Students receive anti-queer letters

By: Ari Anisfeld and David Logan
Additional reporting by David H. Montgomery & Abby Rapoport

This story is an edited version of a previously-published story.

Sometime Thursday night 34 members of the Grinnell College queer community received anti-queer letters, according to Stephen Briscoe, director of Security. The letters come a day after a rally responding to a bias-motivated crime that occurred in a South Campus hall last Friday night.

Early this morning a student working at the post office received one of the letters and then notified security at around 8:15 a.m. Friday. “They were all the same type of letter, folded over and stapled together with the students’ name and mailbox typed on the outside,” Briscoe said.

Printed on the inside of each letter in large bold font were slurs and epithets, many including gender-specific anti-queer attacks matching the gender of the recipients. Among the slurs were “Fear God, not Fags” and “You can’t stop us fag—go and get some pussy.” Most of the students receiving the letters were part of the campus queer community, although some were not active on campus.

Security contacted the Grinnell Police Department as part of the investigation. Security is also working with ITS to find out if they can identify whether the letters were made on a campus computer or printer.

While Briscoe said that security cannot currently say with any confidence who may have sent the letters, he suspected the perpetrators are part of the college community. “I think it was someone on campus, to be honest,” Briscoe said.

Sheree Andrews, associate dean and director of Student Life, said whoever sent the letters, likely had information about the queer community. “It was clearly somebody who had access to a directory and it was somebody who was on campus or could come on campus,” said Andrews. “It was someone who knew who was associated the LGBTQ community.”

Briscoe said that security could not yet say whether the incident is connected to last weekend’s anti-queer vandalism.

According to Thomas Bateman ’10, who received one of the letters, recipients were contacted by Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Elena Bernal who then set up a meeting to discuss the mailings. “She wanted to make sure we were okay and find out what we wanted to do about it,” Bateman said.

Not all the students were completely comfortable with the meeting. Jose Segebre Salazar ’09 was somewhat disturbed that the names of the recipients had been distributed to individuals outside of security. “If you want to talk about it, that’s fine,” he said. “But just the fact that there’s a compiled list that’s gone outside of police record—it’s kind of scary.”

In an all-campus e-mail, President Russell K. Osgood expressed anger at the continued acts of intolerance. “We are very saddened and angered by what has happened. Those who engaged in these cowardly acts will find no solace in our community,” Osgood wrote.

Some classes were cancelled as students met in informal groups across campus to discuss how to respond to the latest anti-queer incident.

The centerpiece of the response was a second meeting in JRC 101 which appeared to have an attendance of well more than 200 students, faculty and staff. Bernal and Johanna Meehan, Philosophy, delivered opening remarks emphasizing that the message of the gathering was one of community and love, not one of hate. “[We’re] not here to talk about the negative aspects. We’re here to have a positive discussion,” Bernal said. “There’s comfort for people that are in this room tonight.”

After the opening discussion, organizers unveiled the gathering’s primary activity—love mail. Attendees took advantage of crates of paper and art supplies to make love letters for their friends and peers. “In response to the hate mail, the most beautiful thing we’ve come up with is love mail,” Bernal said.

Before this afternoon’s forum, a group of students were in the Spencer Grille creating t-shirts that emphasized community and tolerance. Jon Richardson ’10, who helped to organize the t-shirt making with Kelly Bosworth ’10, bought plain white t-shirts and colored markers for friends to use, but others quickly joined in.

“I thought some other people might join in, but this is amazing,” Richardson said. “It started with one table making shirts and there are five now.”

Jessica Issacharoff ’09, who made a shirt of her own, said she was particularly upset by the letters because she knew many of the recipients. “I have a lot of friends who got [the letters] and I was absolutely shocked,” said Issacharoff. “I would never have expected anything so aggressive. And so violent. It was just very violent language.”

Bateman, who participated in Thursday night’s march and rally, said he was not surprised that this happened after Thursday’s great show of support for the queer community and tolerance in general. “It makes sense that this happen[ed] after the rally because [the rally] was so effective and productive,” said Bateman. “This makes sense as a retaliation to that.”

Again emphasizing the positive responses to the anti-queer acts, Bernal also said that the letters revealed some sense of desperation. “Because last night was so powerful,” Bernal said, “the response back from folks who did not want to see that happen, who are living with this latent anger … had to come back just as hard as what happened the other night [with the rally and march].”

Some students, like Jose, felt that the magnitude of the response to both the vandalism and mailings incidents lent them too much legitimacy and impact. “We should not give them so much currency as to disrupt our personal lives and our lives as students,” he said.

While Andrews said she was upset by the mailings, she reiterated the importance of responding in a positive manner. “We want to go into a very positive vein with all of this,” she said. “Some of the fire we got going last night with the rally will keep on throughout the weekend.”

In addition to the community events that will unfold throughout the week, Bernal emphasized college services as a means of coping with the events. She urged students to take advantage of resources in the Mental Health Center, Student Services and their friends. “Everybody’s waiting to throw their arms around their brothers and sisters at Grinnell in support,” she said.

Bernal also categorically rejected the notion that the incidents mean that Grinnell College is not a tolerant community. “If this wasn’t an accepting community,” Bernal said, “you wouldn’t have the hundreds of people here last night and the hundreds of people here within a few hours of an e-mail.”

Bateman, while shaken, said he would not let the mailings significantly alter his perceptions of the Grinnell community. “I’m really happy with the Grinnell community in light of last night,” said Bateman. “It’s important not to view this as spoiling [the rally] and that the Grinnell community is not intolerant.”

