We, the Amherst College Pride Alliance, are responding to an incident of homophobic violence and intolerance at Amherst College that took place last weekend. Several Hampshire College students were verbally and physically harassed by Amherst College students while leaving a Gay Amherst Party (GAP) in Crossett Hall. We find these events both sad and enraging. The campus police are thoroughly investigating the incident, but we as a community want to respond both to show our support for the Hampshire students and to make a strong statement that this behavior is not welcome or acceptable on our campus.

It is especially disheartening to think of how the Hampshire students were treated. They were invited to our school to attend a GAP and should have been considered guests. However, as our guests, they were treated to homophobic slurs as well as physical intimidation and violence. While we know that the vast majority of Amherst students are open-minded, socially conscious people who would never engage in such behavior, the fact that a minority exists on campus who would somehow find this behavior reasonable is troubling and, yes, frightening. It is our fervent hope that LGBTQIA students from the other Five Colleges do not write off Amherst College as an unsafe and undesirable place to socialize and learn.

So many people at this school claim that Amherst is an open and safe environment for gay people, yet when an event like this occurs, it serves to bring our concealed homophobia to the surface. The many who are tempted to dismiss this as an isolated event that does not reflect the beliefs of any substantive portion of our student body need only refer to the anonymous homophobic and racist Daily Jolt postings regarding this incident.

Each of us now has a renewed responsibility. In the extreme, if someone is threatened for their sexuality or gender expression, we must all resolve not to stand by or walk past indifferently. There are also less dramatic burdens that we must shoulder: the bigoted remarks and homophobic jokes of others as well as the prejudices we harbor within ourselves. Each of us must take on this work so that our community can be more respectful and safe.

Today there will be a rally on the Valentine Quad to gather together students, faculty and staff who want to express their outrage, to reach out to the Hampshire students who have been treated so grievously and to reclaim the College’s commitment to maintaining a diverse and safe environment.

We stand in solidarity with the students from Hampshire. We offer our heartfelt apologies for what they experienced at our school. We invite them to stand with us today, and hope Amherst students are appalled enough to join them.