On Friday, The State Press reported that complaints had been filed regarding graffiti in the bathroom of the College of Education that insulted homosexuals and offended many students.
The graffiti is not justified in any way, shape or form. But if you take into account the other graffiti that frequently has been scribbled in bathrooms across campus and in the College of Education bathroom, it is understandable that an unstable homophobe with a red pen would go to town on the walls.
In this same men's bathroom, someone once suggested that there were "horny studs" waiting who were interested in receiving oral sex. There was actually an elaborate plan outlined by the graffiti's creator that would give the "horny studs" directions on how to receive the oral sex. Through a series of noises and subtle clues, the "horny studs" could make it known that they were interested in receiving oral sex.
The fact that someone took the time to develop this scheme is frightening. With all the studying, drinking and reruns of "The Osbournes" that consume a regular college student's time, the creator actually thought coming up with a way to entice bathroom users into having sex with him was so important that he sat down and came up with this long plan. With an average intelligence quotient, it would take about 2 hours to develop the said plan. So either the person is extremely intelligent and was able to develop this proposal relatively quickly, or he spent a good chunk of his time thinking about it. Considering the fact that he wanted to have sex in a public restroom with someone he didn't even know, it is safe to assume that he isn't very smart.
This is important to think about because the idea of sex in a public place, especially one as horrific as a men's room, is offensive to some. The last thing a lot of people want to see when they walk into a bathroom is two people engaging in a sexual act, no matter what their orientation.
Another thing people don't want to see is writing on the wall suggesting that there will be sexual performances if you hoot like an owl, flush the toilet twice and then sing "The Hokey Pokey" - but instead of putting your left arm in and out, you replace your left arm with your genitals. This doesn't mean that it's all right to hate, but sex definitely shouldn't be occurring in a public restroom.
What makes the situation even more disturbing is what is next door to the offensive bathroom. Parallel to the sign that indicates it is a men's room is a sign that reads "College of Education Preschool." The walls outside the bathroom are covered with children's artwork. Hopefully the preschool has its own facilities so that impressionable young minds don't have to deal with the graffiti. On one hand, if the children ever enter that bathroom they will see messages of hate covering the walls. On the other hand, they will see the "horny stud" messages and could be the victim of a scarring experience that involves two men "playing doctors and nurses."
It's fair to say that the problem lies within our society. Homosexuality slowly is becoming accepted, but it's unlikely that we will ever reach a point where every person with homosexual tendencies can be open about them. Because our society has convinced people that it is wrong to be homosexual, we have a plethora of closet homosexuals.
The person responsible for the "horny stud" messages is not out of the closet. If he were, he wouldn't resort to writing that garbage on the bathroom walls. Open homosexuals can find their partners at gay nightclubs, in gay organizations, in any line that they ever have to wait in, and at the Coming Out Day celebration on Hayden lawn. Meanwhile, you have someone who has been scared into hiding and has to go through graffiti and a series of tapping noises to find a partner.
There aren't excuses for either graffiti perpetrator. The person who is responsible for the "horny stud" directions needs to knock it off. The person who is responsible for the crude hate messages also needs to knock it off. Just because there were offensive words in this particular bathroom, that doesn't mean there's reason to cover the walls with messages of hate. But in a society with an unlimited supply of homophobes and writing utensils, such tasteless acts were bound to happen.
Chris Fanning is a journalism junior. Reach him at christopher.Fanning@asu.edu.
