Gay student harassed at Emory: Was it his sexual orientation or his hat? Either way, his assailant ought to quit the bottle.
The mistreatment of a gay student at a frat party has turned Emory into a flashpoint for the current concerns over homophobia on campuses.
I read the account of the gay student being tossed out of a frat party in the Emory Wheel newspaper in a Decatur coffee shop earlier this week, but felt the story lacked some key elements, including comments from the frat brother who allegedly did the tossing. Nor was I clear that this party — at a private residence off campus — qualified as a frat party.
In a nutshell, a gay student in a wizard hat, lime-green jacket and red slacks drew the ire of a recent Emory grad at a Sigma Nu party. According to the alleged victim, the grad, Adam Smith, threw him out of the party amid anti-gay comments and “cheering” from other party goers. Beforehand, Smith had taken the student’s wizard hat and was needling the guy.
According to a statement from the alleged victim to the Emory Wheel: “This guy approached me and asked why I was wearing my hat. … I said that I like the hat, just as you like your pink shirt. He then asked me if I was gay, and I said I was. He then started choking me with his elbow and put me into a head lock, and he dragged me out of the party by my neck.”
The Wheel interviewed students at the party who confirmed these events, but I was still confused as to why this happened. I gained a better understanding after reading the 209 comments posted to the online version, including a frank, if disturbing, explanation by Adam Smith himself about why he threw out the gay student, who has yet to be identified. He seems to be saying that he is not anti-gay; he is just a mean drunk.
Here is his explanation, sanitized a bit for a family newspaper:
Hello all. This is Adam, and I would like to add this:
I do not know the individual that I kicked out of the party. If I knew his name I would have already sent him a sincere and personal apology for the incident that occurred.
I am in NO WAY at all a homophobic person. I have many friends at Emory who will vouch for me as a friendly guy and a genuinely great person.
This article paints me in an unfairly negative way. It was originally written and published without my input at all, using accounts by the Wizard and his friend(s) only. I was told earlier tonight that an article had just been posted about me online. I shockingly read it in its entirety, including that “Smith was attempted to be reached for comment but did not respond.” For the record, I received zero emails, calls/texts, Facebook messages…I am sure if anyone on the Emory Wheel staff put in any sort of honest effort to contact me they easily could have. I tracked down the editor of the Wheel’s cell phone number and called him at 2am this morning, asking how this could have happened. He talked with me briefly, wrote down a few comments, and then informed me that the hard copy of the Wheel had already been printed but agreed to add in what I had to say in the online version.
If Emory wants to bring the issue to light that the student body and/or Greek system is unfriendly toward the LGBT community, and that “instances of violence [against LGBT] have been less visible on Emory’s campus”, I think this is a cheap, irresponsible, and unfair way to go about doing it. To take this hazy, isolated incident, blow it out of proportion, and turn me into a scapegoat and slander my name is ridiculous. I think it is unprofessional reporting and would hope for some sort of apology from the Emory Wheel.
Further there was not any “approving reaction” from the crowd at the party for me putting this kid in a headlock and throwing him out, nor was I walking around bragging to other people that I just kicked “this faggot kid” out of the party, high five bro…Really?? This whole dumb event occurred because I was drunk and thought it would be funny to throw someone out to the wrath of the huge security guard at the door, and the most ridiculous person that naturally stood out to me was this Wizard dressed kid. I purposely egged him on a little bit, he snapped back at me, and I threw him out.
So chalk this up as me being a drunk XXXhole, a frat guy with too much testosterone, or whatever you want to call me I really don’t care. I just want everyone to know that that’s literally all it was, that’s the honest truth. I’m not some ignorant bigot looking to bash homosexuals, so please don’t think that. I hope the Wheel in the future will find better content to publish, rather than turning something small like this into an inflated and untruthful story in order to spark artificial controversy at the cost of an individual like me.
Thanks,
Adam
This saga sounds so many alarm bells, including the problem of campus drinking and the mob mentality of frats.
