When Alpha Nu Omega fraternity members walked on stage at the All Niter Sept. 28 with jumpsuits signifying personal struggles such as perversion and homosexuality, cultures clashed.
The situation didn’t improve when the Christian fraternity members shed their jumpsuits for plain white T-shirts with new slogans that signified their release from their problems with the help of God. “Dishonest” became “honorable.” “Homosexual” became “pure.”
Yesterday, Chapter President Steven Mosley issued a public apology for the performance, following a regional meeting Saturday to discuss the event and create future protocol for step performances.
He insisted that the labels had to do with each person’s personal journeys and were not an attack on any group.
“I hope that it clears things up and shows that our intentions were not malicious,” Mosley said.
Alexandria Lloyd, a facilitator for the Pride Alliance, said that as a member of the gay community and the black community, she was offended by the display.
“It was definitely wrong,” Lloyd said. “It was ignorant. I was just so angry about it.”
She added that the performance did not promote inclusion on a campus that strives for diversity.
“There’s just a sense of comfort on campus,” Lloyd said. “When people lash out, it’s just hurtful.”
“I feel like there is no hope for my own culture accepting my sexuality,” she added.
Though Mosley admitted that the noisy All Niter forum was not the best place for their performance, he said that the fraternity simply intended to present the gospel of Christ.
“Nothing was an attack against the LGBT community,” Mosley said. “It was a personal testimony about one man’s life.”
While everyone’s right to free speech is acknowledged throughout the university, some found fault with the group’s choice to parade that particular message in the Nyumburu Cultural Center, a place that stands for cultural understanding.
The incident was especially poignant because the cultural center was the target of a hate crime several weeks ago.
“I think it’s definitely ironic,” Lloyd said. “I don’t think they may have thought about the position of it, but it made it worse. It was salt in the wound. I mean, it is known as the Freedom House. There is a time and a place for that, and that was not it.”
While Associate Director of LGBT Equity, Sivagami Subbaraman would not compare the situation with the hate crimes the university has seen, she said it is unfortunate that the LGBT community was targeted in this instance.
Subbaraman said she hopes LGBT students will open up a dialogue with the fraternity in order to further an understanding between the two groups.
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