Former Morehouse sophomore Aaron Price is scheduled to go before a judge Jan. 9 to enter a plea against charges in the baseball bat assault on Morehouse junior Gregory Love.

By JENNIFER J. SMITH

Gay students and activists continue to criticize the lack of public details and action taken by Morehouse College officials after an apparent anti-gay attack on their campus Nov. 3.

Despite previously downplaying homophobia at Morehouse and refusing to label the attack a hate crime, Eddie Gaffney, Morehouse College dean of student affairs, announced last week the school will now require students to attend sessions on homophobia, sexual harassment, anger management and diversity.

"Lesson learned," Gaffney told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "We hate that this happened. But it's an opportunity to do some things differently, to do some new and innovative things, and take a leadership role in terms of how we begin to deal with the whole issue of homophobia."

But local activists dismissed the university's apparent reversal.

"We're sorry that a black man had to have his head beaten in with a baseball bat for Morehouse to 'learn their lesson,'" said Khalid Kamau, a spokesperson for ASSEFA, an ad hoc committee of students and activists formed in response to the attack.

Morehouse appointed an as yet unnamed dean who will live on the 2,800-student campus to oversee the seminars, the Journal-Constitution reported.

Gaffney and other officials declined interviews with Southern Voice through Morehouse media relations manager Elise Durham.

The decision to hold the mandatory seminars comes as alleged assailant Aaron Price readies for a Jan. 9 arraignment hearing in the beating of fellow student Gregory Love, according to the Fulton County District Attorney's office.

The attack that began with an apparent glance in a dorm shower prompted charges of widespread homophobia at the historically black all-male private school in southwest Atlanta.

Love was beaten "approximately six to seven times, about the face, head, shoulders, back and arms" with a baseball bat in the bathroom of the Brazeal Hall dormitory, according to an incident report filed by the Morehouse College Police Department.

Love, who is nearsighted and wasn't wearing his glasses, told police he thought Price was his roommate.

Morehouse expelled Price Nov. 5, and neither Love nor Price have spoken publicly since the attack.

Price was charged with aggravated assault and aggravated battery. District Attorney Paul Howard has said he plans to charge Price with a hate crime, which would add five years to his sentence if he is convicted.

Seminars too little, too late?

The seminars are a positive start, according to Keith Boykin, author of "One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America."

"As an outsider, it seems like it's a good first step," Boykin said. "It looks like a signal that the school is willing to speak to homophobia as an isolated issue and not lump it together with other tolerance issues like previous efforts."

But Morehouse officials continue to make some old mistakes, other activists said.

"Of course we're pleased there will be some kind of seminars," said Craig Washington, executive director of Atlanta's Gay & Lesbian Center and a member of ASSEFA. "But my hope remains that there will be mandatory intervention not only for the students but for faculty and staff to insure a healthier, safer environment for everyone."

Washington said gays "are keenly aware" that Morehouse declines outside assistance from local gay groups, despite repeated offers.

"I think it still does a disservice to students to exclude local gay organizers who can be a valuable resource for them," Washington said. "We routinely serve the very community most affected by the problems at Morehouse."

Washington compared the announcement to Morehouse's silence after the attack, and the school's unwillingness to label the attack a hate crime.

Only after prosecutors called the attack a hate crime did Morehouse President Walter Massey announce the formation of a blue ribbon panel on diversity to be made up of "local members and national experts."

Three panel members have been named: Peter Gomes, an openly gay professor of Christian Morals and minister at Harvard University's Memorial Church; Paul Burkgett, an advisor at the University of Rochester and Caryn McTighe Musil, vice president of diversity at the Association of American Colleges & Universities.

Students say problems persist

ASSEFA members charged there is "a real, offensive stonewalling" in the way Morehouse officials have dealt with the attack.

Openly gay students at Morehouse said they still have heard nothing of the school's plans.

"They haven't said anything on campus," said Justin Holland, a Morehouse junior. "But I have some serious concerns about who is going to run the seminars and how much research Morehouse officials have put into this."

Holland said he is routinely treated as "less than human" on campus.

"This does not need to be run by someone with a Ph.D. in psychology who has only read studies about gays," he said. "If you want students to listen, the person needs to be gay, needs to be young, and needs to be able to relate to us."

Holland called homosexuality at Morehouse "complicated."

"There are men who show up to class wearing women's clothes — they may or may not identify as gay," Holland said. "Will the seminars address transsexuality? Will it address lesbian issues?"

While several openly gay students reportedly left Morehouse's campus the past two years alleging they did not feel safe, Holland said he is staying.

"I'm on full scholarship, and there isn't really anybody left to make any noise," he said. "I think it's important we're still represented here."

Students say the school's conservative approach to issues of sexual orientation is nothing new.

"It's always been that way," said Charles Nelson, a gay student at Morehouse in the early 1980s.

"A friend of mine — Emmanuel Marable, from Alabama — was there with me and was openly gay. He was constantly ridiculed and mocked and harassed to fit in, to suppress his gay side, to conform at all costs," Nelson said. "Emmanuel died of AIDS, and I discovered I was HIV-positive my senior year.

"The unwillingness to address the institutionalized homophobia, the unwillingness to offer the most basic safe sex information on campus, the lack of information available about HIV, I know that led to increased infections and hurt people like Emmanuel," Nelson said.

"I can't imagine it's much better now," he said.

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