Now, I know I’m going to get all the frat types telling me how great fraternities are, but they are linked to higher incidences of binge drinking and alcohol abuse in general on campuses.
I suggest Emory, which has been working on curbing student drinking, have a serious chat with the frats. And to the young man in the wizard hat: Sorry that you had to pay the price for a drunk looking to prove something.
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86 comments Add your comment
gadem
October 28th, 2010
10:08 am
cry me a river for the gay student…they are so oppressed and mistreated. Gays can’t say “look at me, look at me I’m gay”, and then when someone looks complains that they are being harassed. That is idiotic and juvenile. To liken homosexuality to any type of movement, women rights or civil rights is belittling those two crucial movements. You can not CHOOSE your race or sex, but you CAN CHOOSE your sexual orientation.
heartofdarkness
October 28th, 2010
10:10 am
I liked “Adam Smith” better when he was writing about economics. This Emory grad seems not to have learned much from his undergraduate days. Assault and battery is a primitive response to speech and behaviours one finds objectionable. I’m sure the university does not condone or encourage this pre-adolescent style of problem solving, but teachers have to work with the raw material put before them.
Mental Floss
October 28th, 2010
10:13 am
“If you don’t like it, then don’t engage in homosexual behavior yourself. You have no right to say about anyone else’s personal relationships and activities – unless someone is forcing you to engage in a sexual behavior (homosexual or heterosexual).”
When homosexuality (bi) is promted as a choice to children and young adults, what do you expect? Kind of like the Red Ribbon Week works, kids today have to say NO to drugs and to homosexual advances. Recruitment to the lifestyle is getting to be pretty mainstream. If the advances are unwelcomed (as in most cases), this is the result!
Pride
October 28th, 2010
10:16 am
“Gays can’t say “look at me, look at me I’m gay” ”
It’s “We’re Here, We’re Queer, Get Use To It!”
Motocross Survivor
October 28th, 2010
10:17 am
The common claim amongst queers that anyone who doesn’t approve of their kornholery is a closet gay is a combination of gay delusion, and insult, which of course shows their own true feelings bout their own homosexuality. They must hate themselves.
Pride
October 28th, 2010
10:17 am
“You can not CHOOSE your race or sex, but you CAN CHOOSE your sexual orientation”
Yep, and the more we can get to join in the better!
Ormewood Native
October 28th, 2010
10:49 am
So, we’re all okay with harassment as long as it isn’t aimed at a specified racial/sexual/ethnic minority group? Just wondering.
Dr NO
October 28th, 2010
10:53 am
Ormewood Native
Its not harrassement. Its BS. Its elementary school behavior. Its and adult asking for trouble, receiving same then passing blame.
Guest of a Guest
October 28th, 2010
10:56 am
“The common claim amongst queers that anyone who doesn’t approve of their kornholery is a closet gay is a combination of gay delusion, and insult…”
You have to admit that guys like Ted Haggard, Larry Craig and Eddie Long, who were (are?) staunchly anti-gay, lend credence to this assertion.
DMac
October 28th, 2010
11:16 am
If you’re a flaming gay and you go to a frat party, you have to expect that something like this can happen. Frat parties are all about drinking, horseplay and sometimes fighting. If you don’t like that kind of thing, then don’t go to a frat party.
Frank
October 28th, 2010
11:20 am
The ridiculous aspect of this situation is that the party was described as an “Emory fraternity party.” This party occured in a private, off-campus residence and the assailant is not an Emory student. Also, was the victim even invited to this party? I don’t see why Emory should be involved in this situation. It seems like a potential police matter; if a crime occured, the police should file charges, and if there was no crime, case closed.
Chrome Gouda
October 28th, 2010
11:39 am
Anyone else think that Shaggy is living in the past, and imagining a reality that didn’t really exist? The “anti-bullies” who threw rocks at kids, set them up for ridicule and “beat them down?”
