Doing it at Morehouse College, a bastion of black male development and leadership, made it tougher, he said.
"There's such a tradition of homophobia," said the 1997 graduate. "It follows sort of a pattern unfortunately."
The Nov. 3 baseball bat beating of a Morehouse student has now forced the college to figure out how the gay community fits in with the legacy of "the Morehouse man."
Morehouse President Walter Massey said the school has dealt with the issue more now than it has before, simply because many in the campus community didn't want to deal with it.
"But nurturing black manhood and developing black men, we have to make sure people understand what that means," he said. "Being a man doesn't have anything to do with your sexual orientation. We have to make sure that our message, our rhetoric is perhaps more fully developed."
Morehouse has always been known to have a vibrant but underground gay community.
That community stayed underground in the past because of fears the gay lifestyle wouldn't be accepted at the nation's only all-male, historically black college.
But recently, as Morehouse's gay community has followed the times and become more visible and vocal, that doesn't mean the general Morehouse community has accepted it.
"The face of the campus is different now," said Warren Watson, who graduated this past May, "but I would assume the campus hasn't caught up with the times."
Sophomore Aaron Price told police he beat another student Nov. 3 with a bat after the victim peered at him through the shower curtain of his stall, according to reports.
The victim didn't have his glasses and stared to see if Price was his roommate, according to a police report of the incident.
The victim suffered a fractured skull and underwent emergency surgery at Atlanta Medical Center. His condition has improved, and Morehouse officials said he is now able to walk around campus.
Price has been indicted by a Fulton County grand jury and could face 20 years in jail.
Neither the victim nor his family could be reached for comment.
The Journal-Constitution is not naming the victim to protect his privacy.
Morehouse carefully has crafted an image as a center for producing strong African-American men.
"That's something we take seriously because it's the only school that anybody makes it an issue as a college," Watson said. "It's part of the mission."
But that, and a historical cultural need for black males to exert their masculinity in the face of racism, is what may lead to homophobia at places such as Morehouse, said Florence Bonner, head of the sociology department at Howard University in Washington.
"If you look historically at what black males were subjected to in the white community, to hear a black male saying he's gay goes against the grain of society's picture," she said.
"The African-American community suffers from not having enough outlets for cross connection, or for all of us in general to talk about sexuality and the impact of living in fear of stating your sexuality," Bonner said. "We don't have outreach organizations who are supportive and helpful, so you end up with conflicts and no one to help forge understanding."
Juan Smith is leaving Morehouse after this semester.
Smith is a gay 22-year-old business major. He refuses to wear a business suit like other Maroon Tiger students do on certain days and said he's tired of dealing with an environment that not only doesn't accept his homosexuality, but ridicules him for it.
"It's a patriarchal model," Smith said. "That would have worked in the year 1886, but in the year 2002, it will not work.
"Morehouse is extremely conservative and hasn't progressed with the times and become open-minded and willing to make changes."
Obinna Lewis agrees.
"There is that critique that goes on that gay sexuality goes against the idea of masculinity," said Lewis, a former editor of the school's newspaper.
Students campuswide are trying to decide for themselves just what that legacy is to be, said Clayton Knowles, a 19-year-old sophomore.
"Morehouse students are doing their own self-evaluation of what that legacy is," he said. "But there have always been gay Morehouse students in the past, so why can't there be some now?"
Some students are upset at what they believe have been attempts by officials to ignore the tension between heterosexual and gay students before the beating and to suppress talk about it since.
Friday, Massey promised to talk and listen to students who've complained that administrators have tried to hide from the issue on the 3,000-student, all-male campus.
He also reinstated the school's Student Government Association after one official suspended them for holding a forum on the issue.
"Homophobia is not a new topic at Morehouse," Massey said. "Only by having people share their experiences can we understand how best to adjust our programs to ensure that we clearly convey the message that no violent or abusive behavior of any kind is acceptable or will be tolerated at Morehouse."
Sophomore Aaron Price, who was arrested shortly after the Nov. 3 beating, was indicted Friday by a Fulton County grand jury on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
Price is free on bail but has been expelled from school. The 19-year-old could receive up to 20 years if convicted.
