Last Saturday a member of Facilities staff spray-painted over a number of words and phrases in the tunnel connecting Wilson Quad to Hoyt Auditorium, in the belief that they constituted acts of vandalism. The comments had been spray-painted onto the walls of the tunnel, which student groups routinely decorate, by the University of Rochester’s Pride Network, a gay pride association.
While the list of censored comments included inflammatory remarks that members of the group acknowledged were inappropriate for public display, the employee also whited out language that the group considered relatively benign, such as dates and times of the group’s upcoming events and references to homosexuality.
“Almost any reference to homosexuality, any reference to education was painted over,” Pride Network Business Manager and junior Alex Papastrat said.
Acting Dean of Students Matthew Burns is undergoing an investigation into the matter.
Members of the Pride Network convened to paint the tunnels on the evening of Thursday, April 3, in order to publicize Gaypril, a celebration in which the month of April is host to a series of events that are designed to promote gay pride and create discussion and awareness of the homosexual movement.
The group first painted a rainbow design that ran down the entire tunnel, covering both walls. Later in the night, members of the group spray-painted messages over the design, according to Pride Network Secretary and junior Perrine Meunier.
“It was planned to write things like ‘Aids Education Panel’ and other things advertising our events,” she said, also acknowledging that members write other, personal comments. “That’s what we always do.”
Director of UR Security Walter Mauldin explained that early on Saturday morning a security officer had discovered the graffiti on the wall and assumed that the underlying rainbow design had been vandalized. The officer contacted his supervisor who, upon reviewing photographs of the scene, asked Facilities staff to paint over the graffiti.
“The wording was, they asked [Facilities] to paint over ‘graphic and offensive language,” Mauldin said. It was not until later that those involved learned that the graffiti had been voluntary.
“It did appear in this case to be a defacement and not an expression of art,” said Mauldin.
Papastrat and Meunier agree that some of the language on the wall, which included phrases such as “Have queer sex,” “Fags have more fun,” “Blow me” and “Suck d*** all day,” was in bad taste.
“[The more offensive ones] did not represent what Pride stands for,” said Papastrat. “Obviously in the future we’re going to make sure that vulgar things aren’t painted on the wall.” Meunier attributed the offending comments to “a few individuals who didn’t think before they spray-painted.”
However, Meunier explained that members of the Pride Network were upset over the extent of the effacement, especially pertaining to the advertisements for Gaypril events.
“I understand the censoring of the said ‘vulgar slogans,’ but I think that maybe too much liberty was taken in censoring things that were simply homosexual and not in any way harmful or hurtful to anyone,” she said.
The events scheduled for this year’s Gaypril include the Spring Drag Show on April 11 and the following “Taste the Rainbow” after-party, a performance by gay comedian Peterson Toscano, the Day of Silence and AIDS Education Week.
Meunier said that the group has painted tunnels in the past, yielding positive results.
“It’s good advertising for us, because you can’t just take it down, like a poster,” she said.
Certain sections of text that were advertising those events, including the word “Rainbow” in “Taste the Rainbow Party” and the entire phrase “AIDS Education Panel,” were spray-painted over in white. Also, the name of Toscano’s show, “Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House,” was covered up.
“Those things, yes, they were done in spray paint, but I don’t believe they could have been construed as [vandalism],” Meunier said. “They were events with a date and a time and a place.”
Also, segments of text that merely alluded to homosexuality, such as “I like boys – Alex,” were painted over.
Burns, who has been corresponding with Papastrat since Saturday, said on Tuesday that he was in the process of finding out who painted over what, but acknowledged that finding definitive answers might not be possible. He posed the question of whether language that describes “specific sexual body parts [and] specific sexual acts” is appropriate to paint on the tunnel wall.
“I think that this community is likely to come back with, the answer is ‘no,'” he said. “While we support free speech, it is appropriate to limit the time, place and manner of speech at some times.” He brought up the point that a visiting family or a child might view the graffiti.
Mauldin raised a similar concern.
“This is an area that, while [it is] on campus, we have families and students touring the campus and making rounds,” he said.
Mauldin said that he supports the decision of the Security supervisor who ordered the cleanup, as it followed vandalism protocol.
“The instruction for the procedure we had was to clean the wall and make it fresh, so the art work that was destroyed could be restored by the artist,” he said. “We didn’t stand there and say, put a little more paint here, put a litte more paint there.”
Wrobel is a member of the class of 2010.
