Following last Friday's drag show, two male Miami University students were assaulted across the street from the Oxford Police Department (OPD).
This attack prompted student senate to unanimously pass a resolution Tuesday condemning violence and discriminatory behavior against Miami students.
Student Body President-elect Heath Ingram, an author of the resolution, knew the victims personally and felt very strongly about having Associated Student Government (ASG) speak out against this type of aggressive, discriminatory behavior.
"On Friday night, a close friend of mine and former roommate was physically attacked outside of Stadium Sports Bar & Grille after the drag show took place," Ingram said. "He was beaten so badly his cheek bone was fractured, his eyes were swollen shut, he had multiple lacerations on his face and bruises across his body. I spoke with him Saturday, and on Sunday I immediately took action."
No Hate at Miami from Miami ASG on Vimeo.
Ingram partnered with Una Hrnjak, outgoing secretary for diversity affairs; Lidija Gnjatic, secretary for diversity affairs-elect and David Morgan, co-president of Spectrum, to author the resolution.
"The problem is there is a lack of reporting of this type of incident," Hrnjak said. "I don't think this is the first incident, I definitely don't think it is, but we do have a very strong commitment from the university to support our students."
Gnjatic said she did not expect something like Friday's assault to happen.
"There's a big difference between a lack of acceptance and actual outward violence," Gnjatic said. "I was kind of surprised by the severity of this incident … this is not something we want tolerated on our campus."
Although OPD has chosen not to label the incident a hate crime, Morgan felt the attack was fueled by the victims' sexuality.
"I think it was a hate crime," Morgan said. "I think the instigators attacked the victims because they knew they were gay."
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Hrnjak said the resolution is ASG's way of showing its support for all students and publicly announcing that ASG will continue to take more steps toward ensuring student safety.
"This piece of legislation shows we will not sit in silence to things like this," Hrnjak said. "In the future we will work together to make sure further legislation is developed off of this resolution. This is really our statement saying this conversation is just starting. It's an unfortunate set of circumstances, but the passage of this resolution really put this on the agenda for next year."
Ingram agreed, saying he supports every student on Miami's campus.
"It was important for me to make sure this legislation went through because as student body president, I am going to defend every student on this campus, and it doesn't matter to me whether it's an issue of sexual orientation or race," Ingram said. "I am not going to sit by and watch other students — our peers — be treated this way and not have some kind of response from the very individuals who are supposed to be speaking on their behalf."
Demere Woolway, coordinator for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning (GLBTQ) services is one of the numerous sponsors of the resolution. She has been working with Spectrum, members of the Oxford community and Miami faculty to address various concerns people have about the incident.
"I have been trying to help Spectrum figure out a direction they want to go with it," Woolway said. "And I have been taking calls from community members and faculty who expressed concern after the incident and want to show their support. It's not just the individual students who were targeted — an incident like this really affects the whole GLBT community and its allies."
During her first year here, Woolway has implemented a Safe Zone Training program to educate people about the GLBT community and improve the campus climate. She is looking at creating a bias incident reporting system to provide people a way to report all types of discriminatory attacks.
"It can be as small as someone yelling a slur out of a car window," Woolway said.
The Office of the President and the Office of the Dean of Students have also been offering support to the victims in this incident. President David Hodge and Susan Mosley-Howard, dean of students, formally expressed their support for the resolution by signing on as supporters.
Ingram wanted to reassure the community that incidents like this would not be tolerated.
"We are not going to stand here and be silent as a student body when these types of issues come up," Ingram said. "We will not be tolerant of intolerance and ignorance."
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