Anti-gay graffiti found on Quad walkways

"AIDS is the cure, not the disease," an angry hand scrawled in white chalk letters in the entrance to the Quadrangle's Speakman section. In the same chalk writing, other sections of the Quad were also vandalized with anti-gay graffiti, including the archways near Thomas Penn and Ward. Written in large letters, some of the graffiti stated "It's great to be straight," and "Keep ROTC, lose the queers." Wharton freshman Lee Anchin, a Speakman resident, said he first saw the graffiti in the Speakman entrance early Wednesday morning. Anchin said that he tried to erase the graffiti the next day, first with his foot, and then by pouring water on it. "I think an attack on any group is disgraceful, and it has no place in public," he said. College freshman Rob Fechner, who also attempted to erase the graffiti, said he felt the chalk inscriptions showed the vandal's ignorance. "If ignorant assholes like this are going to take the time to insult people, they should at least get their facts straight -- AIDS is not a gay disease," said the Speakman resident. Nursing sophomore Ashley Paine, a Facilitating Learning About Sexual Harassment Steering Committee member, said she is not surprised the angry messages coincided with Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Awareness Days. "I think it is a backlash against BGLAD week," she said. "Heterosexual youth are one of the fastest growing groups of HIV infected people in America," she added. "As a bisexual woman, each time I hear a homophobic comment, I just shake my head. It offends me deeply, and I wonder how people who are intelligent enough to get into a University like Penn can be so ignorant and narrow-minded." College freshman Rachel Murphy, also Speakman resident, said "it is embarrassing that visitors had to witness such intolerance," referring to prospective students who were in the Quad at the time. According to Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone, in such cases of discriminatory graffiti, both the University Police and the Philadelphia Police are called in to investigate.