News Director Charlie Luttrell and SM2 reporter Garret Grove contributed to this report.
On Tuesday, Feb. 2, students were displeased to find a nearly 30-page anonymous flyer stuck to their cars’ windshields filled with political rhetoric and statements against the LGBTQ community.
The flyers students received consist of three sections, all of which were rooted in religious and political beliefs, including a section named, “What has America become?, and the one that caused the most upheaval on campus, “Has it ever been in God’s plans for someone to be trans?”.
The six-page pamphlet is riddled with anti-transgender statements, notions against gender non-conforming people and the LGBTQ community as a whole.
Freshman music education major Matthew Finney said that while he understands the pamphlet is an effort to berate the progress that is being made within the LGBTQ community, it is still damaging.
“I just think you shouldn’t do that, especially at any school when you feel safe finally and when you see something like that going on, you don’t feel safe anymore,” Finney said.
However, Vice President for Student Affairs Dee Dee Anderson insists students should not feel unsafe at USM because of this instance.
“No student should feel unsafe or unwelcome at The University of Southern Mississippi. We realize the flyers that some found on their cars Tuesday could do just that,” Anderson said. “We’ve worked hard to ensure that USM is a place where everyone feels at home- both inside and outside the classroom- and resources are always available for students, faculty, and staff at both the Counseling Center and the Prism Center.”
“It is not yet known who created or distributed the flyers, which violate University policy by soliciting without a permit. If you have any information that would be helpful to the University Police Department, contact them at 601-266-4986 or [email protected],” Anderson said in an email to The Student Printz.
Senior social work major Xeryus Johnson, a social work intern at the Office of Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement, said she first saw the flyer when a student came to the office to explain what happened.
“He came in and we were just telling him, I get people have a way of protesting free speech but you cannot place that on people’s property- that’s not okay,” Johnson said.
The incident happened almost exactly three months after a group of religious protestors gathered at Shoemaker Square, preaching similar anti-LGBTQ sentiments to students on campus.
Anti-trans legislation has been passed in states recently, including the recent enforcement of anti-trans sports laws and a push to ban LGBTQ books in libraries in Texas.
The sentiment has spread to Mississippi as the Jackson Free Press reported that Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee is withholding funding from the Madison County Libraries, with officials saying he is demanding the ban of LGBTQ books.
The incident also happened on the same day that dozens of HBCUs across the country, including five in Mississippi, received bomb threats.
“To see that people are getting affected by this, it hurts me too because even though I’m not part of everything that’s in the LGBT community, I’m part of some things and I know what it’s like to be attacked like that, and it just hurts,” Finney said. “You’re scared to be who you are and you need to be who you are.”
Like Anderson, Johnson also encourages students to visit IME and Prism as a part of a safe space and community on campus.
“Prism and IME is an inclusive place and we just want everyone to come and hang out and feel loved,” Johnson said. “For someone to be doing that on campus, it just makes me angry and it needs to stop.”
