‘Gay-Bashing’ Flyer Distribution Probed as Hate Crime

The distribution of flyers offering free baseball bats for a “gay bashing and clubbing night” at Cal State Northridge is being investigated as a hate crime, Los Angeles police said Monday.

Campus police officers on Saturday recovered one of the flyers attached to a pole near Darby Avenue and Prairie Street, on the west side of CSUN, campus police Lt. Mark Hissong said. Students reported seeing flyers elsewhere but Hissong said campus police had found no others.

The flyer depicted a stick figure knocking off another stick figure’s head, and promised “free Louisville Slugger” baseball bats to those who attended an upcoming “first annual gay bashing and clubbing night.”

“Smear the queer,” it said. “Why waste your money at the batting cages when you can practice your homeruns for free.”

“Squish the S.Q.U.I.S.H.,” the flyer urged, referring to a CSUN gay activist group, Strong Queers United In Stopping Heterosexism, which held a “kiss-in” on campus Friday.

“It is being considered a hate crime,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Steven Vinson of the Devonshire Division. “The distribution of the flyer itself is a hate crime.” State law defines hate crimes as those that target members of minority groups for violence.

Hissong said the flyer invited readers to gather Saturday at the “Northridge Park parking lot,” which could refer to either a student residence or a nearby city park. Campus officers said they are watching both locations.

University officials said they did not know who was behind the flyers, but that if students are found responsible, punishment could range from a formal reprimand to expulsion.

Two students said Monday they had seen the handouts posted in classrooms and on campus bulletin boards. By early afternoon, the campus appeared to be free of the flyers, which SQUISH member Mat Rodieck, 25, said he had seen torn down by outraged students.

University President James W. Cleary said he had not seen the flyers but condemned their message.

“The university will not condone any activities (that) promote hatred and violent behavior,” Cleary said in a statement. “If there is any single place in our society where opposing and diverse views have a right to be aired without threat of intimidation or prejudice, that place is a university campus.”

University spokeswoman Kaine Thompson said administrators had received at least three calls from students who felt threatened by the flyers.

SQUISH held a strategy session Monday evening in response to the flyers and about 30 members and supporters then took part in a candlelight march on campus.

Members said they would demand that the student government and Cleary condemn violence against homosexuals. They also planned to stage a “die-in” Wednesday, drawing chalk outlines of bodies on campus, and hold a seminar Friday on anti-homosexual attitudes and hate crimes.