Students, faculty, and administrators at Emory University are all asking the same question: "What the heck happened at the Sigma Nu house early last Saturday morning?"One student, a wearer of wizard hats who prefers to remain anonymous, says a drunken Sigma Nu alum bullied him because he was gay:
“This guy approached me and asked why I was wearing my hat. ... I said that I like the hat, just as you like your pink shirt. He then asked me if I was gay, and I said I was. He then started choking me with his elbow and put me into a head lock, and he dragged me out of the party by my neck.”The alleged perp, Adam Smith, denies that homophobia motivated him to apply his invisible hand to the homosexualist's throat. He says the trouble began when he made an inquiry as to why the student was hiding his butt cheeks under a heterosexually-challenged wizard cap:
After the student was allegedly dragged the approximately 10 to 15 feet from the house’s common area to the door and thrown onto the front lawn, Smith was overheard telling other attendees “Hey, this kid’s a faggot.”
Smith...asked the student: "Why are you wearing this gay ass hat?"According to Smith, the Wizard replied in a manner that reeked of disrespect for his revered status as one of Sigma Nu's most prominent drunkards. Indeed, the homosexualist sorcerer taunted Smith by declaring he was wearing the "gay ass hat" for the "same reason you're wearing your pink shirt."
Smith says he saw this response as a challenge to his commitment the heterosexual lifestyle and responded in the the only way his vodka-soaked imagination would allow: he assaulted the young wizard.
The above quotes come from an article in the Emory Wheeler. It describes a classic he-said/he-said confrontation. The wizard says he was assaulted after he admitted he was gay. The drunk claims he assaulted the wizard because the wizard implied that they were both homosexualists. Although some might say that the fact that an assault was committed is reason enough to condemn the aspiring wino, others would suggest that the reason for the assault is more important--it determines whether the act was a hate crime or not.
Thankfully, the Case of the Wizard's Homosexualist Ass Accessory is solvable. Adam Smith, like most hopeless inebriates, doesn't know when to shut up. He clarifies his statements to the reporter by posting a comment about the article:
I am in NO WAY at all a homophobic person. I have many friends at Emory who will vouch for me as a friendly guy and a genuinely great person.So there you have it. It wasn't a hate crime. Adam Smith isn't a homophobe. He's just a drunk asshole who likes to beat up on guys who wear "gay wizard ass hats."
[...]
This whole dumb event occurred because I was drunk and thought it would be funny to throw someone out to the wrath of the huge security guard at the door, and the most ridiculous person that naturally stood out to me was this Wizard dressed kid. I purposely egged him on a little bit, he snapped back at me, and I threw him out.
So chalk this up as me being a drunk asshole, a frat guy with too much testosterone, or whatever you want to call me I really don't care. I just want everyone to know that that's literally all it was, that's the honest truth. I'm not some ignorant bigot looking to bash homosexuals, so please don't think that.
In another comment, a very self-aware young woman chimes in:
Alright, for one, if this happened to a heterosexual do you really think there would be article written up? Come on. Really. What makes gays so special? They're just drama queens that need to harden up. They are not a special species of human. Sure, give them the same rights as a heterosexual. I don't even think that even then they'd be happy with equality. Anyway, I think Adam was just having fun and letting off steam. I just don't understand what the big deal was. Was this kid hurt? No. Just his gay pride. When will this gay thing end? Seriously, it's getting ridiculous. Being gay is not a defense nor should be used as one. He got rejected because he wore a stupid hat and stood out like a sore thumb. Not because he was gay. Everyone should get over it and move on with their day.
