I am writing to express my dismay at what appears to be The Chart’s current approach to dealing with discrimination and bullying in our area (and, in recent weeks, on our campus).

As a reader, I cannot help but be offended by the collective message promoted within the Public Forum of the Oct. 5 edition.  

The Chart published three editorial pieces which actively employ stereotypes, which consciously elide the issue of LGBTQ presence on campus, and which misrepresent apathy as an alternative to advocacy.

First, Mr. Boley, you have an issue and you’re using a public pulpit to protect your incorrect ranting.

To deride a minority group for their body type, their voice, or their interests, suggesting not that the writer needs to reconsider his hate speech, but that the vaguely effeminate target of his criticism needs to look at himself again — for, presumably, it is his visibility, rather than the staff writer’s prejudice, that constitutes failure in this scenario — is the definition of offensive.

Announcing your capacity to offend doesn’t render your effort to do so acceptable.

Likewise, Ms. Markovich, your cheeky announcement, “It’s finally time for me to come out,” with the punch-line of “hipster,” renders the painful and frightening choice of visibility — one LGBTQ students struggle with on this campus — a joke.

Society mocks and tries to stamp out LGBTQ students, so have your words.

Finally, Mr. Mills, you have misrepresented Dan Savage’s campaign in startling ways.

His is not a movement based on apathy — “teaching kids to cope with something that will somehow always be part of their lives” — but on advocacy.

It involves the pledge of speaking up: promising to speak out against hatred and intolerance.

It involves teaching kids to be nice. You’re a new father, yet, sometimes teaching requires repeating the lesson.