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Students counter anti-gay protest

Student and protester get into physical altercation over anti-gay poster.

Radomir Avila

Media Credit: Joshua Sy | Daily Trojan To kiss or not to kiss? | Brett Malec, a freshman majoring in neuroscience, and Carlos Munoz, a senior majoring in biological sciences, kiss Wednesday in protest of the anti-gay signs, sentiments in Hahn Plaza.

A giveaway of "Gay? Fine by me" T-shirts led to heated exchanges between students and four protesters decorated in Bible verses Wednesday afternoon in Hahn Plaza.

The Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Assembly distributed the 300 shirts at noon as part of "National Coming Out Week," an annual series of events highlighting issues in the gay community.

During the distribution, attention turned to protesters from the nondenominational Christian group Cornerstone Ministries that warned, "homosexuals are going to hell," and called on students to accept the Bible. A crowd of about 100 students gathered around the protesters and engaged in heated argument, student witnesses said.

"At its height, it was pretty silly," said Jon Carpenter, a sophomore majoring in political science.

Carpenter and other witnesses said the protesters called the students "girly men" and proclaimed that "Jesus shed his HIV-negative blood for us."

One protester used identical ends of electrical plugs to demonstrate his view on the validity of heterosexual sex.

At one point, a student tried to grab protester Paul Mitchell's sign of a crossed-out picture of two men kissing. After a scuffle for control, the student and the 66-year-old man landed on the ground. No punches were thrown and no one was hurt, but Enrique Trujillo, a Program Board adviser, stopped the altercation.

"I've been at this for 45 years. I can count the times I've been attacked on one hand," Mitchell said. "At almost every school I go to, there is an ample amount of security, but it wasn't present here."

Department of Public Safety Capt. David Carlisle said several officers were present at the start of the event in compliance with DPS protocol for campus demonstrations.

After the incident, the protesters and a few students stayed in Hahn Plaza.

While the protesters initially had to move farther away from Program Board's table, some GLBTA members, though angered by the protesters' perceived hostility, saw the situation as sharing a free speech venue.

"If I want to stand up to say, 'It's OK to be gay,' I have to logically and morally say it's OK for [the protesters] to speak [their] message," said Michael Alfera, a junior majoring in piano performance.

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