KSU Lesbian Victim of Student Hate EMail
by Deb Taylor
Early in the fall semester, Jennifer Bame had decided that she would write an editorial for the KSU Collegian for National Coming Out Day, October 11, 1996. Jennifer’s editorial was indeed published. It focused on her own coming out experiences as well as why people choose to come out. In the editorial, Jennifer referred to readers as her "K-State family."
Before October 11th had even ended, Jennifer received three hate email messages from two KSU-Salina students. One of the students wrote two letters. This particular student wrote in his email: "Its only a matter of time before we start taking you out as you come out. Enjoy your fucking carpet ride while it lasts."
Jennifer confirmed via KSU that the students had indeed written the messages from their own email accounts (they are roommates at KSU-Salina). With the help of many people on campus, Jennifer was advised to register a complaint at the KSU Student Grievance Committee and to file a police report with Riley County.
On November 12th, Jennifer was informed by Susan Scott (Dean of Student Life’s office) that the students were brought before an Academic Review Board at KSU-Salina. The student who wrote the message threatening to "take out" lesbigays lost his email account for the rest of the academic school year. The other student was warned.
Although she has been encouraged by people to take this incident to the Collegian, Jennifer prefers to avoid the publicity. "I think KSU has done a great job and I feel that the punishment fits the crime. So I'm pretty satisfied," she stated.
In response to Jennifer’s incident, BGLS co-faculty advisors Deb Taylor and Bob Clark wrote President Wefald to inform him of the situation and urge him to look into this matter as well as the recommendations set forth by the KSU GLB Task Force, which finished its report in October 1994. One of the recommendations set forth by the Task Force was to establish an office for support and assistance to gay, lesbian, and bisexual students. The letter was carbon copied to Vice-President Krause (Institutional Advancement), Dean Pat Bosco (Student Life), Susan Scott, and Mordean Taylor-Archer (Multicultural Affairs).
After reading the letter to President Wefald, Dean Pat Bosco emailed Jennifer a note expressing his unhappiness over the incident. He thanked Jennifer for "sharing with our community." On November 6th, Vice-President Krause sent Deb and Bob a letter stating that he planned to review the Task Force Report "in the next few weeks." The validity of this statement may be questionable; in the Special Campus Edition of the Manhattan Mercury (8-13-95), the lesbigay community was given similar information: "In fall 1995, Provost James Coffman and Krause will report back to the task force on the progress of implementation of all the recommendations." They never did.
Read it for yourself:
