Hundreds rallied to support the LGBT community at the University of Oregon on Feb. 1 after janitors found a four-foot swastika spray-painted on the carpet of the LGBTQA office. The incident came after months of heated debate surrounding the community group Pacifica Forum, a self-proclaimed free speech group that has been accused of promoting white supremacy and aggressive hate speech.

The LGBTQA office television and computer were also vandalized, but the office did not show signs of forced entry.
 
An estimated 300 students rallied the afternoon of the discovery, marched to a central location on campus and spent hours chanting in unison. Shouts of “An attack against one is an attack against all; they might try, but we won’t fall,” and “There ain’t no power like the power of the people ’cause the power of the people don’t stop, say what?” rang out across the campus.

About 15 people spoke to protestors through a microphone, including Oregon gubernatorial candidate Bill Bradley.

“This is a sad situation to be here today; it’s so clear that hate cannot be part of our life here at the University, here in the state of Oregon,” Bradley said. “An attack on one is an attack on all.”

Other speakers also mentioned a sense of unity.

“I think that these individuals or individual were obviously trying to create a sense of hatred and intimidation but I think in the face of all this…us all being here, that’s not going to happen,” LGBTQA Co-Director Alex Esparza said.

Freshman Kelsey Jarone, the  LGBTQA’s outreach coordinator, was on the same page as Esparza.

“The tone of this movement is one of love,” she said. “The change that we see coming out of this significantly outweighs that one petty act of vandalism.”
 
This is not the first time in recent memory that the campus community has reeled from the appearance of a swastika. Feb. 5, student-run newspaper the Oregon Daily Emerald published a letter from student Dan Brotman, who said that a student group had put swastikas on t-shirts last spring.

Though the culprit of the LGBTQA incident is unknown, many protestors insisted that the Pacifica Forum, is partly to blame. Pacifica Forum—not an officially recognized student group, though they meet on campus—has hosted speakers on campus that denied the holocaust, and the group’s student leaders have publicly made unpopular remarks about women and rape.
 
The ASUO Senate considered a resolution that would have asked the Forum to leave campus, but voted the down resolution on Jan. 27 largely because of Senators’ fear of stifling free speech. A new resolution now faces the senators, one that would express formal approval of the University’s decision to move Pacifica from the student union to a less central location.
 
The Senate meets Feb. 10 to discuss the new resolution. Many believe that it has a higher likelihood of passing because the Senate has had more time to deliberate, and because they see the swastika as galvanizing anti-Pacifica sentiment.


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