Northridge : CSUN Gay Center Fire Labeled as Hate Crime

An arson fire at the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community Resource Center on the Cal State Northridge campus has been classified as a hate crime, university officials said Friday.

The fire was set on two bulletin boards on an exterior wall of the center Thursday, less than an hour before the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Alliance’s first meeting of the school year, said the center’s executive director, Hector Ramirez.

The bulletin boards were destroyed and the side of the bungalow was damaged before a student who saw the suspects laughing and running from the scene was able to snuff out the flames with a large magazine, Ramirez said.

Although the physical damage was relatively minor--the center’s loss was estimated at about $300--the crime had the emotional impact of an earthquake, “5.0 on the Richter scale,” Ramirez said.

“It sends a message to gay and lesbian students that they are still not safe,” he said. “It tells [them] that the powers that be at the university are not taking the necessary steps to better educate students about gay and lesbian issues.”

But university spokesman Bruce Erickson disputed Ramirez’s comments. If the culprits turn out to be students, he said, they will be prosecuted criminally as well as under the student disciplinary code, which could result in their expulsion.

“Cal State Northridge in no way accepts or condones homophobic or racist, bigoted behavior of any kind,” he said. “The presence of the center and its visibility on campus is an indication that the institution values these students and employees without regard to their sexual preference.”

Campus police are investigating the fire but have not yet identified any suspects, Lt. Mark Hissong said. The witness, an engineering student who declined to give his name, described the suspects as two men wearing baggy jeans, T-shirts and with short haircuts.

The not-for-profit center, which receives most of its funding from donations and outside organizations, is the largest of its kind in Southern California and the only one on a Cal State campus, Ramirez said. It provides counseling, referrals and legal advocacy to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual individuals.