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Post-It Note Slur Troubles Georgetown Community

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Neighbors of Georgetown are showing solidarity with the university's LGBTQ community by hanging rainbow ALLIES signs on their homes.
Rebecca Sheir
Neighbors of Georgetown are showing solidarity with the university's LGBTQ community by hanging rainbow ALLIES signs on their homes.

Joseph Graumann, a Georgetown junior and co-chair of the GLBTQ group GU Pride, said he's seen the university transform "from an institution that completely ignored LGBTQ students, to an administration that almost whole-heartedly embraces them."

After a number of anti-gay incidents in 2007, Graumann helped persuade the University to build the LGBTQ Resource Center. So he was especially distressed this week when a slur written on a Post-It note was stuck to the Center's door. "After seeing the good work that they do, it really made me sad, someone shaking the community with a little post-it note," said Graumann.

It was the third in a recent string of incidents involving what the University calls "homophobic language and disrespect." The first two involved physical assault. Still, Graumann says he doesn't want the Resource Center to change a thing. "Any kind of major change would show that they're easily intimidated. By continuing their efforts to advocate for us to the administration, they're doing exactly what they need to be doing in response," said Graumann.

The university says it will step up patrols of the campus and surrounding areas.

Rebecca Sheir reports...

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