” she said.
Drummers played at the
demonstration as protestors
held handmade signs and
rainbow flags and waved to
the cars that passed by.
The ban passed in
California on Election Day
with 52 percent of the vote,
just months after the state
Supreme Court ruled in
favor of allowing same-sex
marriage. As many as 18,000
couples married after the
court's ruling in May. It has
not yet been determined
whether California will honor
those marriages.
California has seen a
rush of rallies and protests
in recent weeks. Many were
directed at the Mormon
Church, which promoted
Proposition 8.
Protestors showed support
for the cause in more than
300 cities nationwide, with
at least one in each of the
50 states. In addition to
Greensboro, rallies were
held in Raleigh, Charlotte,
Asheville and Boone.
Although Proposition
8 bans same-sex marriage
thousands of miles away,
local protestors wanted
to show their support for
the rights of gay couples
everywhere.
“A lot of people related
it back to the Civil Rights
Movement,” Helms said.
Helms said a diverse
group gathered in
Greensboro. She added that
the protest was particularly
meaningful to her as a young
person.
“For me, it seems like
this generation is kind of
apathetic,” she said. “It’s
important to take action for
something we believe in.”
In states where gay
marriage is not permitted,
same-sex couples face issues
with child custody laws,
matters of inheritance and
property ownership, among
other things.
North Carolina does not
recognize gay marriage
under the Defense of
Marriage Act, which defines
marriage as a union between
a man and a woman.
Only two states currently
allow same-sex marriage:
PROTEST I Page 6
Vandals strike work of Elon scholar-in-residence
Andie Diemer
News Editor
On Saturday afternoon Iraqi artist and journalist
Ahmed Fadaam, who was also a scholar-in-residence at
Elon, received a disturbing phone call from psychology
professor Tom Arcaro. Arcaro, who played a large role
in bringing Fadaam to Elon, had to deliver awful news to
Fadaam: The sculpture he had been working on for three
weeks and planned to gift to Elon had been devestatingly
disfigured on Thursday night.
Fadaam's masterpiece, what will be a bronze sculpture
of a Middle Eastern woman, had had her face smeared, her
breasts lopped off and a hammer smashed into the back
of her head, among other
damages.
Working out of a
warehouse in Burlington,
Fadaam also learned that
paint from the studio had
been used to write a phrase
on the wall that is not
completely legible, but said
“I come in” followed by an
upside-down peace sign, more
words and “haha.”
OM IMt
Visit www.elon.edu/
pendulum for a slideshow
and video of the damage
“I was surprised, I was speechless for a moment,”
Fadaam said about receiving the news. “I wasn't expecting
someone would do such a thing, especially to a piece of art
that was meant to be at Elon.”
Fadaam said it was never his intention to offend anyone
or criticize anything with the statue that represents the
struggle of Iraqi and Middle Eastern women.
“It was talking about a noble cause, it was talking about
the women in the Middle East and their fight for their
future,” he said.
He said it looked like a worker had accidently left the
back door unlocked, which is how the vandalizers most
likely entered.
After the owners of the building realized their venue
had been broken into on Friday, they phoned Arcaro who
then contacted Fadaam, who was speaking at a conference
about human rights at UNC Chapel Hill.
The police were also notified immediately, and finger
and footprints were collected, Arcaro said.
While Arcaro thinks it was just some “silly vandals”
that struck, he said the way the statue was disfigured
makes him think it was a misogynistic, though he cannot
be sure.
Also, the building next door had been attempted to be
entered and the alarm went off. This means the vandals
VANDALISM I Page 6
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The vandals scraped away the face of the statue,
mutilated the breasts and created a hole in the
back of the figures head.