Bias and hate crimes impact colleges and universities across the United States and are the third most likely place for hate crimes to occur. The way to prevent hate crimes is by having systems in place for students to report bias and harassment as well as trained professionals to educate the campus community. Stop The Hate (http://www.stophate.org), an educational initiative of Campus Pride, has trained nearly 1200 students, faculty and staff over the last eight years on bias and hate crime prevention at colleges and universities.

Stop The Hate National Program Coordinator Greg Miraglia and myself, just finished yesterday the annual West Coast Stop The Hate Training at Napa Valley College in Napa, CA. Not only was it a beautiful trip through San Francisco getting there, but also an excellent college committed to diversity in all its forms. The training was actually hosted in the Police Academy where we had in attendance seventeen students, faculty and staff from across the country. Each of the new trainers will serve as active, visible resource advocates and implement a series of six anti-hate crime prevention efforts over the next year.

Every time I participate in a Stop The Hate Training, I leave with new hope and a sense of activism that we have made a real difference. Each training creates Stop The Hate teams to help fight bias and hate crimes at another college or university. But, the truth is that we need more.

*trigger warning - this post will contain discussion of hate crimes*

Angie Zapata was an 18 year old transwoman who was murdered last July. She was murdered because she was trans - when her attacker found out that she was anatomically male below the belt, he killed her.

Her murderer's trial began on Tuesday. This trial is coming at a crucial time. Angie Zapata's murderer will be tried for murder, identity theft, auto theft, and with a bias-motivated crime. The bias-motivated crime is really important here - federal hate crimes legislation is being introduced that includes both sexual orientation and gender identity.

The HRC website has a lot of information on hate crimes, hate crime legislation, and what laws currently exist in which states.

Currently 12 states (Washington just passed a law on April 9th!) and Washington DC include gender identity and sexual orientation in their hate crimes statutes and 30 states include sexual orientation but not gender identity.

Keep an eye out for what's happening with hate crime legislation nationally and in your state.

For a lot of us that were active in any kind of a GSA in high school we probably at least heard of GLSEN's Day of Silence. I participated every year from 8th-12th grade. In my first year of college we really didn't have any kind of organized LGBT group, but then I spent a year at a community college and we tried to do day of silence, but it didn't really work. Now at my current school we have a really active LGBT group, and just an active campus in general. Last year we tried to do Day of Silence and we kind of concluded that we didn't really need to - on our tiny campus in Maine (under 300 students) it didn't seem necessary - we weren't personally being discriminated against on campus in any way. This year we're just going to do a silent lunch, and put out some fact sheets around campus.

But it got us thinking - how do you keep people active as a community when we feel like we don't have much to fight for on your campus or if your school already has coed housing, gender neutral bathrooms, no name calling, and lots of people who are out on campus, from professors to maintenance folks? It seems like our group kind of dies by the end of every year, simply because people feel like we aren't needed on campus.

We have had a few things that have worked out really well for us, and we'd love to hear more!

• Pick topics for your meetings that people can discuss without having personal experience
• Hold lots of events to bring in other campus community members, like movie nights, dance parties, and things like that
• Sponsor events with other student groups to get a larger turnout
• Be open to change
• Get involved in the larger community you live in - it doesn't even have to be LGBT related; you can help at a soup kitchen or clean up effort just as a group
• Let people know you welcome ideas

Let us know how you keep people active on your campus!

According to this article by the Associated Press, an organization of West Point alumni called "Knights Out" is gaining notice for specifically stating their goal is to target the current policy of "Don't Ask Don't Tell".

I have two perspective on this I guess. First, as an LGBT activist, I'm all for it, and it's great to hear. Anytime someone stands up for LGBT civil rights and equal treatment it's good news.

ROAR WITH PRIDE
VIEW THE CAMPUS PRIDE ROAR E-NEWSLETTER ONLINE
APRIL 2009 ISSUE

http://www.campuspride.org/ROAR/ROAR040109.asp

Campus Pride is the leading national nonprofit organization 501(c)(3) for student leaders and campus organizations working to create a safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities. It exists to give "voice and action" in building future LGBT and ally leaders.

A few years back I spoke at University of Maine. I met an undergraduate student named Kevin Taschereau. He was President of his fraternity Delta Tau Delta and came to my program OUT & GREEK. I was fortunate to meet him and he has been a strong ally at UMaine since.

A couple months ago he contacted me about coming back to UMaine to speak again. He shared how much my program meant to him as an undergraduate and that he though it was important to have an inclusive LGBT message for the Pride Week. Kevin is now the Coordinator for Student Engagement & Service. It meant a lot to have him invite me back now as a staff person on campus.

UMaine has made so many great strides since my visit nearly four years ago. I was again impressed with the LGBT student group Wilde Stein and the new Allies Alliance on campus. Plus, it was great to see their Rainbow Resource Center as a dedicated LGBT space with support and resources for students.