Correction: On Editorials and Percentages

In this week's staff editorial, "Stop getting us sick," we wrote the following: 

Last Thursday, 90% students visited the health center complaining of sore throats and runny noses.

In fact, that was inaccurate by several orders of magnitude. The sentence should have read,

Last Thursday, 90 students visited the health center complaining of sore throats and runny noses.

Also, even if 90% were the accurate figure, the correct style would have been to write "90 percent."

Waitress

by Julia Bottles

From the opening frames, director Adrienne Shelly's film Waitress walks a fine line between light comedy and over-the-top camp. Jenna (Keri Russell) holds a home pregnancy test in her hands awaiting the result as her fellow waitresses Dawn and Becky throw out emotionally exaggerated lines at her. It shouldn't work, but somehow it does, setting the tone for the rest of the film.

The film continues to follow Jenna through the early stages of her pregnancy, a lens into an unhappy life lightened only by her pie-making genius. As Jenna plots her escape from her hated husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto), she finds passion in the arms of her neurotic obstetrician Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion). Their affair grows into something more than mere physical attraction, and the miserable waitress gets a glimpse at happiness.

Waitress will be shown at the Forum this Thursday Feb. 14 for Valentine’s Day.

The Apartment

by Joey Mandeville

It’s hard to find comedies like The Apartment anymore. While today what passes for comedy often offers up little more than sight gags and gross-out humor, The Apartment builds its laughs through genuine emotion and dilemma. That kind of comedy will always be funnier and more meaningful, because the story is involving and the laughs are real.

The story being told is of perennial nice-guy C.C. ‘Bud’ Baxter (Jack Lemmon), whose generosity at work leads him to loan out his apartment to bosses who are less than faithful to their wives. That is, until his boss J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) decides to use said apartment to start courting Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), Baxter’s secret office crush. This charming story, told in just over two hours, moves forward at a pleasant and engaging pace as we chart both characters’ eventual redemption.

One of the movie’s greatest assets is the combination of Lemmon’s naïve and bumbling Baxter with MacLaine’s cynical and impassioned Fran. This refreshing contrast switches the traditional gender roles of the day. Fran often seems so much older than Baxter, and her character is no worse for any lack of fidelity she displays. Often she sees truths in the world that Baxter could not fathom. “Some people take, and some people get took” she pessimistically states after being abandoned again by Sheldrake in the apartment.

Baxter’s frank and endearing innocence combats this outlook. Consider when, in reference to his love for Fran, he compares his life to that of Robinson Crusoe, “shipwrecked among 8 million people. And then one day I saw a footprint in the sand and there you were.”

The Apartment continues to be regarded as one of the greatest comedies, and indeed one of the greatest movies, of all time. The story is engaging, the characters fascinating, but describing them paints part of a picture that only seeing this classic movie can complete.

The Apartment is playing at the Forum this Wednesday, Feb. 13.

Alternative Break gets ready for Spring

By Sarah Casson

With the February 9 deadline for AltBreak fast approaching student organizers have been working for a long while to plan everything from the trips’ mode of transportation to how to feed their student volunteers.

The student coordinators begin the process for AltBreak trips 2 to 3 months before trips, that they may or may not go on, occur. Together they get the planning process going, select leaders in an application process, facilitate transportation to the sites and more. This begins in December or January and in the fall the process starts about 2 weeks into the school year.

This spring break there will be three trips, all differing in the type of community service they provide. One will go to Milwaukee where the crew will work on a community garden. Another will go to Umay, Arizona to help at a veterans’ event where services such as health care will be provided to them. The last will go to Mananda County Forest, California to be part of a conservation program. All are opportunities to do good for communities around the country.

According the AltBreak leaders students with any level of experience are welcome to apply for the spring break trips. Students who have a service project that they would like to see done can easily apply to be a leader of a trip for next year. “You don’t have to have any previous experience, you don’t need to have gone on a previous trip,” says Zach Razavi ’08, one of this break’s coordinators. “All you need is a co-leader and a well written application.”

Of course, to put in all that effort, students must feel strongly for AltBreak. “I love AltBreak, it’s just a great way to give back, and to get out as well,” said Justin Erickson ’10, another trip coordinator.

Thin (playing at the Forum this Wednesday)

by Christine Grummon

Five million Americans currently suffer from an eating disorder.

One in seven anorexic women will die from their disease.

It is with these grim statistics that the documentary Thin opens. Directed by Lauren Greenfield, the movie chronicles the lives of four women as they undergo treatment at the Renfrew Center, a recovery facility for people with eating disorders. The film introduces us to Shelly, Polly, Brittany and Alisa, women ranging in age from 15 to 30 with extensive histories of eating disorders.

Shifting focus from each of the patients’ stories, the film follows their victories, setbacks and the relationships each develops between the staff and other patients. We watch as the women struggle through seemingly mundane tasks like eating a birthday cupcake or finishing a slice of pizza.

Aside from the opening statistics and brief background descriptions of the four women, Thin makes almost no commentary on the events of the film. Through its intimate study of the four women, the film offers insight into the complicated psychology surrounding eating disorders. Pressure from family, peers, and society are all portrayed as culprits in the women’s suffering along with the failure of insurance companies to provide adequate coverage for treatment. The movie ends with the departure of each woman from the center, though not all of them leave because they’re physically or emotionally ready.

Thin presents an interesting and relevant study of those suffering from eating disorders, but it does leave something to be desired. Juggling the stories of four very different women, transitions between segments sometimes seem abrupt and each story doesn’t get equally thorough treatment. Follow-up interviews with the women after they had left treatment would also have been a worthwhile addition. But, on the whole, Thin presents an interesting portrait of what it means to have an eating disorder in America.