Homophobic e-mails spark SCCAP panel discussion
By Megan O'Connor
Student leaders received harassing e-mail in response to Drag Show advertising last month, prompting a panel on awareness but no involvement of university officials.
Three e-mails were sent last quarter containing one-line responses such as "your parents would be proud," and "gross."
When reached for comment, Center for Student Leadership Director Jonathan Gray and Associate Dean for Student Life Lisa Millora were not aware of the e-mails.
SCCAP Co-Directors Meghan Hennessey and Kat McAvoy said they didn't report the e-mails because such responses have been received before.
"Every year there has been some homophobic e-mail in response to the drag show," said Hennessey. "I don't think it occurred to us to turn them in."
According to Hennessey, the e-mails were both sent from a university account to SCCAP's e-mail address.
This is not the first time offensive e-mails have been sent to students. Two years ago an e-mail was sent to five students on the GALA contact list, according to panelist and GALA member Josh Crosson.
"The e-mail was extremely racist, homophobic, sexist," Crosson said. "It was talking about forms of genocide and wanting to inflict genocide on gay people using profane language when doing so."
The e-mail, which came from a Santa Clara account, was reported to the school and police. According to Crosson, since it was considered a conditional threat, no further action could be taken.
Crosson and Hennessey are also involved in organizing the Change Conference at Santa Clara this summer. The conference is the third annual gathering of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning and ally leaders from Jesuit colleges and universities nationwide.
Hennessey used the e-mail as an illustration to open discussion about homophobia at a panel last Tuesday sponsored by Gay and Straight People for the Education of Diversity. The panel consisted of five speakers and had about 50 people in attendance.
According to campus safety reports, there have been five reported hazing, harassing or threatening language acts between 2004 and 2005.
SCCAP leaders chose not to notify school administrators or report the e-mails, partly because they were one-line sentences not addressed to someone in particular, as opposed to the e-mails from two years ago, which directly attacked students.
"I still find that they are hate, but it's debatable," said Crosson, who was not involved in the decision to not report the e-mails.
Had e-mails similar to what occurred two years ago been received, Hennessey said they would have been reported.
Instead, McAvoy was able to meet with one of the students who sent an e-mail from his or her GroupWise account.
"We know there is a population of students and people in general who don't accept homosexuals," said McAvoy.
If the e-mails were reported, the student would have been dealt with through the university's judicial process and would be considered in violation of the students' Standard of Conduct Code, said Millora.
Hennessey said homophobia is a problem, even on Santa Clara's campus. Commonly used terms in today's society such as "that's so gay," are pervasive, but homophobic, said Crosson.
This summer Crosson also received approximately two hundred e-mails to his GroupWise account in response to a posting about the drag show on a website, which included his name.
"Some of them were questions like, 'how can you have this on a Catholic campus, I am really actually curious,' to 'how can you call yourself Catholic, you make me sick'," said Crosson.
Although Santa Clara has an ideology which praises diversity, according to panelists, sometimes that does not translate into the social scene or in the type of language students use.
"Going to parties and out at night can be difficult," said panelist Karl Kuehn.
Contact Megan O'Connor at (408) 554-4546 or moconnor@scu.edu.
Correction: The story incorrectly stated the origin of a homophobic e-mail sent to members of Santa Clara's Gay and Lesbian Alliance in 2003. It was sent from a Hotmail account.