By
Sheila Bapat
It has been over six months since that bloody Sunday night at Rainbow Planet, when Zach Hansen was stabbed because he is gay.
Marchers protested the hate crime. Wildcat columns praised the UA for coming together for such an honorable cause. The community united to defeat the foe of intolerance.
Six months later, that unity has fizzled.
"Is there a cohesive gay community on campus? No," Hansen said flatly.
According to the 20-year-old UA philosophy senior and some other gay students on campus, the UA gay community is anything but united.
A sad fact, considering how much work still needs to be done to fight homophobia and heterosexism.
"People used that incident [at Rainbow Planet] in many ways. It didn't really unify us, it gave people a chance to work for their own interests," Hansen said. "It gave [UA English professor] David Robinson a chance to speak against Republicans. It gave the Young Socialists a chance to get exposure. It was a gimmick. It was like, look a gay boy got stabbed, let's see what we can do for ourselves."
For anyone on the outside looking in, UA's gay community appears cohesive. Memories of the pictures of marchers that graced the front page of the Wildcat last February, with students wearing shirts that say "God loves gays," is what an outsider remembers best.
The activity inside the office of Pride Alliance, the UA's preeminent gay organization, on the top floor of the Memorial Student Union also suggests a fairly cohesive community. An average Tuesday afternoon boasts about six members eating lunch and chatting.
But appearances can be deceiving.
"Pride Alliance is just a big dating service," Hansen said. "Maybe half the people who go really believe in it, but a lot of people just treat it as a joke."
According to Hansen, Pride Alliance is lacking true activism.
"There are so many that fought for progress in the movement, and now we're just coasting," Hansen said. "No one fears another Stonewall."
Hansen says some of the best responses he got after the Rainbow Planet incident were from people outside of the UA community.
"I got about 30 letters from a fourth grade class from Wheeler Elementary School, just saying they were sorry I got hurt," he said. "I got letters from the older gay crowd who had faced a lot of discrimination when they were my age. They understood."
Unlike most of the UA.
"There is a lot of growing up that needs to happen in the UA gay community," Hansen said.
Crisis tends to foment unity; as soon as the immediate crisis of Zach's stabbing subsided, the unity that built up so rapidly died just as rapidly.
But there is still the festering crisis of general homophobic-heterosexist sentiment that needs to be fought constantly. Members of the club have made the life-altering decision to come out of the closet, and they need other members' support.
And the rest of us need Pride Alliance to help erase stereotypes and fight discrimination against gays.
Some believe the organization is just trying to revamp itself, and that for the membership it does have, the organization is doing well.
"A portion of [Pride Alliance] is cohesive," said Will Lawrence, an international studies sophomore and Pride Alliance member. "We're just a little undersubscribed is all."
Attendance at Pride Alliance meetings soars at the beginning of the year, then fizzles as the year goes on. According to Hansen, many don't like the idea of being activists.
Even more are still living closeted lives, afraid to come out.
Hansen said he lived in fear for months after the Rainbow Planet incident. He will testify against his attacker in a trial that is expected to take place in the next month. If his attacker is found mentally competent, the process will go very quickly, Hansen says. If not, the attacker will be treated in Phoenix until he is mentally capable to stand trial.
Hansen needed support when he was stabbed. He will need support when he is faced with the challenge of looking into his attacker's eyes again.
By then, hopefully, Pride Alliance will be able to stand up to its name. For Zach's sake, and for the sake of the rest of us.
"Some might think, why stay together if there is nothing to fight for?" Hansen said. "But there is still plenty to fight for."
