After an “openly homosexual” former University of Delaware student was called a homophobic slur and then injured in a subsequent scuffle back on April 13, activists have sprung into action with typical demands and demonstrations.
Although there currently is no confirmation that Rancel Valdez’s attacker is even a student at UD, The Review reports activists began planning confabs following an email from college president Dennis Assani which stated the university “will take all appropriate measures in the student conduct process to ensure any offenders are held accountable for their actions.”
“Honestly, at this point, I’ve become numb to this,” said Tylor Matthews, president of the UD “LGBTQ+” group Haven. “Although our campus likes to claim that we’re a diverse, accepting campus I feel like … that’s just an empty title, because things are always happening. I know … I’ve experienced different micro aggressions and different incidents where people are attacking my identities.”
Matthews said the incident was “definitely a hate crime” as “homophobic slurs were used,” and (victim) Valdez “was attacked because of [his sexuality.]”
On Wednesday afternoon, demonstrators held a protest on The Green in central campus which featured the usual placards of “Hate has no home here” and “Respect my existence or expect resistance.”
Activists demanded UD officials “take action” in response to the assault on Valdez, and made demands including punishment of Phi Gamma Delta (the fraternity at which the attack occurred), expulsion of those involved in the assault (that is, if they’re students), and “diversity and inclusion training for all first-year students, with additional training for fraternity members.”
Demonstration participants got angry when bystanders began recording the goings-on, and when members of Phi Gamma Delta showed up.
The crowd of demonstrators was surrounded by students, bystanders, administrators and members of the local community. Demonstrators rebuked onlookers and those taking photographs and recording videos. At one point, demonstrators confronted an observer, Kyle Berry, a Newark local, physically pushing him away and demanding he turn off his phone as he recorded video. Protesters exclaimed they had not given their consent to be filmed, and therefore it was not legal to do so. …
Also watching were several members of Phi Gamma Delta wearing clothing identifying them as such, all of whom declined to comment. Once the demonstrators took notice of their presence, the fraternity brothers quickly became the target of screams, jeers and numerous threats of retaliatory violence from within the assembled crowd.
The fraternity brothers mostly stayed silent, except to ask if they were being threatened. Over the jeers and insults from the crowd directed at individual brothers, the speaker leading the protest at the time issued a threat against the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity itself.
“You can break our bones,” they said. “But we can break up your organization.”
As The Review notes, filming “what you can easily see or hear in public places [and UD is a public entity], even if the recorded people have not specifically consented to such” is permissible. In addition, Delaware is a “one-party consent” state.
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