Haters reportedly marked the opening of Cleveland State University’s LGBTQ student center last week by posting flyers on campus encouraging LGBTQ students to kill themselves. The graphic shows a person with a rainbow heart and a rope around their neck with the words, “Follow your fellow fa**ots” in multi-colored lettering at the top. The flyers also list incorrect statistics mocking the rate of suicide among LGBTQ people, with Splinter noting the real statistics are actually higher. Outraged CSU students went to school administrators expecting a response in support of LGBTQ students, only to be floored by President Ronald Berkman’s initial response:
The university's president Ronald Berkman called the flyers "reprehensible" but only in a second statement released after his first experienced heavy backlash.
Berkman's initial statement said CSU "remains fully committed to a campus community that respects all individuals" but is also "committed to upholding the First Amendment, even with regard to controversial issues where opinion is divided."
In a follow-up statement, Berkman said he "failed to express" his "personal outrage" over the flyers.
"While I find the message of this poster reprehensible, the current legal framework regarding free speech makes it difficult to prevent these messages from being disseminated," his statement said.
Legally, the free speech argument for the flyers is uncertain but the effects these posters could have on the students attacked by them is obvious, a Lambda Legal attorney told NBC.
Upholding the dignity of LGBTQ lives shouldn’t be a “controversial issue.” Instead, school administrators are sending a dangerous message by signaling to hateful people that their violence could be viewed as valid discourse. Promoting violence, especially when directed at minority groups, shouldn’t be tolerated on any campus, period. “It is not an issue of free speech when it is literally telling students to kill themselves,” student Skyla Schaefer said in a Facebook post. “How about you stand up for your LGBTQ+ students?”
Berkman also held a forum to further address concerns, but as Schafer continued in her post, it left her “with mixed feelings. Our campus administration is not adequately trained to handle these situations, obviously. President Berkman did apologize publicly for his original email and does seem willing to learn. However, he did not say how he is going to take action and what his next steps are.” Inside Higher Ed’s Jeremy Bauer-Wolf:
Lecia Brooks, outreach director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said this was not “a free speech issue.” She called the president’s response “wholly unacceptable” and advised LGBTQ allies to draw attention to this on campus.
“The response of taking a poster down because it doesn’t follow policy, or you have got to protect free speech before a condemnation of homophobia and the disgusting nature of the flier, is just missing the whole point,” she said.
Phyllis Harris, executive director of the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, said in a statement she appreciated Berkman's "clarification" to his initial message, but said that leaders should "boldly" use their power to condemn hate speech.
"The focus of this conversation should remain on the physical and psychological safety of Cleveland State’s LGBTQ community and not on the rights of those who wish them harm," Harris said.
And just as outrageous is that the incident occurred just days before Spirit Day, an occasion the LGBTQ community and allies use to raise awareness about the disproportionate bullying, violence, and suicide rates faced by LGBTQ youth. According to the Trevor Project, “LGB youth are almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual youth … in a national study, 40% of transgender adults reported having made a suicide attempt. Ninety-two percent of these individuals reported having attempted suicide before the age of 25.”