WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Update: According to reporting by the Indiana Daily Student, Declan Farley announced late last month that he will be leaving IU.
Protesters gathered for a march and town hall in Bloomington to demonstrate against Indiana University’s response to recent acts of discrimination.
On January 14th, IU student Declan Farley posted a TikTok about harassment he faced on the floor of his dorm, which received over 2 million views. Here’s the audio from the Tik Tok. We would like to give a trigger warning: mention of suicide.
@declanhatcher #indiana #indianauniversity #iu #iubloomington #trans #transgender #queer #ftm #transissues #harassed #transphobia #lgbt #lgbt🌈 #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #fypシ #🏳️⚧️ #🏳️🌈 #awareness #ftmtransgender #college #student ♬ original sound – e
“I’m making this Tik Tok to spread awareness about the homophobia and transphobia on IU’s campus. IU prides themselves on being a safe and open space for queer students yet ignores issues like these. I hope you will help me spread awareness and demand that IU takes accountability for their actions and the actions of their students and works to protect students like me,” said Farley.
After the protest, Farley expressed his solidarity for other queer people in Bloomington facing oppression and discussed his plans for future action.
“The work here is definitely not done. We’re going to be starting petitions, and if things don’t happen, we’re going to protest again. We’re just going to not stop until things are done,” said Farley.
Farley referred to an incident that took place on January 11th in which an 18 year old Asian student was the victim of an Anti-Asian stabbing on a bus.
Farley expressed his disappointment with the way that Indiana University’s administration handled his situation
“There are other things that are happening on and off campus,” said Farley. “Especially the Asian student being stabbed. Other students on campus that shared their stories tonight, I wanted to give them a chance to speak because the school will not give them a chance to even speak.”
Other protesters also discussed experiences of racist Anti-Asian hate in Bloomington. Deonna, an Asian student at IU spoke about the racism she experienced in sophomore year at Bloomington High School North. She described a supply teacher who constantly humiliated her, demeaned her and gave her white classmates preferential treatment. Deonna discussed the aftermath that experiencing this racism caused her.
“She was being very mean and racist towards me and targeting me a lot. Throughout that year, I didn’t really get a lot of support. So I didn’t really talk about it, and I had to become silenced from it,” said Deonna.
A freshman student at IU named Ella spoke at the Town Hall, describing the homophobic harassment she experienced at McNutt residence hall.
“There was pounding on the door. It was loud enough to rattle the wall, the doors, the doorframe was being pounded so violently that it looked like the door was gonna be forced open even though it’s locked,” said Ella.
Local resident and activist Jada Bee says that hate is not new in Bloomington. She noted that the problems facing the community are systemic and need to be dealt with as such.
“One of the things I dislike a lot about the transitory nature of Bloomington, Indiana,” said Bee. “The history doesn’t get transmitted to you. IU’s not going to give you a welcome packet that says, here are all the hate crimes that we’ve had on our campus, because they want to present this as a safe and open campus.”
Lexi Sacco, an IU student from Indianapolis studying psychology, explained why she attended the protest and march.
“I saw Declan’s Tik Tok, and I really was just disgusted by IU’s way of handling the situation, and I knew that something needed to happen,” said Sacco.
Sacco outlined what this protest meant to her. She elaborated on what she hopes to see as a result of the demonstration.
“I’m hoping that they that administration would take things more seriously and not just brush it under the rug and act like it’s not happening because it’s happening and they really need to open their eyes and see that it is,” she said.
She also touched on what local residents can do to fight back against hate and discrimination.
“I think being educated more on the topics and just how to treat people fairly because I know that a lot of people grew up with parents who are homophobic or transphobic or racist, and I really think that we need to relearn our values,” said Sacco.