Shaggy… perhaps you don’t realize it, but if this stuff is true, and not just fantasy that you use to cope with bad memories, than you were a bully too, and part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Maureen Downey
October 28th, 2010
11:55 am
@Puff, I hold temperance meetings every week. So far, no one is attending. Actually, from the start of my career — where my editor kept both a gun and a bottle in his drawer – things have changed. My co-workers go to the gym on their lunch hour and everyone brings a salad for lunch.
And the younger reporters ride their bikes to work, even one who lives in Decatur and bikes every day to Perimeter.
I don’t drink, but they are driving me to give up my sweet tea habit with their good examples.
Maureen
SDK
October 28th, 2010
12:41 pm
@ Mental Floss
“… homosexuality (bi) is promted as a choice to children and young adults” But why limit to homosexuality? Don’t you think adultery/promiscuity (of heterosexual version) are also “prompted” by the society? Why single out homosexuality?
I also say homosexuality (sexual orientation) is NOT a choice. However, each person can CHOOSE to act on his/her sexual orientation.
Even Hand
October 28th, 2010
1:25 pm
Sounds like every douche bag frat guy I ever met. The incident only got publicity because the victim was gay. Assaults happen to plenty of other folks but they generally are not from a “protected” or “privaledged” minority so nobody cares.
It was an assault. It was no better or no worse because the victim was gay, black, green, or whatever. Now if he were disabled and fully unable to defend himself then the act would be reprehensible, but it would still be an assaut.
hildymac
October 28th, 2010
2:03 pm
Good lord, Motocross Survivor. I would ask if you’ve read any of the psychological studies that disprove your statement, but judging from the words and the tone that you took in stating your opinion, I think that picking up a journal of psychiatry is beyond your capabilities.
My thing with this is why is the whole thing an issue as far as sexuality goes? Let’s look at the people. Smith was drunk and acted stupidly, and the student antagonized him. Neither individual acted appropriately. This is far more mundane than a party that I was at during college when one of the guys who had a bit much to drink, and who was a jerk, threatened a member of another fraternity who was gay with violence – because that student was gay. That was explicit, and since a bit of a physical altercation happened, the fraternity brother who was gay called the campus police and handled it appropriately – the member of the other fraternity was charged with assault.
I do take umbrage at Ms. Downey’s dismissal of all fraternities as a bunch of drunken guys who are never up to any good (and I’m sure that this bleeds over into her opinion of sororities). For that one incident in four years of being a member of a Greek organization, I can think of probably over a hundred fundraisers that all of the organizations on campus held to raise money for various and sundry social causes. Stop letting a few loud, obnoxious jerks spoil the Greek system as a whole. The millions of dollars raised annually by Greek organizations for charities and the free social work that they do should be heard a lot more clearly.
Idiots like this guy need to have their alumni status stripped by their national office for the embarrassment caused to Emory and Sigma Nu.
Flabberghasted4sure
October 28th, 2010
2:25 pm
Smith, If you were drunk, which you admit, how do you know the crowd didn’t cheer you on and you didn’t “high 5″? Just syaing…. You were drunk and drunks don’t always remember everything the next day or remember it accurately. Just saying…
Pluto
October 28th, 2010
2:54 pm
@ SDK Why is it so important to you and obviously alot of other folks that homosexuality NOT be a choice. Because for me a red-blooded heterosexual, I gotta admit I chose my orientation a long time ago.
SDK
October 28th, 2010
3:41 pm
@ Pluto,
I don’t know what’s so difficult for “red-blooded heterosexuals” to understand that you didn’t choose to be heterosexual. Your sexual orientation is just your biological make up. Why is it so important to you that homosexuality is a choice?
You can argue validly, as far as I am concerned, that homosexuality is an abnormal characteristics biologically since homosexuals are not able to pass on their genes to next generation.
What we CHOOSE is whether or not to act on our own orientation.