Campus police said Price told them a student had peered into his shower stall. Price left the shower room and returned with a baseball bat to beat the student.
The student who was beaten told police he might have looked at Price longer than usual because he did not have his glasses and thought Price was his roommate.
The student suffered a fractured skull and underwent emergency surgery at Atlanta Medical Center. A few days later he was moved to the Morehouse infirmary. Massey said Friday the student was out of bed and was walking around.
"He was up and doing better," Massey said. "He had gone out for an appointment."
Neither the victim nor his family could be reached for comment. The Journal-Constitution is not naming the victim to protect his privacy.
Since the beating, students say their effort to discuss it in public forums have been quashed at least twice.
Officials canceled a Monday forum and Tuesday announced the suspension of Student Government Association activities for the rest of the semester because of their "blatant disregard of the agreement . . . to postpone the Meeting of the Minds program on homophobia . . . ," according to a letter from the Morehouse Campus Life department.
Massey reinstated the SGA Friday after agreeing to allow them to speak during a campus-only forum scheduled for 11 a.m. on Tuesday.
Thursday, students had hoped to talk about the incident when they filled the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel, even as a previously scheduled debate program -- which included as a topic the hours of visitation in Morehouse dorms -- was to be offered.
Upset when the program was not altered to address the beating, some students disrupted the debate by shouting "Stop The Violence," until they were told the scheduled program would proceed.
Others are concerned how the gay community fits in with the legacy of "the Morehouse man."
"I don't think the administration has done anything to address it," said May 2002 graduate Warren Watson.
Massey promised that the issue will be dealt with. But Senior Juan Smith, a 22-year-old gay business major, said the environment is hard for gay students to deal with. He's decided to leave at the end of the semester.
"It's not nearly for me a safe space," he said. "I don't feel comfortable here."
Morehouse sophomore Aaron Price is charged with aggravated assault in the beating of another student with a baseball bat on Nov. 3. Price told campus police that the student peeped through the shower curtain of the stall, according to a report. The victim was taken to Atlanta Medical Center with a fractured skull and underwent emergency surgery. Morehouse officials say he is recovering at the college infirmary.
The issue has led to campuswide talk about homophobia and relations between homosexual and heterosexual students on an all-male campus that students called tense because of the incident.
But while some students are eager to talk about the issue, they believe administrators aren't.
The Omega Psi Phi fraternity had planned to hold a forum this past Monday to discuss homophobia on campus, but members say administrators told them to cancel it at the last minute. They canceled the meeting, but Sale Hall Chapel was already filled with students who went ahead and started a discussion.
"We were told that it was canceled by the administration," said Crystal Hudson, a Spelman student who stayed for the talk. "There was a lot of anger and ignorance. It blew up and had to be ended. But it was long overdue."
Thursday, a flier was distributed promoting a rally later in the day against violence, homophobia and misogyny. It was to be held at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel, even though Morehouse's annual Crown Forum debate was scheduled in the chapel at the same time.
Students filled the chapel as the debate went on -- until it was halted by students shouting, "Stop the violence."
"We will listen to you at the appropriate time," said Anne Watts, the school's vice president for special academic programs.
" 'We don't want to talk about it,' " junior Christopher Carter said, quoting administrators. "But we will talk about it," he said
Wednesday, the Human Rights Campaign in Washington asked Morehouse officials to address the issue publicly as a hate crime that will not be tolerated on campus.
But Morehouse President Walter Massey sent the group a letter that said appropriate measures are being taken.
"At Morehouse, our values -- which include civility, community, compassion and respect for diversity in all its manifestations -- are not just something we talk about, but something we challenge ourselves to live by every day," Massey said in the statement.
"The matter is still under investigation and it will be up to a law enforcement agency to determine its ultimate legal outcome," the statement said.
Donna Payne, of the Human Rights Campaign, said the statement doesn't go far enough.
"That concerns us," Payne said. "They are not saying it's a hate crime or even talking about gay and lesbian students. They don't even say the word 'gay.' A nice little letter is not the full commitment here."
Morehouse officials wouldn't comment beyond their statement.
Payne has her theory on the school's response. "They don't want to address it," she said.
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