Students and staff awoke on the morning of October 16 to find that every LGBTQ+ pride flag lining the brick pathways across the mall had been pulled out of the ground and tossed into dumpsters behind the Beta Theta Pi and Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternities.
As campus came to life in the morning, word of the incident quickly passed around, and students took to Yik Yak, an anonymous social media platform, to both support and condemn the perpetrator(s).
“This is outrageous,” said one user. “You can have a difference in opinion with someone, and that is OK. That is what makes Wabash a great place, because of those discussions. But to see this on my campus is atrocious. Let people live the way they want!”
“As a queer student, I have never felt less safe on my own campus,” said another. “I don’t think many of you mean harm, but I feel so alone and unwanted because of all the hate our pride flags received this past week.”
Members of ’shOUT, Wabash’s gay-straight alliance, originally placed the flags on Sunday, October 13 at 10 p.m. to raise awareness for the queer community on campus and to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month, which runs from October 1–31. The plan was to let the flags fly only until the end of the week, since several flags were damaged or removed when they were left up for a whole month last year.
“The flags had been up for only two days, and the perpetrators couldn’t handle us being proudly queer and out,” said President of ’shOUT Javion Montgomery ’27. “We exist on this campus, and it’s not our problem if some people are uncomfortable by that.”
This instance of identity-based vandalism was not the first on the Wabash campus. In 2021, a bottle was thrown through a Black Lives Matter flag in a dorm room. In 2024, ’shOUT staged a silent protest to demand more action from administration after homophobic slurs were spray painted on the exterior of the Delta Tau Delta house.
In an email sent to the student body Wednesday afternoon, Dean of Students Gregory Redding ’88 expressed intense and candid frustration as well as disappointment at the acts.
“Most days we are proud of our Wabash student culture and the sense of community that we share,” the message began. “This is not one of those days… Perpetrators: are you too weak to live among people whose life experiences are different than yours? You should know that the members of our LGBTQ+ community and their allies are not going anywhere.”
In response, members of ’shOUT and allies of the LGBTQ+ community, led by Coordinator of Student Success Vic Lindsay, spent the day sitting on the mall to guard the nine remaining flags that were replaced in the morning. By the afternoon, Senior Administrative Assistant to the Dean of the College Amber King had provided hot chocolates from 1832 Brew to keep the protestors warm in the chilly autumn air.
“I think it’s important in moments like these that people who are technically outside of the impacted community do something,” said Lindsay. “This is about as low as the bar can get, and this is something that we can do. It costs me nothing to be here, but hopefully there are other straight, white men on campus who can acknowledge their own position of privilege and demonstrate what real allyship and brotherhood looks like.”
The event came amidst a week at Wabash already focused around inclusive conversations. On Monday, Dr. Bob Einterz ’77 delivered the second address in the President’s Distinguished Speaker Series, in which he challenged the audience to remember that everyone’s voice deserves to be heard. On Tuesday, Nadine Strossen, a senior fellow with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), delivered the Ama-Gi Lecture, “Hate: A Candid Discussion.” David Leal ’26 and Joshua Massaquoi ’26 were already scheduled to deliver a Chapel Talk on Thursday morning as part of LGBTQ+ History Month.
“Placing flags across the Mall has become one of my favorite traditions — creating a ‘rainbow road’ to promote queer visibility,” Massaquoi said in his Chapel Talk. “Every year, without fail, I see homophobic comments about the flags. Visibility becomes a double-edged sword. To be seen is to become a target.”
After a thunderous standing ovation for the speakers, Matt Lepper ’25 took the stage, donning the official Sphinx Club sweatshirt and pot.
“Theres an underlying evil [on campus] that may or may not be Yik Yak,” he said. “I implore you guys: Before you hit send, embrace what we learned here [at Chapel] — brotherhood. What you send behind a shroud of anonymity can hurt someone more than you know, so be a Wabash man, and talk face-to-face.”
“It is evident from acts like this and last semester that there is a community on campus that will take action against progress and against the representation of queer culture,” said Treasurer of ’shOUT Brady Largent ’26. “It’s important that we openly demonstrate a community that will oppose action that will reverse progress.”
Presidents of TKE and Beta both expressed their disdain with the incident and confirmed they have no knowledge of the perpetrator(s). At this time, the identity of the perpetrator(s) is unknown. Director of Safety and Security Buck Waddell could not be reached for comment. The Bachelor will continue coverage of the incident as more details are uncovered.
This story was last updated at 2:33 p.m. on October 17, 2024.