The Queer-Straight Alliance at Southern Utah University reports that campaign materials for an openly gay candidate for student government have become a target for anti-gay vandalism on campus.
Payden Adams would be the first openly gay member of the school’s Student Association Executive Council if he is elected as activities vice president. Voting takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Sunday, Adams discovered that one of his posters had been defaced with anti-gay slurs in red ink. This comes on the heels of many of his posters being shredded and removed.
“This doesn’t discourage me at all. It makes me want to be stronger and makes me even more passionate about making SUU a better place,” Adams said in a statement. “I want to make a positive difference.”
Two years ago, QSA’s campus fliers for National Coming Out Day were tagged with “Stay straight SUU,” the student group notes. The group’s leadership is calling on the person who defaced Payden’s poster to come forward.
“I thought that, as college students and educated adults, we would be above this” QSA President Benjamin Smith said in a statement. “This is a blatant act of bigotry, nothing less.”