Ole Guy
October 28th, 2010
3:57 pm
This story does not speak well of the calibre of Emory students, nor of their level of maturity. The bottle does not have one iota to do with this type of nonesense.
shaggy
October 28th, 2010
3:58 pm
There are morons here (Motorcross Survivor, dude, etc..) that equate justice earned, with bullying. Perhaps you never learned not to mess with people, or YOU risk the consequences. A bully only understands hard justice and will never be in a circle singing kumbayah with you nitwits.
Oh yeah, i’ll bet you think the bullies are “victims”.
another comment
October 28th, 2010
6:32 pm
Either Adam is a Closet Case, which is he became very threatened in his drunken state. But in anycase Adam needs therapy, to find out the root cause of his drinking problem and why an Emory Graduate is still hanging out at Frat parties and getting drunk. He has some unresolved emotional issues that he needs to get himself to Therapy. Or at least get himself to AA meetings, there are some held over by the Emory Campus. It might help him from ending up with a criminal record from drunken outbursts and fights. I am sure Mommy and Daddy don’t want the $200,000 plus they paid for the Emory degree to end up in a jail cell.
Get some help Adam, before it is too late. You have to get to the root of your drinking problem. It is not OK to binge drink and get so drunk to do this, to anyone.
puff
October 28th, 2010
6:53 pm
Glad to hear there has been a sobering change. Once upon a time, the Constitution and Journal newsrooms were a frat party unto themselves. At least the bunch who covered the state legislature, where I worked. They tended to drink alike and think alike.
Motocross Survivor
October 28th, 2010
7:15 pm
hildymac wrote:”Good lord, Motocross Survivor. I would ask if you’ve read any of the psychological studies that disprove your statement, but judging from the words and the tone that you took in stating your opinion, I think that picking up a journal of psychiatry is beyond your capabilities.”
I have no idea what you’re babbling about, but I think I’ve been insulted .
Where’ve you been? It is an extremely common comeback to straights from queers that the straight is a closet homo for criticizing anything homo. It’s some sort of defense mechanism/insult attempt all in one, and is of course designed to silence the straight. What the homos are actually saying with the insult is “you are a disgusting pervert like me.” As I said, it appears many homosexuals hate themselves. Homosexuality has always been condemned by society as an abnormal perversion, from Biblical times to very recent decades, when politics pretending to be science removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. In seafaring days of 2-300 years ago, a seaman caught “in the act” on ship was marooned on the nearest deserted island. Such behavior was called and offense “of the blackest dye.”
Lee
October 28th, 2010
7:32 pm
Let’s see here, a pretty boy dresses up like a watermelon wizard and goes to a party where a bunch of frat boys are drinking, starts mouthing off with one of them, and then acts surprised when he receives some unwanted attention.
ROFLMAO
Now, most of us would say, “You know, that was a stupid thing to do.”
But no, this little fairy runs to the newspaper to report a hate crime.
Sorta like those blacks who receive bad service at Denney’s. Most logical folks would chalk it up to a bad dining experience and never go back. Not these blacks, they gotta make it a civil rights violation.
Give me a break.
SET
October 28th, 2010
9:02 pm
I have extensive working experience with Psychopaths, the ones professionally diagnosed – with HARE Scores 28 to 33 and higher (at this level they are normally institutionalized). I also have handled cases where involving undiagnosed (formally) Psychopaths where I got a very full biography. One of the things I often see is Bisexuality and “out there” sexuality. It is one of the red flags for dangerous personalities. And when I say dangerous I’m not kidding, I mean compulsive liars, thieves, sexually promiscous personalities. These are people who will happily spread VD, blackmail, assume identities, and hurt their “friends”, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Even if they like you (to the extent they “like” anyone) they can destroy you casually, negligently and quickly.
So when you deal with strangers and new aquaintances who wear their sexuality (any sexuality) out loud – get a clue. That is not the behavior of a safe personality. Some allowances are made for college I suppose, but pay attention when someone is pushing beyond the norms even for college and are on the forefront of open sexuality. It is typically the tip of the iceberg you are running into.
