Allen told The Herald she had not seen the actual posters but had been alerted to their content. "I was e-mailed on Wednesday morning and told that there were notes on University Hall that had my name on them ... asking what happened to the hate crimes protocol that I had promised two years ago," she said.
"The note on (the) door reminded me, or at least triggered me, to look back at what had happened, and we realized we never sent out (the policy)," Allen said.
Allen said she had overlooked the fact that students had not been alerted to the policy once "the holiday came, and I got back to work and other things took precedent."
Following a spring 2004 incident involving alleged hate crimes against Isaac Rodriguez '04 and Joel Madrid '05, Allen said she was asked to "form a committee to think about the policy and procedures we have for making and resolving complaints for discrimination and harassment."
But Gay Shame asserted in a Feb. 3 e-mail to The Herald that Allen's charge included "the establishment of clear hate crime protocols by fall 2004."
Allen acknowledged that developing the harassment policy had taken longer than some might have wished, adding that she "wanted to be more thorough." Allen first printed the policy in November and finalized it in December after more than a year of consultation with the community, including two "open forums" and a presentation to the Undergraduate Council of Students.
The Feb. 3 e-mail from Gay Shame, signed by "Mary," said the group "strongly supports the existence of (Brown's new policy), however such policy should not be confused with hate crime policy and protocol."
The e-mail continued: "We do believe that Brenda Allen, a well-qualified individual who has a great deal of experience in her area, knows the difference between ... a non-discrimination act and actual hate crime protocol."
Allen said that hate crime protocol like that requested by Gay Shame "is what student affairs will do with that policy when a complaint comes in."
"People talk about disc-rimination and harassment in a lot of different ways, (and) use a lot of different words. ... The notion of hate crime is really a very legal term, and is used mainly in the legal sense of a hate crime," Allen said. "We clearly define discrimination and unlawful harassment in those terms, and we stay away from hate crimes because we can't define something to be a hate crime."
Josh Teitelbaum '08, president of the Queer Alliance, and QA member Knick Irving '05 said they read the policy linked in Morning Mail, but "we couldn't really identify it as a hate crime policy, " Irving said.
Teitelbaum said that Gay Shame is not associated with QA and that he has no knowledge of its members' identities. The Gay Shame posters directed at Allen are signed, "The Brown Gay Community."
Though Allen said she attempted to include members of Brown's LGBTQ community in the policy-drafting process, she could not recall which groups or individuals were consulted.
Teitelbaum said the QA met with Allen last fall after requesting to see the policy. The group did not receive notifica-tion of the policy's completion. The meeting in the fall "was us asking for it," Teitelbaum said, adding that he did not view it as "incorporation (in the policymaking) or anything."
Teitelbaum and Irving said they hope for a hate crime policy that specifically defines hate crime and outlines appropriate protocol.
"If it's not being recorded in a meaningful way, then what's the point in taking the huge step to report it in the first place?" Irving asked.
"When something is qualified as a hate crime, it steps up the response," Teitelbaum said.
"The fact that it wasn't published maybe speaks volumes about the nature of the discussion," Irving said. "It doesn't really show that the University cares to identify and deal with this if you can't even name it," Irving said.
Allen's committee examined other institutions' approaches to unlawful discrimination and decided to "stick to an understanding of discrimination and unlawful harassment because what the campus wanted was a clear statement about discrimination as it related to particular classes."
The policy's broad language, Allen said, is intended to make it applicable to "a lot of different contexts, so we don't use the word bias or hate crime in the policy."
Who is Gay Shame?
Gay Shame said its membership includes "several members of the local queer community," but did not specify whether Brown students are actively involved.
Gay Shame Providence, "Mary" wrote in the Feb. 3 e-mail, was founded in response to "a number of local and national developments relating to queers and queer issues, as well as in response to some of the sentiments (or lack thereof) of queers and non-queers alike surrounding these issues."
The group's mission statement matches that of Gay Shame San Francisco, a group "committed to a queer extravaganza that brings direct action to astounding levels of theatricality," according to its Web site, but the two groups are not formally affiliated.
"Mary" wrote in the Feb. 3 e-mail that "hate crime still goes on here," adding that hate-related incidents "occur regularly" and are often unreported.
"Mary" added that members of Gay Shame hope Allen will "take our actions as an invitation to re-engage the discussions of two years ago ... in an environment ... that includes the involvement of students, faculty, administrators and community members."
