By Jessica Lewis, News Editor
Members of The Pride Network were agitated after discovering that their sign, "Gay & Greek," was vandalized. The sign was damaged sometime at night on February 24 or early February 25 morning, according to Ryan Greene, the Director of Multicultural and International Student Programs.
"Gay and Greek is a campaign that is leading up to a night event where we encourage Greek organizations to openly support gay Greeks," said Christian Fuscarino, operations director and founder of The Pride Network at the University. "By supporting them they put their Greek crest on a banner in an area where all students can see."
The Gay and Greek event is set to take place on Thursday, March 4 at 9 p.m. in the Plaza Rooms of the Student Center. The event will consist of having a panel discussion made up of openly gay fraternity and sorority members. They will talk of their experiences of being gay and Greek, and also what can be done to be more proactive about gay Greeks being accepted, according to Fuscarino.
It is unclear as to what was written on the banner, as it was scribbled out. Greene said that Public Safety has already started looking into the vandalism. "I think for me it is incredible that The Pride Network reached out, and the Greeks reached out, it was a great show of support," Greene said of the concept of the banner.
On March 1, the University student responsible for the vandalism, a member of Greek life, confessed. "The boy offered to pay $260 for the banner but the Pride Network said this is a learning experience for everyone," said Fuscarino.
"The student was extremely apologetic and mentioned that they were not even thinking about what they were doing," Greene said. "Apparently they were trying to write a friend's name on the banner, who was also a fellow Greek member here on campus."
"In the end, while I do not support in any way what the student did I support that the student came forward and owned up to what he did, and that he was overly apologetic and quickly realized what he was doing was wrong and insensitive," Greene finished.
Prior to being vandalized, the banner had a total of five crests. Since the incident, there is over ten and that number is also increasing.
"The fact that the banner got vandalized showed the Greek community that homophobia in Greek organizations is a real issue, and that is why I think so many of them came forward [to join the banner]," Fuscarino said.
The banner was fixed, and more crests are being added since the incident. "If a Greek organization is not on the banner, I have nothing left to believe other than that organization is homophobic," Fuscarino concluded.
A sign for the Pride Network’s “Gay & Greek” campaign was vandalized. (Sean M. Gates/The Chronicle)