So yes, I’d 86 people who hump the furniture when they’ve just been invited to cocktails. Young people are too inexperienced to really get it about what this behavior really means. Don’t let political correctness get in the way of “The Gift Of Fear” – check the book out for more.. Every college student, especially the girls, need to read it.
David
October 29th, 2010
4:26 am
What’s so bizarre is that the assailant, Adam Smith, makes only a single reference to the victim. Everything else is about him and his reputation. What is so frightening is that with alcohol, a benign confrontation like this one can quickly escalate to a real gay-bashing.
David,
DeadFag.com
Motocross Survivor
October 29th, 2010
7:57 am
@SETGood post. And true.
Dr NO
October 29th, 2010
9:23 am
SET
October 28th, 2010
9:02 pm
WOW!! Impressive I must say.
@David…gay bashing? LOL…more politioSpeak>?
Clay Boggess
October 29th, 2010
9:26 am
It appears that Smith is only trying to take cover after accidently showing his true colors. Otherwise, why would he have asked if the guy was gay in the first place? Even though he was drunk he knew what he was doing all along. He just got caught up in a PR nightmare that he is now trying to fix.
Clay Boggess
http://www.BigEventFundraising.com
hildymac
October 29th, 2010
11:30 am
Here you go Motocross Survivor – the 1996 study conducted at the University of Georgia about this very thing. I doubt that you’ll be able to make it through it, since you apparently consider psychological study to be “babbling.” Or perhaps you’re too busy babbling homophobic rants and assumptions to take time to read it.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/files/u47/Henry_et_al.pdf
Captain Freedom
October 29th, 2010
2:25 pm
Clearly, the young “wizard” owes the Godly Adam Smith an apology. I just Thank God that it never went as far as the “wizard” assaulting Mr Smith’s shoe sole with the side of his head.
Motocross Survivor
October 29th, 2010
8:21 pm
Hey hildymac; I’ve heard mention of this “study” before from homosexuals. I also know of a study that proves that my pet rabbit is capable of playing cornerback for the Falcons, if properly trained.
bootney farnsworth
October 30th, 2010
8:37 am
@ maureen,
what exactly here confuses you?
1) a gay kid when to a frat party with the intent of making a statement and garnering reaction – he succeeded
2) a stupid kid got drunk at a frat party – what a suprise
3) stupid kid gets into an altercation with a gay kid who went looking for one. OMG-really?
4) a left of center student newspaper on a very left of center college uses the “event” to do a hit piece on emory’s greek system -many sure to work for the AJC soon no doubt
5) stupid kid deservedly gets trashed for acting stupid
6) gay kid looking for trouble gets (for the most part) a pass for
succeeding in his attempt to provoke folks
7) students call Wheel out for its greek hit piece and sloppy AJC quality jouralism
now, what about events don’t you understand?
it’s not like the Wheel is written in latin
Lee
October 30th, 2010
12:07 pm
You can read the psychobabble that hildy posted, or just listen to this song – it makes a lot more sense…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTDGYOtH4oo
Clairmont Heights neighbor
November 1st, 2010
1:55 pm
Sigma Nu was kicked off the Emory Campus because of their bad behavior. They rented a house in our neighborhood in Clairmont Heights and used it as an off-campus fraternity house. Often more than a dozen cars were parked in the driveway, on the yard and in the street. The members of Sigma Nu proceeded to trash the house, the yard, the street and the neighborhood. Adam Smith adn others who lived in that house and were rude and disrespectful to their neighbors when they came to ask that they clean up after their parties and to keep things quiet on school nights and after 1am on weekends. Many young school-aged children live in the neighborhood. This is not an isolated incident. It is typical of the both the actions of Sigma Nu and of Adam Smith. Sigma Nu’s charter should be permanently revoked and Adam Smith should be held responsible for his actions including assault.