UMaine has a 4 Star Rating on the Campus Pride Campus Climate Index at http://www.campusclimateindex.org/details/premium.aspx?ID=297

I want to say thank you to Kevin for being such a wonderful ally and leading the way for fraternities and sororities on campus. Also, thank you to the student leaders and other staff. Cheers to PRIDE WEEK and have a great DRAG SHOW on Friday!

Celso Javier Perez
Boston College
Class of 2009
Major: Biochemistry/Theology double major
Age: 22
Home: Santo Domingo, República Dominicana

"I'm very excited to be recognized by Campus Pride for my contributions to the Boston College community. It is very rewarding to have a national organization recognize one's efforts and work. I'm both honored and humbled to be recognized among other three student leaders as recipients of the Voice & Action Award." ~ Celso Javier Perez

Celso Perez is currently a senior at Boston College majoring in biochemistry and theology, expecting his Bachelor’s in Science in May 2009. Celso is specifically interested in the relationship between sexual morals and public health as it pertains to human rights and theological ethics.

At Boston College, he is part of the Presidential Scholars Program (PSP), a four year merit scholarship program that offers students an integrated academic experience by means of three summer programs as well as a weekly speaker series. Last year, he spent four weeks in France with the Presidential Scholars partaking in an intensive language and cultural immersion program. This past summer, Celso worked with the Program on International Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, thanks to a grant provided by the PSP.

In the summer of 2007, Celso traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to be a research assistant for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). There he identified relevant technical and policy resources for UNAIDS prevention website and summarized and classified key technical and policy documents for prevention website.

Shawna Christine Scott
University of Georgia
Class of 2009
Major: Fine Arts: Ceramics
Age: 22
Home: Peachtree City, GA

"My first reaction on hearing that I was named as one of the recipients of the first-ever National Voice and Action Leadership Award was utter shock! I was stunned for about five minutes, and after that, I was emailing every person I knew to tell them the news! I was itching to call someone, but unfortunately I didn't check my email until two in the morning, so I had to wait until the next day to talk to people in person. I was overwhelmed and humbled to be rewarded for helping LGBTQA people, instead of being admonished and persecuted by the people on my campus." ~ Shawna Scott

Shawna Scott is currently a senior at University of Georgia, pursuing a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Ceramics in May 2009.

In her time at UGA, she has been involved all four years with the campus’ largest LGBTQA student organization, Lambda Alliance. In her role as a leader in Lambda Alliance, she has been involved with or directly lead the successful campaigns to add sexual orientation to the Non-Discrimination Anti-Harassment Policy, soft domestic partner benefits, create a streamlined and accessible bias-incident reporting system, and create a trans-inclusive organization. Shawna has traveled all over the country meeting the next generation of queer activists and learning from and working with them on initiatives and problems, as well as to lobby Senators for an inclusive ENDA and the Matthew Shepherd Act. She has reached out as a leader of her student organization to other people and organizations that share similar visions of a world without hate, bias, prejudice, and want.

Justin Hager
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Class of 2009
Major: History & Political Science
Age: 22
Home: Madison, WI

"Receiving the National Voice and Action Award is one of the greatest honors of my life. It is an affirmation that my hard work and dedication to the LGBT rights movement has not gone un-noticed, thus fueling my drive and desire to continue the effort. More importantly however, the mere existence of this award gives me hope that change is being made and that young people are taking up the banner for LGBT Civil Rights. My hope as one of the first recipients of this award is that I might inspire others to continue the fight and achieve victories that will far overshadow my own.." ~ Justin Hager

Justin Hager is currently a senior at the University of Wisconsin- Madison majoring in history and political science, expecting his Bachelor’s in May 2009.

Justin in his own words:

Our Mission:
To educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.

Our Vision:
To create a world-class, values-centered university experience and responsible citizens in the global community.

Our Core Values:
TCU values academic achievement, personal freedom and integrity, the dignity and respect of the individual, and a heritage of inclusiveness, tolerance, and service.

I like seeing values in action. Well, let me get more specific:

I like seeing values in action that are positive, ethical, and progressive.

So last week when I saw that TCU was developing the DiverCity Q Living and Learning Community I was excited. When I saw that it was pulled from a statement by the chancellor it made more sense to me.

"TCU will not launch any new living learning communities at this time," TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr., said in a statement. "Instead we will assess whether the concept of housing residential students based on themes supports the academic mission of the institution as well as our objective to provide a total university experience."

So I’m suggesting TCU change their core values to the following:

TCU values assessment before any diversity or LBGTQ initiative takes place, personal freedom that adheres to mainstream oppressive social norms, the dignity and respect of the individual except for the eight students already signed up for the community, and a heritage of exclusiveness, intolerance, and disservice.